An important album for me in my teens, Trash is the eleventh solo studio album by Alice Cooper. I don’t think I ever owned a copy of this at the time, except perhaps a copy taped from my old friend Vini, but it’s nice to finally own it. It was a nice surprise to receive it in the mail – the 2017 Music On Vinyl reissue – to discover that it is on transparent red vinyl, limited to 1,500 copies.

A comeback album of sorts, it represents a late-career resurgence (now considered a mid-career resurgence) for Cooper. Hit single and album opener Poison was his first Top 10 hit since 1977, and finally he had a solid album to back it up with – the first since his early days as a solo artist following the break-up of the Alice Cooper band.

What was important to me as a skinny, long-haired teenager was the Aerosmith connection. Not only is Trash produced by Desmond Child, notorious song-doctor to Aerosmith’s late-‘80s radio-friendly hits, but the timing of the album seems to run in parallel with the Boston band. After an initial run through the ‘70s, both Aerosmith and Alice Cooper returned with a more commercial sound in the late ‘80s, with Trash hitting record stores only a couple of months before Aerosmith’s Pump.

The final connection to Aerosmith comes via the guest appearances across Trash. Steven Tyler provides vocals on Only My Heart Talkin’, Joe Perry plays guitar and takes a solo on House Of Fire, and the title song features contributions by Tom Hamilton on bass and Joey Kramer on drums. I’ve never been able to figure out why Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford doesn’t appear on the album, but I presume it’s something fairly innocent like he was on holiday at the time, or learning some scales.

It’s an album that’s chock-full of guest appearances: Jon Bon Jovi, Kip Winger, Richie Sambora and Steve Lukather all turn up at one point or another. It’s not as though the album is in desperate need of the contributions either. Alice’s band are cooking even without them, and no song is more true of this than Poison, arguably one of the greatest rock songs of the 1980s.

I remember an old school friend – Jamie Hardman, the man I went to my first Aerosmith concert with – was always a massive fan of Alice Cooper. I tried to share his enthusiasm when Alice released his 1991 follow-up, Hey Stoopid, but it all sounded a little silly to me and I wasn’t listening to rock music yet. Trash sounded much better when I eventually heard it a few years later, although it admittedly sounds quite dated now. It is what it is though; just big, dumb fun.

Hit: Poison

Hidden Gem: Trash