The beginning

In the beginning there were five students from University of Jyväskylä. They started playing together 1986, after two months or so made a three song demo, sent it to a record company, and got immediately a contract.

Record contract after three months

Their first gig was 1986 at student parties in Jyväskylä. Just before the first gig they received a phone call from Poko Records about the record deal. Their first single "Alice in Wasteland/Mr. Goldfish" was recorded in Winter 1987. The first album was then recorded in summer 1987 with the producer TT Oksala at Finnvox, which was the number one studio in Finland at that time. The album was published in Fall 1987.

The first album got good critics and the single No Me plenty of radio time. In Sweden it was even a number one hit in some radio stations. The band had interviews in all Finnish rock magazines and played at Finnish TV several times. The sales were not that good, however.

Reality strikes back

After the first record the story did not proceed as the band wished. The band made a contract with one of the biggest gig promoters (Rocktops) in Finland, but that was not a good choice. The office was very busy with other artists and arranged only a couple of gigs . The worst experience with that office was the Fun Rock Tour in 1987 with several bands. The tour went to big sports halls and there were only few people in the audience. In addition, Alice was really out of the context with the other bands. The only party that really benefited from the tour was the Finnish alcohol monopoly.

The times have changed from the end of 1980's. At that time, It was not easy to have success in Finland with English-language indie music. Alice would have had opportunities outside Finland, but no-one wanted to deal with the trouble of promoting. Some singles were published in Sweden, but albums were never published there. Alice made couple of gigs in Sweden and afterwards they heard that the Hultsfred festival would have wanted Alice there, but the negotiations with Rocktops were not successful.

After listening the band's complaints about the state of things Poko Records decided to resign the contract. Very soon also the cooperation with Rocktops ended.

Red Eye at Hiljaiset

After all, that was a good thing. Alice's second album Red Eye was recorded in Fall 1990 at Savonlinna old shipyard with Tuomo Valtonen. The record was published in the beginning of 1991 by Jukka Junttila at Hiljaiset levyt. The critique was really positive. One major newspaper in Finland declared Red Eye as the record of the year already in April. However, the result was very little radio play and very little sales.

Musically, the band was better than ever. In addition, the cooperation with the new gig promoter Hannu Korhonen at Dex-viihde went very well and there were many gigs at nice small rock clubs around Finland. There were no virtuosos in Alice, but they played together tightly and the gigs at that time were suberb. The last published recording was the single Humanizer at Winter 1992. It worked musically very well, but frustration was growing in the band.

The end and after that

After playing at First of May student parties in Espoo, the band decided that this was it. The band members graduated from the university, got jobs at multiple places in Finland and had children. A typical story of student bands.

Odd stories have been told at Winter 2008. After 16 years of silence the band had rehearsals again and they can still play. They say that their objective is now to have at least one gig in Summer 2008, because the music is so good.