Kiss News

Nothin' to Lose: The Making of KISS (1972-1975)
By Ken Sharp with Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons
It Books, 560 pp., $29.99

By Bob Ruggiero

If a 500-plus page oral history about a band which only covers the period before their first hit sounds like it's over the top, it doesn't when you realize that the band is KISS.

Sharp, who also co-wrote official KISS biography Behind the Mask, conducts more than 200 interviews with band members (including former players Ace Frehley and Peter Criss), managers, promoters, journalists, fans, agents, roadies, club owners, costume designers and just about every musician who either opened for KISS or watched helplessly trying to follow their spectacle.

Does the girlfriend of bassist of a long-forgotten local band that once opened for KISS have a story to tell? You betcha.

And while many of the remembrances lapse into repetitiveness to where the reading eyes gloss over -- how driven KISS was, how nobody had seen anything like them before, how they blew everyone else off the stage, how they always knew they were going to make it, etc. -- the little story details about the band's years of struggle are priceless.

Like how Criss' mother would sew stage pants for the band, or Simmons accidentally burned a fan's face during an early fire-breathing experiment, or how Simmons' mother, upon hearing the band would tour Canada, beseeched management, "are you sure he has a sweater?"Nothin' to Lose: The Making of KISS (1972-1975)
By Ken Sharp with Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons
It Books, 560 pp., $29.99

By Bob Ruggiero

If a 500-plus page oral history about a band which only covers the period before their first hit sounds like it's over the top, it doesn't when you realize that the band is KISS.

Sharp, who also co-wrote official KISS biography Behind the Mask, conducts more than 200 interviews with band members (including former players Ace Frehley and Peter Criss), managers, promoters, journalists, fans, agents, roadies, club owners, costume designers and just about every musician who either opened for KISS or watched helplessly trying to follow their spectacle.

Does the girlfriend of bassist of a long-forgotten local band that once opened for KISS have a story to tell? You betcha.

And while many of the remembrances lapse into repetitiveness to where the reading eyes gloss over -- how driven KISS was, how nobody had seen anything like them before, how they blew everyone else off the stage, how they always knew they were going to make it, etc. -- the little story details about the band's years of struggle are priceless.

Like how Criss' mother would sew stage pants for the band, or Simmons accidentally burned a fan's face during an early fire-breathing experiment, or how Simmons' mother, upon hearing the band would tour Canada, beseeched management, "are you sure he has a sweater?"

Even when KISS was playing shitty dives and bizarre bills (like a library fundraiser) and struggling to find enough money for hot dog dinners, they performed as if they were headlining Madison Square Garden. After three records with minimal sales, it took the ballsy-move two LP Alive! and single "Rock and Roll All Nite" to push the band to the next level.

One of the book's more interesting aspects is charting the development of the band's look and stage show as they start to make an impression on audiences with their high energy, no frills rock and roll.

Also of note are the voices of co-manager Bill Aucoin and Casablanca Records president Neil Bogart, for whom no expense was too great and no promotional opportunity too small to push the career of a band whose concert attendances grew as their record sales tanked. It also shows that, as driven and ambitious as Stanley and Simmons were, they had a whole support system behind them that any band would kill for.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE STORY

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2013/12/early_kisstory.php?page=2

GENE SIMMONS: WISHING YOU A MERRY KISS-MAS!

Los Angeles Local News | FOX 11 LA KTTV

Gene Simmons is a football fan and he's bringing football to LA. He talked to Steve and Maria Wednesday about his new Arena Football team the LA KISS and why he and Paul Stanley are venturing into the world of sports and offering season tickets starting at 99 bucks each.

"If you're a football fan and who isn't, you've got to mortgage your home to get a season ticket. You've got to fight traffic to get into a stadium filled with other fans...what a crime that Los Angeles, the second biggest market in the entire North American continent, does not have a football team...we're gonna be bringing it to you because Los Angeles deserves a football team."

Gene says he and Paul are using their fame to showcase what they consider a sport that is too often overlooked.GENE SIMMONS: WISHING YOU A MERRY KISS-MAS!

Los Angeles Local News | FOX 11 LA KTTV

Gene Simmons is a football fan and he's bringing football to LA. He talked to Steve and Maria Wednesday about his new Arena Football team the LA KISS and why he and Paul Stanley are venturing into the world of sports and offering season tickets starting at 99 bucks each.

"If you're a football fan and who isn't, you've got to mortgage your home to get a season ticket. You've got to fight traffic to get into a stadium filled with other fans...what a crime that Los Angeles, the second biggest market in the entire North American continent, does not have a football team...we're gonna be bringing it to you because Los Angeles deserves a football team."

Gene says he and Paul are using their fame to showcase what they consider a sport that is too often overlooked.

"We're calling it LA KISS to bring more attention to arena football which is really much faster, much more aggressive, much more in your face kind of football. It's classic football on adrenaline."

Steve also asked Gene about the band not being inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"Whether The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or any other institution recognizes us is really not foremost in our mind. I was thinking of buying The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame... it's well meaning guys, a handful of people who sit behind the scenes and have meetings and they're good guys but you know..."

LA KISS is the newest expansion to the Arena Football League, currently entering it's 27th season. The team will kickoff at Honda Center April 5th.

Arena football is played indoors in 14 markets across the country. The field is only 50 yards long with no sidelines so it provides fans a more intimate, higher scoring experience e, than the NFL but with NFL caliber players. A fan sitting in the front row can experience players catching balls in their lap. Arena League Teams are comprised of players either coming from NFL rosters or top Division 1 Programs. For ex, LA KISS QB Colt Brennan still holds the NCAA record for most Touchdown passes in a single season.

Season tickets to LA KISS start at only $99 and will include a free KISS concert at Honda Center for season ticket holders. KISS has always been known as a band for the fans and LA KISS will be a brand for the fans, focused on delivering a great experience that is affordable.

LA KISS games will feature high scoring, high intensity, adrenaline football in addition to an all-encompassing entertainment experience that is nothing short of the spectacle that KISS has become synonymous with over the last 40 years!

Gene and Paul have a vested interest in bringing football back to Los Angeles as both have observed AFL games and think that the games are both action packed and an affordable experience for families, fusing the best of the music and sports worlds. Gene and Paul been actively involved in most of the marketing and promotions of the team and will help design the game day environment that fans will experience this season. Paul Stanley has also designed the team's logo and jerseys.

Yesterday, we launched our LA KISSMAS campaign which will run until Christmas.

We have partnered up with CHOC (Children's Hospital of Orange County) and with every season ticket you buy, we will be donating a Christmas gift to a child at the Hospital. Every Child deserves a Christmas and we hope to make some special dreams come true this holiday season.