KISS IS EVERYWHERE!
KISS rocks the February – March 2023 issue of Rock Candy magazine UK. The issue is out now and features a 20-page KISS cover story including new interviews with Gene and Paul!
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KISS Cold Gin officially hit menus at ROCK & BREWS nationwide yesterday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of KISS' first concert! Stop in and try one today!
By Joe Daly - Classic Rock / Contributions from Fraser Lewry
The Popcorn Club, Queens, New York, January 30, 1973. It's a bone-chilling Tuesday night in Queens as Kiss roll up to the Popcorn Club for the load-in at their first official show as Kiss. They've previously performed as Wicked Lester, who've been signed (and subsequently dropped) by Epic Records after recording a still-unreleased album.
“Paul and I weren’t happy with the record,” Gene Simmons told Classic Rock. “It had a West Coast American hippie sound. We looked at each other and decided to form a new group, which was Kiss.”
The name change came at some point between the booking of the Popcorn show and the performance itself.
“We didn’t have a manager,” Simmons remembered. “So I called the guy. ‘You won’t believe this band, Wicked Lester. They do original material and, if you want, we’ll stick in a Wilson Pickett song or an Otis Redding song.’ Over the phone I sold the band to him for thirty-five dollars. Never mind that getting the truck to move our equipment and all that was going to cost more, we just wanted to flex our muscles.”
"I remember very clearly when our picture went up on the outside of this club, Ace [Frehley] took a marker and wrote our new name right on the picture," Simmons wrote in his memoir Kiss and Make-Up. "The way he drew it was pretty crude, but it resembled our logo, with the two 'S's like lightning bolts at the end of the word."
Friday, February 3rd from 7 pm – 9 pm
Wentworth Gallery – Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Hollywood
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
The Shoppes at the Guitar Hotel
5804 Seminole Way, Suite 103
Hollywood, FL 33314
954.314.7210
[email protected]
Saturday, February 4th from 6 pm – 8 pm
Wentworth Gallery Boca Raton
Town Center Mall
6000 Glades Road
Boca Raton, FL 33431
561.338.0804
[email protected]
Call the gallery for details and to reserve your favorite artwork now!
Ask us how you can join me for dinner after the show!
View Paul Stanley’s Art: www.wentworthgallery.com/stanley.html
Our fifth authorized Soundboard live release is from the November 28, 1984 Animalize Tour show from the Mid-Hudson Civic Arena in Poughkeepsie, NY featuring the only known soundboard recording with Mark St. John. “Young And Wasted” and “Rock And Roll All Nite” are unfortunately incomplete recordings, but due to the historical importance of this show with Mark we hope you all rock out to this as hard as we have. Lineup: Paul Stanley - Gene Simmons - Eric Carr - Mark St. John.
Preorder now at https://shopkissonline.com/collections/off-the-soundboard
BRAZIL! Tickets are on sale now for our End Of The Road Tour shows in Manaus, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte & Florianopolis! Get them while you can! VIP upgrades coming soon.
APRIL 12 - Manaus - Arena Da Amazonia
APRIL 18 - Brasilia - Arena BRB Mane Garrincha - Tickets on sale Monday 30th January 2023
APRIL 20 - Belo Horizonte - MONSTERS TOUR - Esplanada Do Mineirao
APRIL 22 - Sao Paulo - MONSTERS OF ROCK - Allianz Parque
APRIL 25 - Florianopolis - Hard Rock Live
Ticket links at http://KISSOnline.com/tour
On this day in KISSTORY - January 24, 1995 - We opened a 5-date Japanese Tour at Osaka Castle Hall in Osaka, Japan.
Check out this cool fan-filmed clip from the show.
By Martin Kielty / ultimateclassicrock.com
Paul Stanley recalled the time he dabbled with a different mask before returning to his classic Starchild makeup after less than a month.
The KISS co-founder is known to have appeared as a character known as the Bandit on three occasions, the first on Dec. 31, 1973, and the last on Jan. 26, 1974. In a recent interview with Yahoo, he explained the change had come about after a discussion with Neil Bogart, the band’s first record label boss, after they cut a deal with Casablanca Records in November 1973.
“When he signed us, he wanted us to take off the makeup,” Stanley said. “When Neil heard us before he ever saw us — ‘Strutter’ and ‘Deuce’ and ‘Watching You’ and ‘She,’ I think, were on the demo — he wanted to sign us. And then he saw us, and it was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa,’ you know?
Cool fan-shot photo! Thanks to Wilhelm Eric Berwanger for sharing this one that he took at the Sporthalle in Cologne, Germany on September 30, 1980.
Did you take any live photos, KISS ARMY? We'd love to see them!
