28/12/1998 Big Breakfast 199428/12/1998 Big Breakfast 1994One of the very first articles that I was going to do for this site (2 years ago!) was
a transcript of The Big Breakfast interview from 1994 with Paul & Gene. Well I've
finally got off my ass and done it, it's quite a cool interview if you didn't catch it
first time round.
<<Click Here to read the interview>>
AwardKISSin' UK has been added as this weeks Dezo's KISS Page 'Kick Ass KISS Site Of The Week'. It'll be there from 27/12/98 through 3/1/99.
Thanks a lot Dezo, if you haven't visited his site before you can do so by clicking on the picture.
26/12/1998 The Second ComingHope you all had a great KISSmas! I've just written a review of The Second Coming video (I was lucky enough to get it for Christmas!), you'll find it in the Releases section.
23/12/1998 Tickets on sale, even though show isn't
confirmed!Tickets for the Wembley show on the 25th March are now on sale from Way Ahead. However
as Paddy Nolan has pointed out to me Wembley Arena are still denying that the gig is going
ahead, even though they are advertised on the official KISS website!
I've just ordered 4 tickets and I was only the 10th person, so hopefully we'll get some
decent seats.
Details for Way Ahead:-
Tel: 0115-912-9116
Fax: 0115-948-4345
Tickets can also be ordered online from Way
Ahead
Tickets cost £22.25
21/12/1998 Wembley date no longer official!Last week I reported on the website that KISS will be playing Wembley Arena on the 25th March 1999. Just after posting that the official KISS site took down the dates off their site, confused? - you will be!
According to Mercury the Wembley date is not yet official (even though it was official last week!), a concert may take place on that date but at the minute it's all very hush hush. I have been told however that a second date may be added after all, but nobody will know until January. I haven't got a clue what's going on, especially as tickets for some other European dates are already on sale. KISS will be in the UK sometime in March though.
I've also been told that the special live cd will be released in January, as of yet it's unknown what tracks will feature on it.
20/12/1998 Complete UK discographyJulian Gill from the KISS FAQ II has kindly given me permission to publish the complete KISS discography that he complied. You'll find the article in the UK Releases section. Thanks Julian!
19/12/1998 Want to catch more than just one concert?From Steve Jason / International Concert
Travel
"We have more news of concerts - The band are playing in Utrecht Holland on Sat 13th
March and in Paris on the 22nd,Brussels on the 23rd March.We have inclusive package trips
to all 3 concerts - the shows in Paris and Belgium can be seen on the same 'double'
trip."
<<Click Here for full details & itineraries!>>
14/12/1998 Totally Awesome! site of the day for December
14, 1998
I'm pleased to
announce that KISSin' UK has picked up another award this week, this time it's the
'Totally Awesome!' site of the day from 'The
80's Server' - a cool site that specialises in keeping the 80's alive!
13/12/1998 Live CD single to be released for European tourAccording to the official KISS site (http://www1.kissonline.com) a new 6 track live single will released over here to coincide with next years tour.
10/12/1998 UK Psycho Circus date announcedYup, that's date and not dates :-(
It's been announced that KISS will be playing at Wembley Arena on 25th March. It was rumoured that the NEC was pencilled in for the 24th, but it looks like that's a no go. I haven't yet heard from Mercury about this - it's always possible that they'll add another date later on. Tickets haven't yet gone on sale though...
Best get that day booked off work, if it's only going to be one gig then I'm going to make a whole day out if it!
9/12/1998 KISS game in the worksJust received this press release from Gathering of Developers (software company behind games like Railroad Tycoon II):-
KISS MEETS G.O.D.
Gathering of Developers Announces Deal with Legendary Rock Group KISS and
Newly Formed High-Powered Development House
Bloodshot Entertainment to Create Game Based on
KISS Psycho Circus Comics Series by Todd McFarlane
<<Click Here to read the entire press release!>>
Another World
Just for info, the
Touch Tone T-shirt (plays parts of Rock & Roll All Nite when you touch various parts
of the KISS logo!!) is available from Another World stores. The address of their Leicester
store is on the KISS Gear page. They also have stores in
Nottingham and Derby and they sell a load more KISS stuff too - baseballs, books,
calendars and loads of the new merchandise.
Nick SmithNick Smith has recently sent me details of his KISS artwork.
<<Click Here to see Nick's artwork>>
2/12/1998 LATEST ON UK/EUROPEAN TOUR!!Some time towards the end of this week/early next week some KISS tour dates are being
announced, at first it was thought that these were just going to be German dates but....
dates will also be announced for the rest of Europe INCLUDING THE UK!!!!
Although I heard this from an official source, take it as a rumour until something more
official is announced. I've been told that I'll know for definite by next Monday...
It's thought that the dates will be around the end of Feb/March. Hope that makes everyone
as happy as me :-)
Second Coming videoMany of you have asked about the 'Second Coming' video. Apparently a distributor is still being sought for the European release, but it will come out eventually. Again I should know more on Monday.
7/12/1998 Top
10% Music AwardI'm pleased to announce that KISSin' UK has been given a 'Top 10% Music Site Award' from http://music.top10sites.net/. This is the second award we've received this year and as you can imagine I'm pretty chuffed about it. I can only hope that my site is going some way to help promote KISS in the UK - thanks to everyone who has contributed to the site and given me their support recently, there's lots more to come in the future...
Remasters Winners!The winners of the Remasters Part 2 competition have been announced, click here to see if you were one of the lucky buggers!
5/12/1998 Gene interview in latest Classic RockThe January/February edition of Classic Rock magazine features a 4 page KISS article that contains an interview with Gene along with other KISS goodies such as some info on the latest merchandising.
The interview isn't huge, but it well worth getting hold of. There's an interesting bit about Psycho Circus that says that the song 'Carnival Of Souls' was recorded for the album! :-
"We
recorded 19 songs [for Psycho Circus] and used 10. Many that didn't make it were quite a
bit heavier. One of them was called 'Carnival Of Souls' which would have been the title
song from the last album, but it was too heavy and a little too punky. Another one I wrote
for Ace called 'I wanna rule the world' was very Mott The Hoople, crossed with a bombastic
John Bonham beat. You British like the heavier stuff, but we purposely left out a lot of
the heavier ones because the record as it stands makes a much stronger musical
statement."
Issue 2 is in the shops now priced £2.50.
3/12/1998 KISS mention on Big BreakfastThis morning on the Big Breakfast they had a KISS 'vital statistic'. It was 'If you stacked all of the Polaroid's of KISS' Gene Simmons lovers (between 1973 and 1980) together, how high would the stack be?'. The answer was 250 foot!! Carpet Monster then went on to play his guitar and do a Gene impression! Incidentally did anyone notice last week when Carpet was talking about Dr. Who, he said "I was in an episode once - I was part of the Psycho Circus"!! Just a coincidence? I reckon we have another fan on our hands here!
Rumoured datesA few dates have sprung up for the tour (thanks Peter), but please note that this is just a rumour! They are:-
March 24th Birmingham NEC
March 25th Wembley Arena
1/12/1998 Help get airplay on MTV!From Nicke Andersson:-
"Attention European KISS fans! MTV has added the Psycho Circus video to the 'jukebox' for the program Select MTV. You can request your favourite video my sending an E-mail to selectvideos@mtvne.com or fax (+44) 0171 757 7001. The lines will not be open before 15:45 CET. The most requested videos will be added to the program top selection so let's make Psycho Circus the most requested video and it might be added to MTV's regular airplay!"
29/11/1998 Kerrang!This weeks Kerrang! magazine features a 'Top 100 bands that changed your life' survey. I'd given up hope of finding KISS after searching from 100 to number 10, but sure enough they're listed at number 8! Not bad for Kerrang! seeing as they seem to ignore the band nowadays. They also give Gene a bit of a slagging off on the news page, something about he should have kept his make-up on during the 80's and 90's because he needs to keep his face hidden....
Natalie AppletonFrom Robert Mansell:-
"Another titbit for you about Natalie Appleton is that in the Daily Express the other
week, after the European MTV awards it had an article stating that she wanted to get her
tongue snipped, just like Gene Simmons of Kiss."
26/11/1998 3D GlassesWant to check if your 3D glasses really work? Try looking at the pictures at the Chromatek site (the makers of the glasses). You'll find them at http://www.chromatek.com/Image_Galleries/Classics/classics.shtml .
23/11/1998 Goldmine interview
KISS are
featured on the cover of the latest edition of Goldmine magazine - Goldmine is an American
magazine in the same newspaper format as Melody Maker. The interview inside is possible
the longest KISS interview I've ever read - all 23 pages of it! The interview is spilt up
into 4 parts with each member getting a fair share. Questions are asked of the Psycho
Circus tour & album, relationships with each other during the reunion, encounters with
famous KISS fans and a lot more questions that are actually interesting for once (there's
a lot more than the usual run of the mill stuff). At last some answers are given to the
questions 'Did Peter play on the entire Psycho Circus album?' and one that bugged me a
couple of years ago 'Were the lead vocals on some tracks from 'YWTB YGTB' re-recorded?'. I
won't spoil it by giving you that answers! There's also a million KISS adverts in the
magazine, it's well worth getting hold of a copy. I picked up my copy for £2.80 from
Borders bookshop on Oxford Street, London.
Another girl band unmasked!What's the world coming to? Not only did Natalie Appleton of All Saints wear a 'Little Miss KISS' T-shirt at a recent gig, but Lindsay from b*witched is also a KISS fan! She was recently heard saying 'Well I really love Kiss but Edele,Keavy and Sinead always make fun of me when I want to play them' !!! Let's just hope that they don't try their hands at coving a KISS song! Thanks to Alex Wargacki.for the info.
21/11/1998 We Are One (Click on the pictures below for
larger versions)
At last I've managed
to get hold of the new CD single. It took me bloody ages to find one though, maybe Mercury
have taken the 'Limited Edition' thing a bit too far??? HMV on Oxford Street said they had
some on order, Virgin Megastore said they were completely sold out but have another load
on order, Tower Records had some of the enhanced cd's but couldn't get hold of the 3D
videos... and so on. I eventually found one of the 3D video sets in HMV at Piccadilly, and
it was worth the wait.
Basically there are 2 versions of the single with the Psycho Circus video, a boxed set with an actual video tape and an enhanced cd with the video on the cd itself.
The limited edition box set costs nearly £10 and contains:-
Video tape
with 3D Psycho Circus video and normal Psycho Circus video
3D Glasses
Picture CD single
with:-
We Are One (edit)
We Are One
In Your Face (new Ace song)
Psycho Circus (audio - no video on this cd)
The enhanced cd costs about £7.50 and contains:-
We Are
One (edit)
We Are One
Psycho Circus (audio)
Psycho Circus (video that plays when you put it in a pc, but not 3D)
+ the same screen saver as per Psycho Circus album.
Personally I can't get the 3D effect to work very well, but the non-3D version of the video is brilliant. The advantage of the video version is that you don't have to be stuck at your computer to watch it, but even so the quality on the enhanced cd is still very good. It's nice to see that money has been spent on producing a decent KISS video at last, this has got to be the best one in a long time.
The Online KISS Shop now has the cd to buy, but be prepared to wait for it to arrive, it seems all companies are having trouble ordering them from Mercury.
11/11/1998 KISS in Kerrang!At last KISS have made it into Kerrang! again, this weeks issue has a review of the Halloween show in LA, KISS got top marks (5/5) which makes a nice change.
Psycho Circus video airs in EuropeFrom Kevin Riley:-
MTV played the Psycho Circus video last night on Super Rock, played the whole thing and did not cut it short, cool video first time I'd seen it, the only bad thing was that MTV have got a logo in the top right hand corner advertising the European awards. Also heard that VH1 are showing a KISS special on November the 22! don't know if this is true or not.
7/11/1998 Gene Simmons in FHM
On page 62 of
this months FHM magazine (December), Gene Simmons takes part in the 'Bloke Test' alongside
none other than.... Lionel Blair!!! Funnily enough Lionel comes out tops with 5/10
compared to Gene's 4/10!
Amongst other things Gene talks about farting in the gym, having sex with a friends mum
and making small children cry!
<<Click Here to read all of Gene's answers>>
We Are OneIf you're having trouble finding somebody that stocks the 'We Are One' single (with the 3D Psycho Circus video) then try out http://www.cdzone.co.uk and search for KISS. At the bottom of the list you'll find loads of We Are One singles, the one you want is the one that costs about 8 quid (the others are imports of the single only).
Raygun magazine
KISS are
featured in the October issue of Raygun magazine available now in Virgin Megastores
(£2.50). It contains a really good interview about Psycho Circus and other stuff
including some stories about what Ace used to get up to in hotel rooms (eg using a
chainsaw to make a hole in a wall so he could pass drinks to Peter!!). There's also some
great pictures and a poster too.
4/11/1998 GiorgioFor anyone who has ordered from Giorgio in the past, please note that he has left his old location in Oasis, Birmingham. He now has a brand new shop all to himself at Bridgnorth, Shropshire. The new address & phone number can be found on the ordering page.
Giorgio is starting to produce large paintings of rock stars including KISS (of course!). I'll have some new pictures of these and some of his new KISS T-shirts soon.
3/11/1998 Gene's Comments From BackstageAlex Wargacki, a UK KISS fan, was lucky enough to fly to LA for the show last weekend (lucky git!), and if that wasn't good enough he actually got to meet Gene backstage! As you can see Gene had some interesting things to say for UK fans:-
"Gene got backstage earlier than the rest of the band to do some interviews and radio bytes - After he had finished up with his scheduled interviews I managed to talk to him for about 5 minutes. He was surprised to see such a young person (me) among all these 'burnt out corporate ass kissers' as he put it (in the typical gene serious/jovial manner), and was interested in the UK music industry as it stands at the moment. He mentioned the strong possibility of the band doing some UK TV toward the end of November to promote the 'Kiss genesis' as he puts it. Gene gave me the impression that he really wants some injection of youth into the Kiss fan base, and really expressed his disgust at boy/girl bands & general junk degrading what is left of the music industry. He also mentioned how Robbie Williams completely ripped Kiss off without consultation/thanks or credit with his 'Let me entertain you' video - his words were 'I consider it a personal slap in the face when a no-talent reject from a boy band decides to imitate an entity he could never understand'"
1/11/1998 Psycho Circus Tour, LA show mini-reviewA small review of the Dodgers Stadium show that was broadcasted over the net, complete with a few pictures, is available here.
Drop me (Paul Finn) an E-mail.