The following review is from the Birmingham Mail (where was your special KISS edition this year??!!). 

THEIR career spans 35 years but New York rockers Kiss can still kick the opposition into touch when it comes to staging a show that’s bigger, bolder and brighter than anything else.

Fireworks, explosions, flame jets and flying guitarists made for a spectacle that proved why the Kiss motto ‘‘You wanted the best, you got the best’’ is so apt.

They may have released their debut album in 1974 but songs from last year’s long player, Sonic Boom, peppered the two hour 15 minute set and did not seem out of place among classics like Deuce and Shock Me. They even opened with recent single, Modern Day Delilah, before plunging back to ‘74 for Cold Gin.

A string of hits followed, including Crazy Crazy Nights, Calling Dr Love and Love Gun.

And during I Love It Loud 60-year-old bassist Gene Simmons was hoisted high above the stage to the lighting gantry, his famous tongue waggling and fake blood dribbling down his chin.

This was as much about theatricals as music. As 58-year-old frontman Paul Stanley commented before the show, ‘‘We’ve got to a point where we can’t do bigger – we can only do better and different.’’

Innovative video screens and a barrage of lights added to the excitement and the drum kit at times was hovering in mid-air.

There was solid support from guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, both, like Simmons and Stanley, sporting that famous black and white make up which transforms them into alter egos The Starchild, The Demon, The Catman and The Spaceman.

On the eve of our General Election it was Kiss that got the vote of the LG Arena faithful.

Verdict: *****