As you are probably aware Gene is currently over in the UK to present the Classic Rock awards. I had the pleasure of meeting him yesterday at the filming of The One Show, at the White City Studios in London. If you seen the show, all the KISS merchandise they shown was provided by KISSin' UK, I had to set it all up myself so apologies if it looked rough. The One Show is one of the strangest shows on TV, where they have one main guest and show clips of something random then talk to the guests about it even though they really don't give a damn. Gene handled this well and made some nice comments about wearing a Poppy, even if some people didn't appreciate his views on the NHS (twitter went nuts after the show).
If you didn't see the show you can watch it on iPlayer for a short time: One Show 7/11/11
Gene posing with my stuff after the show
I was standing next to Shannon for a lot of the filming who was very funny trying to put Gene in his place off air, his comments about making her wait for marriage didn't go down well! I got to speak to Gene a few times and he also introduced me to Shannon (who offered to take some photos for me), he was in a great mood and seemed very excited about presenting the Classic Rock awards. One of the weirdest things I've ever seen though was Gene being driven round on a bike by Pudsey Bear, so weird they had to film it twice. The owner of the dog in the pic were possibly two of the most miserable people I've ever met, Gene was trying to make conversation with them and was blanked. Hey, don't you realise... this is GENE SIMMONS!
Picture by Shannon Tweed
Matt Baker was wearing Gene makeup when I got there, thought he was going to wear it for the show but he told me it was just for a sketch at the start of the show. Just a shame that the lovely Alex Jones wasn't in Paul makeup..
Overall a great time was had, Gene was at the studio early and made plenty time to chat with us, it was surreal having free reign walking around the TV studio and being asked to help prepare the set. Big thanks to everyone involved especially Gene, Shannon, Mary, Sarah, Dave & Danny Francis (thanks for the pick!).
