You must have heard about this one by now - American fans have had the video for over a year now, it's probably the most talked about KISS video ever..... and it's just been released in the UK! Thankfully you no longer need to import an NTSC version as a PAL video and a Region 2 DVD have just been released.

Unlike the NTCS version, the new PAL video comes on one video (which is good as it's only 2 hours long anyway) and doesn't contain the nice 36 page booklet that came with the US release. However a new boxset is planned for Christmas 2000 with a booklet, T-shirt and CD included.

Those of you that have seen the original 'Second Coming' film that was played during some of the press conferences (including the one at Rock Circus I believe), will recognise the first 15 or so minutes of the tape. It's basically a brief history of the band from right in the beginning to the sparks that fired off the reunion, some of which contains voiceovers taken from the X-treme Close up video and MTV Unplugged. The MTV unplugged session is about the only non make-up era that is touched on which is a bit of a shame - also there is no coverage of Eric Carr.

However, once the introduction is over you enter a long journey into the reunion itself. Everything from the reunion that you could have ever of wanted to see is on this video, you really get an insight into the KISS that lies beneath the make-up. It starts with the guys first putting on the make-up in Gene's house which is really cool - check out the picture of Peter on this page! If you've been looking for footage of the first public appearance at the Grammy Awards then look no further as there's some of it on here, as are parts of the first press conference onboard the USS Intrepid. You also get to see the guys first rehearsing for the tour - wearing KISS shoes but without the make-up!

Barry Levine (author of the excellent 'KISS Years' book) is also there taking the first photo shoot, Paul seems to get the easiest job - posing with a few completely naked models, whereas poor Pete gets lumbered with a mad tiger! A few other photoshoots & conferences are covered including Spin magazine, Rock Circus, a Japanese advert and much more.

Apart from all the behind the scenes stuff, are there any live shots? Well yes and no - there are a lot of clips from shows but no actual full songs. This is probably a good thing though as it helps them to cram in as much as possible into the 2 hours, there are clips from loads of the 1996/97 shows. UK fans will be interested in clips from Donington (including the guys during a soundcheck the day before the show), Birmingham NEC and of course the last show of the Alive/Worldwide tour Finsbury Park - which also shows the group hug that happened after Paul thanked Doc McGhee.

The strangest part of the video has to be when a clip from the Jack Docherty show is shown - Jack's voice is subtitled so that American's will understand it!!! I guess that most Scottish fans (including half of me!) won't be too chuffed about that! The strange thing is that a Scandinavian show is shown straight afterwards - with no subtitles!

The DVD version contains all the same footage as the video along with a very nice version of Shandi from Australia, the Shout It Out Loud video and Detroit Rock City live (from the film of the same name).

Overall this is a must have, possibly the most professional KISS video to date, I really can't recommend it enough. It would have been nice if some whole songs had been included though (you just start to get into one when it gets interrupted), but apart from that there's no real flaws. It's great that this has now had an official UK release,  if you have a DVD player then it's well worth getting that version for Shandi. Without a doubt one of KISS' greatest videos.

Paul.