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News Archive April 2010

Click to enlarge Gene Simmons Talks Liverpool, Beatles
From: Echo Magazine
by Jade Wright
Posted: April 11, 2010

ON a leather sofa in the library of his hotel room sits Gene Simmons, the blood-spitting, fire-breathing, tongue-wagging frontman of KISS.

It's the morning after the band's fanclub show at the Islington Academy, and he's sipping a cup of tea. It's so dark I can barely see him, but he repeatedly calls on room service to dim the lights, to the point where I can just make out his features, minus that famous make-up.

"That's better," he sighs. "Come and sit here, next to me."

The show in the 1,000 capacity Academy was like seeing a quart squeezed into a pint pot. The KISS show fits an arena, and Gene, 60, has more than enough charisma for 10,000 fans to share. So sitting two feet away from him is like watching a film with my nose pressed against the cinema screen.

Next month Gene and the band - "Starchild" Paul Stanley, guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer - take to the ECHO arena stage.

"It's the first time we've been to Liverpool, ever I think," says Gene in that big husky voice that I've heard on all the Rock School replays, and belting out on Guitar Hero. "Which is strange because it's somewhere I've always wanted to play. I've been fascinated by the place ever since I heard The Beatles.

"There is no way I'd be doing what I do now if it wasn't for The Beatles. I was watching the Ed Sullivan show and I saw them. Those skinny little boys, kind of androgynous, with long hair like girls. It blew me away that these four boys in the middle of nowhere could make that music.

"Then they spoke and I thought 'What are they talking like?'. We had never heard the Liverpool accent before. I thought that all British people spoke like the Queen. The only time you heard a British accent was when they played the Nazi in war films.

Suddenly he switches into a surprisingly good Scouse accent.

"Overnight I became an Anglophile," he chuckles. "I read up on The Beatles, who they were, where they were from. I learnt about Liverpool, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Ringo's band, and The Quarrymen and all that.

"I read up everything they did in the news. I followed their failures and their successes.

"The Beatles were a band, of course, and I loved their music. But they were also a cultural force that made it OK to be different.

"They didn't look like everyone else, and they still made the girls scream."

Making the girls scream is something gene specialises in - on stage and off. Gene has never married, and has reputedly bedded 3,000 women and dated Cher and Diana Ross, but now lives in Beverly Hills with longtime partner and former Playboy Playmate Shannon Tweed.

On stage he puts on a stage show as big and overblown as you could imagine. On a stage filled with dry ice and a plethora of pyrotechnics, the giant Kiss logo in flashing lights, he roars the likes of Calling Dr Love, Rock and Roll All Nite and Detroit Rock City. More than a concert it's a theatrical experience that most bands could only dream of.

"I wish there were more proper shows around," he says, a little sadly. "When I go and see a show, I use my eyes as well as my ears. If I just wanted to listen, I'd sit at home and play the record.

"It's the same with our show. If people make the effort to come out and see us play, we'll put on a show. You've got to give people some bang for their buck. It's not enough to just go out and sing your songs. If there's nothing to look at then you're short-changing your fans."

From the very beginning, KISS have paired their look with that distinctive sound.

"We said let's put together the band that we never saw on stage," laughs Gene. "We were four boys off the streets of New York. We started putting our early songs together in a loft above a Sears store (American department store Sears, Roebuck and Co). We knew how we sounded, but we needed to see how we looked, so we went down to Sears and got a mirror. Then we went to the drugstore and bought a bag of women's make up, and some white clowns' make up from a costume shop on the street.

"We didn't have a clue. We sat in from of the mirror with a handful of Maybelline and played around like kids, drawing, rubbing it off, drawing more.

'I had no idea that we were creating the four most recognisable faces in the world."

That's a big claim.

"They've done polls where they show people a series of faces. Not everyone knows what Barrack Obama looks like, but everyone can recognise KISS."

The make up has become synonymous with the band.

"I do it myself before every show," explains Gene. "Mine takes the longest - two hours most nights - each point has to correspond."

He shifts closer on the sofa and draws with his fingers on my face.

"I start with the first point, then each one has to fan out in the right way," he explains, tracing the lines on my now closed eyes. "Then I have to make both eyes match. It's harder than it looks. Paul's is easy. He has that one star, so he gets to do what he wants."

While he's in Liverpool gene hopes to make some time to look around Mathew Street, and maybe listen to some new bands.

"I like British music - bands like Keane and Arctic Monkeys," he says. "But they don't have much star quality. I listen to them and there's this big sound. Then I open my eyes and they look like pizza delivery boys. I mean, you don't have to spend two hours doing your make up and spit fire on stage, but it helps."

KISS play the ECHO arena on May 4. Tickets are on sale from the ECHO ticketline on 0844 800 3680