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News Archive July 2010

Click to enlarge Bill Aucoin, Former KISS Manager, Dies At 66
From: New York Times
by Douglas Martin
Posted: July 1, 2010

KISS burst on the music scene in the early 1970s with flames, smoke, sirens and explosions. Band members in black leather, high heels and Kabuki-influenced makeup spit fake blood and belched fire to entertain wailing pubescent audiences.

Bill Aucoin, right, with Gene Simmons of KISS in 1977. Mr. Aucoin was the force behind the band's flamboyant act.

By 1977, a Gallup Poll showed it was the nation's most popular band. Over the years it sold more than 100 million albums, and played the Super Bowl and the Olympics.

Much credit goes to Bill Aucoin, who, as KISS's manager, helped four scruffy New York City kids with big, weird dreams formulate their flamboyant act; got them their first record contract; and ferociously marketed their merchandise, including a KISS comic book, a KISS pinball machine and, of course, KISS makeup.

He even got their outlandishly painted faces copyrighted.

Mr. Aucoin (pronounced oh-COIN) died Monday in Aventura, Fla., at 66, according to his Web page (http://www.aucoin.biz). The cause was complications of prostate cancer, KISS's Web page (KISSonline.com) said.

Mr. Aucoin stumbled into the music game after working in television as a cameraman and, briefly, a director. The last series he directed concerned the record business, and he received frequent letters from Gene Simmons, the bass guitarist for KISS, who was contacting anyone in or around the music business who might conceivably be helpful.

Finally, in October 1973, Mr. Aucoin checked out KISS at a run-down Manhattan hotel with holes in the floor and prostitutes in the lobby. He decided to switch careers and manage the band, his first.

The job had been vacant since the departure of the group's former manager, Lew Linet, who started with KISS when it was known as Wicked Lester.

"I decided this is kind of interesting because they were trying to put on a show,&#quot; Mr. Aucoin said in an interview with classicbands.com.

Mr. Aucoin unleashed his directorial skills. KISS was already dabbling in makeup, but he had them put on gobs more. He choreographed their onstage movements. And fire-breathing? He claimed to have come up with it.

"It was Bill who said, 'Let's take them to the nth degree,'" Mr. Simmons said in KISS's authorized biography, &quo;KISS: Behind the Mask" (2003), by David Leaf and Ken Sharp.

"Let's breathe fire. Let's have explosions, and all sorts of things."

Mr. Aucoin's goal was to develop defined identities for each band member in the manner of the Beatles, and his approach had a comic touch. Mr. Simmons would be the Demon; Paul Stanley (rhythm guitar), Starchild; Ace Frehley (lead guitar), Spaceman; and Peter Criss (drums), Catman.

"Everything we did had to kind of build up those images, which were specific images," he told classicbands. He confiscated film from photographers who shot a band member without makeup.

Mr. Aucoin's biggest early contribution was a record deal. After hearing KISS play, he promised to get them one within 30 days if they signed with him. If he failed, they were free to leave.

By September - within the deadline - KISS had a contract with Casablanca Records. Their debut album, "KISS," came out in February 1974.

Mr. Aucoin and Neil Bogart, the owner of Casablanca, poured most of their savings into KISS, which was also the record company's first act. Mr. Aucoin put their first tour on his American Express card.

He told KISS's biographers that he invested as much as $300,000 of his own money in KISS.

"That was my whole roll, every cent I had," he said.

Mr. Aucoin did what he could to make his investment pay off by taking 25 percent of KISS's revenues, compared with the traditional 15 percent, The New York Times reported in 1997.

When KISS dismissed Mr. Aucoin in 1982, his reimbursement was part of the reason, Mr. Simmons told The Times.

"Let's just say he was earning too much for the work he was doing," he said. "We were new; we didn't know."

But when it came to band members' own earnings, Mr. Aucoin persuaded them to split their profits equally - even individual songwriting royalties. The manager wanted to avoid the financial jealousies that can rip groups apart.

KISS's rise was rocketlike after the band scored a hit with "Rock and Roll All Nite" in 1975. Four years later, KISS was racking up nearly $120 million in annual revenues.

Mr. Aucoin treasured a visit to Cadillac, Mich., in 1976 as his Barnum-like pinnacle. The band arrived by helicopter because Mr. Aucoin thought that would be "kind of a Beatles thing." He got the entire high school student body, the mayor, and the police and fire chiefs to wear KISS makeup. A street became KISS Street.

William Martin Aucoin was born on Dec. 29, 1943, and grew up in Ayer, Mass. He studied business at Northeastern University and worked at WGBH, Boston’s PBS affiliate, and NBC.

He is survived by his companion, Roman Fernandez; and his sisters, Betty Britton and Janet Bankowski.

Mr. Aucoin went on to manage and advise other music acts, including Billy Squier and Billy Idol. He charged rock groups $5,000 for consulting. One group he managed was Flipp, a Minneapolis-based band, which tried to expand on KISS-style extravagance.

Kii Arens, a member of Flipp also known as Chia Karaoke, told The Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2002 why his band needed Mr. Aucoin:

"Bill is there to say, 'Well, you know, you need to check what the wind is like if you're gonna drop cereal from the helicopter, because those Froot Loops could fly up into the propellers.'"