KISS ASYLUM: August 2003 News Archive

From: Joop van Pelt/KISS Kollector Fanclub
All details for the official launch party to celebrate the upcoming release of the "Symphony" 2-DVD have been worked out, so you'll find the e-card with all info here. As the info on the card is in Dutch, here's a quick translation of the most important details. The party, as organized by the Dutch record company (BMG) along with the Dutch fanclub (KISS Kollector Fanclub) will take place on September 4 at the Hard Rock Cafe in Amsterdam (Holland). Entrance is free, and obviously not only fans from Holland are welcome - that's why we would like as many fans as possible to know about this great party. Starting at 21.00 hours (9 pm), the party's main feature will be the exclusive screening of the entire "Symphony" DVD including all extra's. Although the official release date overhere is September 8, you can already buy the DVD that night too. If you show up in KISS make up you'll even get a huge discount of 10 euro! And if that's not enough: by showing up in make up, you'll also make a chance to win a VIP treatment for a concert on the European leg of tour next year. And we'll be giving away a Paul Stanley Silvertone guitar. We'll also be screening the awesome VH1 special "KISS: Beyond The Makeup", and the four Girls of KISS will be at hand too. So, make sure you'll come over to the Amsterdam Hard Rock Cafe on September 4 and be the first to see and buy the "Symphony" DVD. http://campaign.c2m.nl/kissalive/index.htm

From: www.geocities.com/kissdetroitexpo
Sunday, August 10, 2003; 11:00 AM 7:00 PM, Double Tree Hotel, I-94/Merriman Exit near the Detroit Metro Airport, [Call (734) 467-8000 and ask for special KISS expo rates]. If you're tired of the same guests appearing at every KISS convention over and over, then this weekend's 10th Annual Detroit KISS Expo is the cure. The expo features a totally fresh roster of guests and attractions: KISS Alive Forever authors Curt Gooch and Jeff Suhs will do a Q & A, plus host the final public broadcast of the KISS Alive Forever promo films featuring live 1973 & '74 concert and rehearsal clips, the infamous Largo 1977 show, and much more that has never been seen or heard before. Q & A with Jay "Hot Sam" Barth and Chuck Elias, KISS road crew members from 1974-79 Comprehensive 1975-76 Alive! era museum, including all four original members costumes, vintage posters, Peter Criss's 1975 drum kit and more. Free KISS: Behind the Mask mylar posters for the first 50 people in line, KISS tribute band War Machine, and much, much more. Tickets are only $12 in advance via Ticketmaster (248) 645-6666 or through www.ticketmaster.com. Dealers still interested in securing a table at the convention, can contact Joe Marshall at PhotoJoes@aol.com or (734) 658-5477 ASAP. For more information call (734) 658-5477 or visit the Expo web site at: www.geocities.com/kissdetroitexpo.

From: CTnow.com via Brian Cory
Kiss played an 80-minute set of the melodic, often suggestive hard rock songs the band is known for. Dressed in their outlandish costumes, with faces fully painted, the band indulged in pyrotechnics, loud guitars, levitating drum risers and all of the over-the-top trappings of a rock band serious about giving fans their money's worth. The band's songs are constructed simply, as if to allow plenty of time for the musicians to point at the crowd or reach triumphantly toward the sky between each note. Bassist Gene Simmons drooled fake blood all over himself at the start of "God of Thunder" before flying up to a platform on top of the light rig. The band also played "I Love It Loud," and singer-guitarist Paul Stanley pranced and strutted around the stage when he wasn't at the microphone. Kiss started its encore with drummer Peter Criss singing "Beth," before the whole band ending with the party classic "Rock and Roll All Nite."

From: Billboard.com
Critics have despised them for three decades, and they've never had a No. 1 single or album on the Billboard charts. Yet no American band has earned as many gold records (24 and counting), and any rock fan on the planet can sing along to the group's signature hit, "Rock and Roll All Nite." So how has Kiss, a band many initially dismissed as a novelty act, endured for so long? According to former schoolteacher Gene Simmons and one-time taxi driver Paul Stanley, the answer is simple: by ignoring their detractors and listening to their fans. Kiss has had a total of 10 members during the course of its career; only Simmons and Stanley have been aboard for every second of the group's 30-year journey. With a new album, new label and new tour on the horizon, the band is preparing for its biggest year since its original lineup reunited for the top-grossing tour of 1996. [Read The Interview...]

From: CTnow.com via Brian Cory
"Welcome to Kiss World," Paul Stanley says, standing in his suite at the Plaza Hotel. It's a surreal world whose primary inhabitants - the four members of Kiss - wear makeup, play driving hard-rock music and put on bombastic live shows in front of fervent fans who know every note of every song. It's also a carefully constructed world, where each move is designed to advance one primary goal: augmenting the already impressive mythology of Kiss. Stanley towers above everyone else in the hotel suite - 6-inch platform boots will do that - and he's bedecked in full Kiss regalia: white greasepaint, bright red lipstick, black star painted around his right eye and a skin-tight stage costume that reveals the singer and guitarist's hairy chest. He and the other members of Kiss are in New York to promote a new album, "Kiss Symphony: Alive IV," an accompanying DVD scheduled for release in September and the band's summer tour with Aerosmith, which starts tonight in Hartford. In another sense, though, Stanley and his band mates are in town for a little routine maintenance of the legend they have created. You can argue all you want about the merits of Kiss' music. (Influential cultural force or execrable pandering to people with bad taste? Discuss). Either way, the band has built a vast commercial empire based in part on the music, yes, but more on the idea of Kiss. "We're superheroes in a band," Stanley says during one of a series of TV interviews the group conducts. That's exactly the image Kiss wants to project, and what's more, that's exactly how fans see the band.[More...]

From: Billboard.com
With Kiss nearing the launch of its co-headlining trek with Aerosmith, the band's former guitarist, Ace Frehley, wants to make certain that fans know he won't be a part of the tour, and that he's hard at work on his next solo record. In an exclusive interview with Billboard, Frehley says he will not be hitting the road for two reasons: In 2001, when Kiss finished its Farewell tour, he says he was told by bandmates Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley that the jaunt would be the band's last. And, as a result, at the end of that tour, he began planning and working on his seventh, as-yet-untitled, solo record, which he didn't want to delay for another nostalgia-focused tour with Kiss. "When I finished the last tour, they told me that was it," Frehley says. "So I'm not gonna sit around and twiddle my thumbs. I started preparing, before the tour was even over, and built a recording studio on my property and started writing. I miss my fans, and I apologize to them if they're let down that I'm not touring with Kiss. But I did what any normal person would have done. When I was out of a job, I made other plans, and once that's set in motion, I can't drop everything once Gene Simmons calls and says, 'We may be touring this time.' "I wasn't available emotionally or mentally, and, economically, I didn't need the tour." Frehley says. "I had gotten to the state of mind of not repeating old things and going on. I'm on a journey. [More...]

From: Joop
The August issue of KISS Kollector magazine has been mailed out to all its members (see cover here). Issue 45 includes handwritten messages by Gene, Paul and Tommy, reviews of Symphony Alive IV CD and DVD, part 2 of our exclusive interview with former New England drummer Hirsh Gardner about his KISS related years, a revealing story on Peter Criss' secret involvement in another band back in '79 when he was still a member of KISS, detailed info on the latest KISS bootleg CD's, never before published photos from throughout the band's 30 year career, and much more. (for more info: kiss@animalize.com)

From: Joop
The new videoclip for Detroit Rock City, from the upcoming Symphony 2-DVD, will be added to the playlist of The Box in Holland. From August 6 onwards, you can vote for Detroit Rock City during The Box's "On The Roxx" program on Wednesdaynights. Clipcode is: 801. Let's make this the most requested clip on The Box! For more info, you can check out their Teletext page or their website: www.thebox.nl.

From: Joop
There will be a big launch party on September 4 in Holland to celebrate the release of the Symphony DVD, which will be in stores on September 8 overhere. The exclusive screening of the DVD will take place at the Hard Rock Cafe in Amsterdam. Apart from the DVD premiere, you will be able to already buy the DVD (with discount!) before it hits the stores later that week and there'll be a great contest for fans who'll show up in KISS make up. Doors open at 21.00 hours and admission is free. More info will follow as soon as possible. So, keep watching this space for more news!