Category Archives: KISS News

Sophie Tweed Simmons Charity takes form of festival at Will Call Miami

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Roman Fernandez

Layout 1Miami venue hosts KISS KRUISE III Pre-Party to benefit Sophie’s Place, Child Advocacy Centre.

Miami, FL – On October 28th, legendary rock band, KISS, will take their show to the high seas for the third year in a row. However, October 27th will see a twelve hour “KISS KRUISE” Pre-Party at Will Call Miami, with all net proceeds from ticket sales to benefit Layout 1Sophie’s Place, Child Advocacy Centre.  Sophie’s Place is a program of The Centre for Child Development in British Columbia named after its patron, Sophie Tweed-Simmons – daughter of infamous KISS frontman, Gene Simmons, and Canadian model turned actress, Shannon Tweed.

Sophie’s Place, Child Advocacy Centre is focused on providing specialized services to physically, mentally or sexually abused children in a child-friendly designed setting.

“It’s really important that kids have a place to go where they can be taken seriously, and where they can express what’s happened to them in a safe environment”, says Sophie Tweed-Simmons.

The full day festival will include KISS-related special guests, Q&A’s, meet and greets, raffles, activities, food, themed drinks, and live music. Amongst the special guests are KISS producer and studio guitarist, Bob Kulick; author of new KISS biography, Ken Sharp; Alan Parker, director of KISS documentary film in production, You Wanted The Best… You Got The Best!; model and TV personality, Megan McCracken; and recording artist, Lyn Christopher, whose debut album in 1973 saw the first appearance of KISS’s Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley on a major record label release.

The raffle will include an autographed bass guitar by Gene Simmons, a cabin upgrade aboard the Norwegian Pearl on this year’s KISS KRUISE, autographed copies of the new KISS biography, Nothin’ to Lose, and other band related items. Live music will include Mr. Speed, voted best KISS tribute band of 2012 by the very members of KISS, Lyn Christopher, and local rockers: The No. 13’s and The Super Fuzz.

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With LA KISS, football doesn’t have to end with the Super Bowl

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Chris Erskine | LA Times

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David Livingston

Visionaries like you and me scoff at such thinking. Of course, visionaries always seem a little nuts.

Appreciate for a moment that a sport born and nurtured in America’s steel towns now has a team called the KISS, sponsored by rock legends famous as much for their makeup as their music.

Dull, backward-thinking traditionalists see the Arena Football League as a tacky offshoot of real football. I see real football as a brutal, bloated, family-hostile sport in need of some healthy competition. Every business needs that, even raging successes like the NFL.

And if you prefer monopolies, look what an outstanding job the NCAA does. Can’t wait till someone proposes an alternative to that, with a real playoff system and trust funds for players.

Till then, I say bring on the Arena Football League. Season seats sell for $99 for a package of 10 games, in the lower bowl of the Honda Center. Which, of course, technically means they are the Los Angeles KISS of Anaheim — sound familiar?

“Our best seats are like putting folding chairs on the hash marks,” brags co-owner Brett Bouchy.

That could hurt, but OK. Note that KISS execs are considering painting the field black.

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KISS Navy invades Miami in KISS Kruise pre-party

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KISS Navy

LIS2POSTER_USEKISS Navy Invades Miami Sat Oct 26th , Holiday Inn 340 Biscayne Blvd 6PM-12AM for a great cause, (Breast Cancer Research Foundation) come one all, (free to get in) Raffles All night for KISS goodies.  100 Percent of the $$$ made will go to the charity. If you can’t make it you also can donate by PayPal KK3BCRF@Comcast.net

Thanks for helping Us KISS Cancer Goodbye! – Denise Hopkins, Jeff Hopkins,Andy Moyen,Lydia Criss, Dj Andrew Noiz, John Friedrich

KISS Documentary Drama: Ace Frehley and Peter Criss ‘Won’t Go Anywhere Near It’

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Jeff Giles | 103.7 The Loon

Brenda Chase

Brenda Chase

You could fill half a dozen documentaries with behind-the-scenes stories from Kiss‘ career. Unfortunately, now that there’s an official movie in the works, ongoing bitterness will keep two former members from sharing their Kisstory.

Classic Rock Magazine reports that Alan G. Parker, director of the band-sanctioned upcoming film ‘You Wanted the Best, You Got the Best,’ has had his interview requests turned down by guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss.

Founding members of the band whose stormy on-again, off-again tenures have coincided with some of the most successful music in the Kiss catalog, Frehley and Criss are important parts of the group’s story, but their ongoing feuds with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley are keeping them from participating.

“There’s been so much bitchiness down the years, and so much said about and done to Ace and Peter, that they interpreted the request to be in the movie as a favor to Gene and Paul,” explained Parker. “Because of that, they won’t go anywhere near it. The negotiations were interesting, to say the least.”

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The New Jersey KISS Expo thanks you all for Saturday’s incredibly successful event!

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NJ KISS Expo

2S2A6887THANK YOU Tommy Thayer for giving us such a memorable experience and staying extra long to sign for everyone. THANK YOU Keith Leroux for organizing and running the autograph event so smoothly. THANK YOU to our long line of guests – Lydia Criss, Lyn Christopher, Ken Kelly, Len DeLessio, Jim Cara, Carol Ross, Eddie Solan, Binky Philips and Ken Sharp. THANK YOU Phil Dieli and your henchmen for maintaining order the whole day. THANK YOU Kristen and the two Jens for your hard work at the front ticket desk. THANK YOU to all the KISS Dealers who you know were really the main attraction and most of all THANK YOU TO ALL THE 1,500 KISS FANS FOR COMING TO OUR EVENT! See you next year – the date has already been set and will return to the same venue:

New Jersey KISS Expo 2014 – Saturday, September 13, 2014
NJ Convention and Exposition Center, at the Raritan Center
97 Sunfield Ave, Edison NJ 08837

See the NJ KISS Expo photo gallery HERE.

Guests, ticket sales, events and all other info will be posted HERE at NJKISSexpo.com later on this year. Mark your calendar now and see you then!

Gene Simmons: ‘We worship Satan on KISS Kruise’

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Lucy Hobson | Star Pulse

 

Kiss star Gene Simmons has joked the passengers on the Kiss Kruise worship Satan.

The 64-year-old bassist and his bandmates Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer are set to host the third annual cruise for fans from October 28, during which they will play an acoustic show without their trademark make-up and celebrate the spooky holiday Halloween.

Gene claims one of the leisure activities on offer to paying passengers is a ceremony celebrating Hell-dweller Beelzebub – who, according to the Christian faith, is an evil fallen angel who rebelled against God and wishes to lead humanity away from moral behavior.

In an interview with UK station Absolute Radio 90s, Gene said: “We’ve been touring the world for two-and-a-half years, on and off, and we’re going to Japan in about a week and a half, and right after the Japanese tour, we do the Kiss Kruise. It’s four or five thousand crazed fans who gather on a ship and worship Satan. We do all kinds of crazy things, wear make-up and all kinds of fun stuff.”

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Paul Stanley says autobiography to arrive next spring

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WFJA Classic Hits

M_PaulStanleyTwitterPic_09272013KISS singer/guitarist Paul Stanley has revealed when fans can expect to get their hands on his hotly anticipated book about his life.  On Thursday, Stanley posted a photo on his official Twitter account showing him looking at what appears to be a roll of negatives along with a message that reads, “Going through 60 years of photos to choose some to include in my autobiography coming out this spring.”

The news comes just a few weeks after the publication of Nothing to Lose: The Making of KISS (1972-1975), the book about the rockers’ formation and early years that Stanley co-wrote with band mate Gene Simmonsand veteran rock writer Ken Sharp.

KISS, meanwhile, is preparing to head overseas next month for a brief tour of Japan that is mapped out from October 19 to October 24.  The band also will be taking part in the third installment of their KISS Kruise, which runs from October 28 to November 1, and will follow that up with a November 8 show in Calgary, Canada.

 

KISS Coffeehouse – Farewell KISS

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Paul Grimshaw | Weekly Surge

Erin Burge

Erin Burge

Because my favorite KISS song is “Beth,” the sticky sweet power ballad that played against type, becoming a not so rock ‘n’ roll hit in 1976, I’ll probably be shunned by many hardcore KISS fans. Even before “Beth” shot to No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart that year, becoming the band’s highest charting single, I had been witness, as a teenager, to KISS’ garish, gaudy and ghoulish world debut a few years earlier. My friends and I thought of the band as an oddity, a comedic group of twenty-somethings from New York City with a few catchy rock ‘n’ roll tunes, destined to sell a bunch of Halloween costumes, fade out, and not be heard from again. Boy, were we wrong. KISS went on to define theatrical rock ‘n’ roll and marketing savvy in ways that few bands, if any, before or since, have matched, including the KISS Coffeehouse right here in li’l ol’ Myrtle Beach.

By the time the tongue-wagging, blood spitting, fire-breathing KISS bassist Gene Simmons came to Broadway at the Beach, with Starchild Paul Stanley, to open the KISS Coffeehouse in the summer of 2006, I had gained a new respect for the juggernaut and marketing genius that was and is the KISS empire. Simmons, the primary business mastermind behind the realm, has led the band-turned-brand through murky waters, highs and lows, and back to highs again. Along the way the KISS Army, the so-named troops in the official fan club of the band, bolster profits as they pay for annual memberships (currently $45), snap up merchandise, attend conventions, and fill concert venues. Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice enlisted in the KISS Army in 2008. Yep.

Thousands in the KISS Army (officially or unofficially) have visited the one and only KISS Coffeehouse, located at Broadway at the Beach, in Myrtle Beach, but perhaps too few loyal troops graced its funky counters to make its registers rock year-round. Serving a damn good cup o’ Joe, locals and visitors enjoy snacks and real barista-made coffee drinks at this curiosity that is part KISS merchandise retail store, part museum, and part demon-possessed Starbucks. Several weeks ago fans, casual to rabid, were saddened, though maybe not complexly surprised, to hear that the KISS Coffeehouse would close its doors forever. Word spread that Broadway at the Beach, and the Grand Strand, would no longer enjoy its most obvious link to the world of KISS.

Original reports had the store closing at the end of this month, but Weekly Surge has learned that the Coffeehouse will stay open through Dec. 31, complete with a proper send-off, tentatively including: a Dec 28 party with a KISS tribute band, a meet-n-greet with an undetermined member of KISS, and fire sale deals on any remaining stock.

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Eric Carr Drum Raffle at the NJ KISS Expo this Saturday

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New Jersey KISS Expo

ddrum asyAn authentic Eric Carr owned Floor Tom Drum will be the main prize of this year’s raffle. Raffle tickets are only $1 and you can buy as many as you like at the front ticket desk.

In mid 1991, LUDWIG sent a complete ebony with Silver Chrome finish drum set, as a gift to ERIC CARR of KISS to his home address:  630 First Ave, Apt 28E New York City, New York 10016. It has been in storage for over 20 years and is in perfect, beautiful condition. Even comes with the original shipping box with Eric’s name and address on the side!

The drum and other items from the raffle will be on display all day – a unique chance to win a unique item!

All info for the Expo is HERE at njkissexpo.com

Revisiting KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park, the greatest (and worst) glam rock adventure movie of all time

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Eric Hynes | Slate

130925_CBOX_KissPhantomPark.jpg.CROP.promo-mediumlargeWith their new IMAX 3-D spectacular Metallica: Through the Never, the multiplatinum-selling speed-metal quartet from San Francisco have devised an ambitious way to showcase their music for a new generation of fans. Rather than capture a pre-existing concert, they put together a stage show explicitly for this movie, filling an arena with more props and pyrotechnics than Nigel Tufnel could dream of and rigging up 24 cameras to give moviegoers an uncanny sense of being there for the jackhammering of “Master of Puppets” and the baroque balladeering of “Nothing Else Matters.”

But there’s also something else afoot here, something to earn the film’s grandly oblique title: a wordless, surrealistic adventure narrative that was conceived by the band along with director Nimród Antal. These fictional sequences are threaded through the song cycle but take place outside of the arena, with actor Dane DeHaan playing a roadie sent on a mysterious quest through an apocalyptic cityscape. The idea is to visualize what the mood and lyrics conjure, to take the audience on a cinematic journey through the band’s greatest hits, and to solidify and expand the Metallica brand.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a certifiable rock ‘n’ roll funhouse adventure film. Music videos rendered them redundant in the 1980s, though bubblegum derivations likeMichael Jackson: Moonwalker and Spice World occasionally popped up in the intervening decades. But in the prime of the mid-1970s, the era of The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Saturday morning animated musical whodunits like Scooby-Doo, curios such as Alice Cooper: The Nightmare, and the venerable KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park turned rock gods into genre heroes. Fueled by synergistic pretentions and trans-media ambitions, yet saddled by inadequate production values and half-assed-at-best storytelling, these films were credibility killers that also had a kind of hubristic integrity—bridges too far that crash satisfyingly into the bay. Though it’s technically superior to any of its forebears, and serves as a sonically superlative (if also monotonous) concert film, Metallica’s batty fantastical elements have effectively awoken this gloriously inglorious genre from a prolonged hibernation.

Yet except for an opening sequence in which the hoodie-wearing DeHaan enters the arena and spies each member of the band before the show, the concert and adventure elements are kept separate. And except for a momentary fake stage disaster, in which lead singer James Hetfield utters the Keanu-worthy line “Whoa … what’s going on?” the band members are never obliged to act in the film. Judging from Lars Ulrich’s brief cameo in Get Him to the Greek, this would seem to be for the better. But what, pray tell, is the point of making a Metallica musical adventure film, one in which a gas-masked horseman of the apocalypse lynches street protesters from streetlamps, if you’re not going to dress up bassist Kirk Hammett as a zombie policeman, or have Hetfield shoot perforated laser beams out of his eyes?

Oh, right: because KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park was a work of such cautionary folly that only Michael Jackson was crazy enough to attempt anything like it. This made-for-TV camp landmark, in which the aforementioned perforated laser beam was employed, was the simultaneous apex and nadir of glam rock outfit KISS’s career. It was the second-highest-rated televised event of 1978 (behind only Roots) while also inexorably contributing to the fracturing of the band/brand. After the purportedly tedious shoot at California’s Magic Mountain amusement park, each member hustled together poorly received solo albums, drummer Peter Criss spiraled deeper into substance abuse and would soon be replaced, guitarist Ace Frehley’s disaffection would lead to his own exile, and the band’s spiraling discomfort with their own identity would lead to such desperate measures as a synth-heavy prog rock concept album, and the shunning of their trademark makeup masks.

Yet Phantom had a transparency of purpose that Metallica: Through the Never labors to obscure, not to mention a levity that Lars and co. are too busy bench-pressing their own mythology to entertain. I won’t make any claims for Phantom’s quality—it has “cheap, uninspired quickie” written all over every haphazardly framed shot—but 35 years later it remains as disarmingly loopy as it was on broadcast date Oct. 28, 1978, the Saturday before Halloween.

The movie starts with a title sequence in which the four members of KISS—Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, and Ace Frehley—materialize in an amusement park as towering, platform heel-wearing holograms to sing “Rock and Roll All Nite,” only to disappear from the telecast for 30 whole minutes (not counting commercials). In the interim, we meet Abner Devereaux (Anthony Zerbe), a vaguely European mad scientist type who toils beneath the park, and whose experiments in animatronics have secretly branched into human abduction and mind control. When he sees park financing redirected into KISS’s hotly anticipated engagement, Devereaux plots a hostile, vaguely explicated takeover involving an army of albino wolfmen in silver onesies and KISS’s evil android doppelgängers.

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons to sing US National Anthem at NFL game in London

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NME

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons to sing US National Anthem at NFL game in London

Photo: Danny North/NME

Kiss bassist Gene Simmons will be singing the US National Anthem this weekend at London’s Wembley Stadium for the NFL International Series game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Minnesota Vikings.

Simmons will sing ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ before the 6pm [BST] kick-off on Sunday September 29. He has previously sung the US National Anthem at last year’s Oakland Raiders’ home game against the San Diego Chargers, reports Antimusic.

Speaking about his impending performance at the American Football game, Simmons commented: “I’m excited to be touching down in London to sing our US National Anthem at the Vikings-Steelers game. I always love playing a role in these types of high-action, fast-paced games, not to mention returning to the UK and performing in front of some the best fans in the world!”

Gene Simmons recently rated Miley Cyrus‘s tongue-wagging display at the MTV VMAs last month, calling it “a girl’s version”. Cyrus stuck out her tongue provocatively on numerous occasions during her now infamous medley with Robin Thicke at the awards bash – a performance which also saw her point at Thicke’s crotch with a foam finger and “twerk” against the front of his trousers. Cyrus’s exploits became a hot topic online and drew criticism from a leading US parents’ group and the inventor of the foam finger, who claimed that the singer had “degraded” an “icon”.

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2013 New Jersey KISS Expo Schedule

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New Jersey KISS Expo

Saturday, September 28, 2013

Raritan Center
97 Sunfield Avenue
Edison NJ 08837

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Schedule of events:
9:00 am – Box office opens
10:00 am – Doors open for Platinum ticket holders
10:05 am – Tommy Thayer autograph session starts
11:00 am – Doors open for Gold ticket holders
12:00 pm – UD Replicas product presentation
12:30 pm – Ken Kelly, album artist
1:00 pm – Jim Cara, Gene axe bass building presentation
2:00 pm – Tommy Thayer question and answer session
3:00 pm – Lydia Criss
4:00 pm – MAIN EVENT – Nothin’ to Lose book panel
6:00 pm – Raffle ticket drawing for Eric Carr drum + more
7:00 pm – Tommy Thayer autograph session winds down

Tribute band KISS Nation will be be performing mini-sets throughout the day.

Tickets will be available at the door for only $10 each!

Visit njkissexpo.com for directions and all info.

GENE SIMMONS FAMILY JEWELS Joins AXS TV’s Thursday Lineup, 10/3

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BWW TV

2B24C2C8-BF9E-14F5-9CF4A9DEC87AC849AXS TV has licensed all seven seasons, 168 episodes of the international hit reality series GENE SIMMONS FAMILY JEWELS which explores the life of tongue-wagging KISS front man Gene Simmons, his longtime girlfriend (and now wife) former Playboy Playmate of the Year, Shannon Tweed, their children Nick and Sophie and rescue dog, Snippy. GENE SIMMONS FAMILY JEWELS debuts on Thursday, October 3 with back-to-back episodes beginning at 8 p.m. ET | 5 p.m. PT. The network will then air a marathon on Saturday, October 5, including all 13 episodes of Season 1 from 3:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET | 12:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT. The show will regularly air every Thursday night with back-to-back episodes starting at 8 p.m. ET | 5 p.m. PT.

“GENE SIMMONS FAMILY JEWELS is a one-of-kind look into the home life of an American icon,” said AXS TV founding partner, Mark Cuban. “Gene Simmons continues to be at the forefront of American entertainment and this program extends our mission to bring music and pop culture back to television.”

GENE SIMMONS FAMILY JEWELS kicks off AXS TV‘s Thursday night comedy lineup which also includes performance series GOTHAM COMEDY LIVE at 10 p.m. ET | 7 p.m. PT.

GENE SIMMONS FAMILY JEWELS gives viewers an up close and personal look at the anything, but ordinary family life of this not-so-nuclear family, as Gene and Shannon transition from 28 years of “Happily Unmarried Bliss,” to finally tying the knot.

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Massive KISS tribute album to benefit cancer care released on iTunes

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Jeffrey Winslow | Examiner

d81a00b93de18d678935b2b4b1f0f7eaAfter having run a very successful PledgeMusic.com campaign that reached 241% of its stated goal and raised just under $23,000 for the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Palliative Care Residence in Hudson, Quebec (www.mspvs.org/en), rock reporter and photographer Mitch Lafon is making the A World With Heroes KISS tribute album (40th anniversary celebration) Deluxe Editionbenefitting cancer care available on iTunes around the world September 24, 2013.

The album features performances by some of rock’s elite, including Rex Brown (Kill Devil Hill/Pantera), Ron Keel (Keel), Mark Tornillo (Accept), Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal (Guns ‘N Roses), Brighton Rock, Russ Dwarf (Killer Dwarfs), Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake/Burning Rain), Phil Lewis (L.A. Guns), Terry Ilous and Mark Kendall (Great White), Bill Leverty (Firehouse), Troy Luccketta (Tesla), Eric Brittingham and Jeff Labar (Cinderella), John Regan & Tod Howarth (Frehley’s Comet), Rick Hughes (Sword), Bonfire, Derry Grehan and Johnnie Dee (Honeymoon Suite), and many more.

Profits from the iTunes’ sales of the album will continue to benefit the Vaudreuil-Soulanges Palliative Care Residence.

The Deluxe Edition iTunes release will include a re-imagined track listing, as well as eleven bonus tracks not included on the CD version.

The eleven new tracks are:

1) “No, I’m Not Afraid” (Previously Unreleased Peter Criss Band Demo from 1991) performed by Peter Criss and Phil Naro

2) “Wait For A Minute To Rock N’ Roll” (Previously Unreleased Peter Criss Band Demo from 1991) performed by Peter Criss and Phil Naro

3) “Back On The Streets” (2013 Mix – written by Vinnie Vincent) performed by Richie Scarlet, John Regan, Tod Howarth, Arthur Stead & Steve Werner.

4) “Only You” (2013 Recording) performed by DORO

5) “God Gave Rock N Roll To You II” performed by Russ Dwarf

6) “I’m An Animal” (2013 Mix) performed by Richie Scarlet, John Regan, Tod Howarth, Arthur Stead & Steve Werner.

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NJ KISS Expo – What kind of merchandise will be available?

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New Jersey KISS Expo

People have been asking – “what kind of KISS merchandise will be at the NJ KISS Expo?” The short answer is – EVERYTHING! The old and the new, the mundane and the extravagant, the cheap and the expensive, the expected and the unexpected… There is no better place to start your quest to complete your KISS collection!

Most importantly, you are being connected to the largest network of KISS dealers in the world….and the largest KISS dealers will be there – KISSonline.com, KISSmuseum.com, KISSarmywarehouse.com, Gene Simmons Axe guitars, John Rubin, Ross Koondel, and many, many more. There is nowhere in the Universe you will ever see such volume and variety of KISS Collectibles in one place! Below are photos the dealers have sent us of just a small offering of the items they will be bringing. The photo of the truck is just a single collection bought recently by one of the dealers – it will all be there for sale this Saturday!

Info and directions to the 2013 New Jersey KISS Expo are at njkissexpo.com

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