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KISS Expo Tokyo 2016: How the Band’s First Official Exhibition Came About Read More: Kiss Expo Tokyo 2016: How the Band’s First Official Exhibition Came About

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Annie Zaleski | Ultimate Classic Rock

screen-shot-2016-11-03-at-11-50-11-amFrom Oct. 13-31, the first-ever band-sanctioned Kiss Expo took over the top floor of Laforet, a boutique-filled shopping mall in the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo.

The Expo was arranged like a museum exhibit, with memorabilia, artifacts and interactive elements, as well as a gift shop stuffed with exclusive merch — from a toilet paper holder featuring Gene Simmons‘ visage (the unfurling roll mimics his tongue) to T-shirts and prints reflecting a Kiss collaboration with the beloved cartoon character Astro Boy.

During the expo’s opening weekend, Ultimate Classic Rock received a guided tour of the exhibit from Hanako Tabata, an executive producer in the strategic marketing division of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. After walking by a gigantic Kiss logo — and mannequins dressed in familiar Kiss outfits — visitors were greeted with a trio of gems from band lore: Kiss’ 1976 formation contract, the legal documents which served as trademark registration for the band member’s distinctive faces and Simmons’ concert-used fire sword.

Lucky for fans, however, the members of Kiss were meticulous about keeping everything that might be of interest in the future. The Expo’s offerings included early show posters hand-drawn by Simmons and Paul Stanley; Kiss fan-club flyers; scrapbooks and photos; call sheets for TV appearances; and an impressive, colorful array of backstage passes from across the years. One glass case even contained a bunch of cassette demos and recordings — including one featuring Simmons’ collaboration with Bob Dylan.

Elsewhere, the Expo highlighted the costumes, clothing and tour ephemera that made Kiss so one-of-a-kind — from a Peter Criss satin jacket (compete with vintage dirt and a rip) and Simmons’ Spector “Love Gun” bass to an entire wall highlighting Kiss’ history of broken guitars, from 1976 through 2015. And, of course, there were no shortage of awards: a gold 8-track, Simmons’ gold discs and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction trophy and a wheel of platinum discs signifying 30 million albums sold.

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Podcast Rock City KISS Kruise Special

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Podcast Rock City

**CANT MAKE THIS YEARS KISS KRUISE?**

Good news!! PODCAST ROCK CITY KISS KRUISE SPECIAL on KGFROCKS.com

Starting on November 3rd at 8:30 pm est! 4 days of KISS KRUISE UPDATES and tons of ROCK AND ROLL from the HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD–KISS!! Bookmark the website and check out PODCAST ROCK CITY AND KGFROCKS FACEBOOK PAGE FOR TONS OF UPDATES!! Everything GETS STARTED Thursday night live from The Gathering in Miami! Getting excited in 3-2-1 PEACE!!

http://player.streamlicensing.com/2532?l&stream_id=4302

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KISS frontman donates $100,000 to Langley-based children’s foundation

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Dan Ferguson | Langley Times

Rick Cahpman

Rick Cahpman

Gene Simmons of KISS gave a $100,000 boost to the Gala of Hope fundraiser for The Centre for Child Development and Sophie’s Place Child and Youth Advocacy Centre held at the Newlands Golf and Country Club in Langley on Saturday night.

In addition to the donation, Simmons also auctioned off a ‘blade’ guitar.

A total of $280,000 was raised by the gala, the centre said.

Simmons was there with his wife, Canadian model and actress Shannon Tweed, to show support for their daughter, Sophie Tweed-Simmons, who lent her name to the Surrey facility.

Since 2012, Sophie’s Place has assisted abused children up to the age of 18 by providing a safe space where they can talk about their experience of physical, mental or sexual abuse with trained staff and law enforcement professionals.

In a statement issued by the centre, Tweed-Simmons said the team at Sophie’s Place conducted more than 200 interviews with abused children over the past year.

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Five things we learned at the KISS 2016 Expo in Tokyo

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Elanor Goodman | Team Rock

An unassuming poster marks the door to the Kiss Expo, which leads into a shopping mall in Harajuku. We take the lift to the fifth floor, walk past some boutiques selling women’s knitwear and frilly blouses, and enter a hidden world of Kiss memorabilia. Tellingly, the first item on display is the band’s formation contract from 1976, promising each band member 25% of the band’s revenue. Then there are gold discs aplenty, a selection of historic and smashed guitars, the infamous Kiss Kasket, a video showing Gene Simmonswith X Japan mainman Yoshiki, and studded costumes from throughout the years – though sadly, the mannequins are not anatomically correct. “Kiss are sexy – we need to go to the sausage shop!” jokes Mark Stroman, one of the brains behind the event.

Aside from Gene Simons and Paul Stanley, Japanese music critics Masa Ito and Yuichi Masuda advised on the collection, which has been three years in the making and mainly consists of items donated by fans. The organisers now hope to grow the event and take it to the US and Europe. “There are two sides to this exhibition – one is the history and memorabilia for the diehard fans, and the other is fun experiences for new fans, like virtual reality headsets,” says curator Hana. “We’re exploring more ideas, and hoping to have the whole band appear next time!”

Here’s what we learned from a walk around…

He isn’t shy about showing off his home, and the staff give out virtual reality headsets so we can tour his and Paul Stanley’s cribs. He points out his branded pinball machine, toilet paper, baby bottles, condoms and other items, while our eyes try to adjust to the floor-to-ceiling Kiss Kaos. Ow.

Gene has made a friend

He has a gold 8-track

It’s all very well having gold discs, but what about the under-appreciated tape? Gene has one to commemorate shifting more than 500,000 units of 1975 concert album Alive in the now-obsolete format. It’s probably worth more than anything we will ever own. Ever.

And the Fire Sword!

Fresh from being used on their American tour, it’s the first time the Fire Sword has been displayed. Never mind stage shows, if you were going to fight dragons, zombies or White Walkers, you’d want this flaming weapon by your side.

Kiss should be more careful with their guitars

The Kiss Marvel comic is too cool

One display shows the Marvel Kiss Special original comic book from 1977, which was made with the band’s own blood. Above, there’s a big colour picture of them pouring the blood into a big vat of red ink, while dressed in full costume. We really want the comic. Does Santa come on Halloween?

We’ll take the one with sequins, please

The Demon’s baby pictures are lolz

There’s a scrapbook containing family photos of Gene. Photos include one of his mum looking weirdly serious while tickling him, and hilarious ones of him driving a miniature car and dressed up western-style like the Milkybar Kid. Proof that he’s long been a showman.

Gene Simmons believes live music has been a proven therapy for thousands of years

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Stef Lach | Team Rockscreen-shot-2016-10-24-at-3-32-05-pm

Gene Simmons says it’s the job of musicians to create “magic time” on stage to help fans forget about the mundanity of everyday life.

The Kiss bassist describes the live arena as an “electric church” and says he believes live music can make a real difference to the lives of those in the audience.

Speaking after appearing with X Japan on stage in Tokyo at the weekend, Simmons tells Metal Hammer: “At the end of the day, all that matters is what happens on that stage – that’s electric church. That’s glory hallelujah, all hail rock’n’roll, where people who spend lots of after-tax money come to the show and their girlfriends have been torturing them about where did you go and traffic jams and all that.

“And it’s our job – anyone who gets up on that stage – to create magic time. To make you forget about all that stuff and take you away, so just for those few hours…and then you get back to gravity, and all the chaos that’s out there.”

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The KISS Room – October 14, 2016

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The KISS Room

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KISS ARMY – it’s a Halloween party, it’s a Kruise pre-party, it’s whatever you want it to be as we salute all of the thing things that go bump in the night in THE KISS ROOM!

Matt Porter is joined by Bobby Dreher, Dotti Jones, Joe Polo from Podcast Rock City, Ken Mills, and more, PLUS we have THE KISS ROOM HOUSE BAND, Steve Campagna, Steve Foerst, and Fran Galanti, playing live in the studio!

All of the tricks, treats, tunes and KISS talk that you expect every month in THE KISS ROOM!

Originally broadcast on Friday, October 14, 2016 via Montco Radio, where Music and Minds meet.

thekissroom.com