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Daily Archives: October 19, 2019
KISS tour plans for the unrealized Elder tour uncovered
Previously unseen stage-design sketches for a Kiss Music From ‘The Elder’ tour that never happened highlight a new 1,200-item rock-memorabilia sale from Backstage Auctions.
The band can be seen clustered around a glowing orb and performing in front of a lighthouse and wishing well in the below sketches. They were drawn by Mark Ravitz, who created the first-ever Kiss stage logo as well as the stage for their tour in support of 1976’s Destroyer. He has also worked with David Bowie, Frank Sinatra and the Who.
In a new interview with Three Sides of the Coin, Ravitz explained that he was approached by the band in early 1982 to come up with ideas for a new stage show. Even though he said he was unaware that Kiss had released their first-ever concept album the previous November, several of his sketches match up with the medieval setting and myth-based lyrics of The Elder.
“I had no relationship to that album at all,” he said. “I created the first-generation Kiss tour. And now I [was] creating the generation that I wanted to see. There was no music involved. I didn’t hear about any album or anything like that.”
Unfortunately, nobody else really heard about Music From ‘The Elder’ either. The album was a spectacular flop. In 2004’s Kiss: Behind the Mask, singer Paul Stanley said the LP was “probably the biggest misstep of our whole musical career.”
The lack of sales and fan interest torpedoed any chances of Kiss mounting a successful tour, so the band instead quickly regrouped to record four new straight-ahead rock songs for the face-saving 1982 compilation Killers.