Gene On The Cover Of Spanish Metal Hammer

The new issue of the Spanish Metal Hammer magazine features a great shot of Gene. It's interesting to see that quite a lot of the big European metal magazines feature Kiss on the cover during the tour.

European Tour Ended

Kiss have now returned to the United States after their most successful European tour EVER.
The last show was at Graspop Festival in Belgium with more than 50 000 persons in the audience. During the show the power went out due to a failure but this was solved quickly.
Within the next few days I will post some statistics regarding this hugely successful tour.

Video Footage with Pearl Jam / Ace

A fan-filmed clip of "Black Diamond" from the Pearl Jam concert (featuring Ace) can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-Y2cEZ3kLQ

Ace On Stage With Pearl Jam In New York

Yesterday (June 25th) Ace Frehley joined Pearl Jam on stage during their show at Madison Square Garden. Ace played lead guitar for "Black Diamond". Billboard Magazine has written a report: http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003821127

Kiss Helmet Available

Kissmuseum has just added the brand new Kiss motorcycle helmet. It's available for $249.95 at http://kissmuseum.com/detail.aspx?ID=1456.

New Japanese Box Set

Today (June 25th) is the release of a new 11 disc Japanese box set. The following CDs are included:

1. PETER CRISS
2. ACE FREHLEY
3. GENE SIMMONS
4. PAUL STANLEY
5. CRAZY NIGHTS
6. ASYLUM
7. ANIMALIZE
8. LICK IT UP
9. CREATURES OF THE NIGHT
10. MUSIC FROM THE ELDER
11. UNMASKED

The box set is released by Universal Music Japan.

Aardschok Magazine Cover

The most important music magazine in The Netherlands is Aardschok. For some reason they have always been a bit negative about Kiss and they have very rarely been writing about them. But in the July issue they are even featured on the cover!

Two Versions Of The Latest Tour Book

The tour book for the European tour has been made in two different versions. One with the normal logo and one with the German censored logo. Both are available at Kissonline's webshop.
http://www.fanfire.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/fanfire.woa/wo/4.13.9.1.9.3.1

Kiss Exhibition In Vänersborg, Sweden

From July 1st until August 8th Vänersborgs Konsthall (Western Sweden) will show "Kiss - The Exhibition". This is a nice exhibition made by the Swedish Kiss collector Alexander Johanssoh. Gold awards, merchandise, stage outfits etc will be displayed.
A vernissage will take place July 1st.
More information can be found at www.kisstheexhibition.com and www.vanersborg.se/konsthall.

Diary Entry From Kiss' Security Guy

Kiss security guy Danny Francis has posted his diary on www.kissonline.com. Interesting reading!



Danny (The Butler) Francis Kiss 2008 Tour Diary
Arrow Festival- Netherlands Sunday June 15

11.15pm
The Hottest Band In The World have just performed a killer two hour and fifteen minute set at the Arrow Classic Festival in front of 55.000 new and old fans who are still singing as the band jump into our getaway vans to the blue lights and screeching sirens of our police escort. WE ARE IN A HURRY!

And so another notch in the “Love Gun” as another massive crowd leaves to spread the thunderous gospel of KISS!

Looking more like the victorious winners of some Star Wars boxing championship, steam surrounds the four band members as they run towards our two waiting vans, wrapped in heavy, dark blue robes with towels around their necks. We’re in “Drop and Go” mode, which means as soon as KISS comes off stage, it’s drop clothes and go before we can’t get out.

Paul, Tommy, and Doc are in the first van. Myself. Gene and Eric are in the second van. Gene has a hot towel pressed against his face, as he starts to remove his war paint while Eric is telling our driver that he needs to get closer to the first van. We are already travelling at 80mph so I try to explain that if we get too close and for some reason the first van has to stop, we could all end up in the front van. Paul wouldn’t like that kind of surprise…

The private airport where the Kiss Jet is waiting closes at midnight and is sixty miles away, so we have forty-five minutes to make the sixty-mile journey, plus our luggage is already on its way to Paris. We have to make the deadline or it’s the Motel 6 for us!

It is now 11.50pm. Luckily the escort knows what they are doing, as the lights of the lone runway comes into view, we wave as our escort pulls to one side and we dive though the gates and follow the yellow flashing light of the airport vehicle that will take us onto the runway and on to the Kiss Jet.
We take off and I look at my watch, 11.59pm. We make it with a minute to spare. Whew!

Two hours later, at 2:10am, we check into the famous Le Maurice Hotel in Paris and the Commanders in Chief of the Kiss Army are off to bed.

3.: 40am and I check my E-Mails before ending my day…Fifteen!

The very first is from my close friend and rock journalist extraordinaire Paul Elliott… “Fantastic Show”, says he. Paul had travelled up from London to the Donnington show with three other music journalists. Between them they had seen over 50 Kiss shows. In Paul’s own words “the show had all that Kiss are famous for, plus a fucking great rocking set! I have never heard Paul (Stanley) sounding or performing better, but the heartbeat of the set come from the drummer. Please give the guys a big pat on the back from us”. Our mighty Cat does it again!

And another day in Kissworld comes to a glorious end.
Goodnight.

One Month Anniversary

Today (June 23rd) marks the one month anniversary of the Kiss On Fire Blog. Please feel free to let me know what you think of the blog and what you would like to see more of.
heavymetalinthenightblog@gmail.com

French Magazine Cover

Kiss are on the cover of the July issue of the French music magazine Rock & Folk.

Kiss At Download Festival

Scuzz TV did an interesting TV report from Kiss' performance at Download Festival last weekend. Watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Un5TlsVDI

Ace's guitar cases

Some people have asked me about more photos of Ace Frehley's guitars from Sweden Rock Festival. I don't have any more pictures of the actual guitars but here are two shots I took of the guitar cases. For the hardcore fans!

A KISS ARMY Members' Only ticket presale for the Las Vegas KISS show, will begin Thursday at 10AM (Local Venue Time).
Presale start: Thursday June 19 at 10AM (local venue time)
Presale end: Friday June 20 at 3PM (local venue time)
While supplies last, KISS ARMY Members will have access to MEMBERS' Only tickets for the following KISS Concert date:
KISS at The Pearl Concert Theater
Palms Casino Resort Las Vegas, NV
Friday, August 29, 2008 at 8:00 p.m
To participate in this presale, visit KISSontour.com, log in as a KISS Army member, and click the BUY NOW link on the tour grid for that concert.

Ace at Sweden Rock Festival

Ace seems to have some problems in remembering the lyrics to Shout It Out Loud. Watch this photo I took during Sweden Rock Festival two weeks ago. Below Ace's set list he has got the lyrics to the first verse of Shout It Out Loud. I thought everyone knew those words! :-)

Berlin Photos

The German Metal Hammer magazine has posted some great photos from the Berlin show. Check them out at http://www.metal-hammer.de/Kiss_Berlin_live_Fotos_17_06_08-site-hammer.html#.

Las Vegas Show Added

August 29th Kiss will perform at The Pearl Concert Theater at The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, NV.
Tickets are released on Saturday (June 21st). They aren't exactly cheap, from USD 153 to 303.

Gene On French Magazine Cover

This is the cover of the new issue of the French bass player magazine Bassiste.

Kiss Press Conference At Download Festival

Metal Hammer has posted an eight minute long film from the Kiss press conference at Download Festival in England last week.
Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7vYv11f-H4

Ace At Sweden Rock Festival

Here are two more photos I took at Sweden Rock Festival. They show Ace and his tour manager walking to the dressing room.

Kiss At Download Festival

Kiss played in front of more than 50 000 fans at this year's Download Festival in Donington, England. The songs played were the following:

Deuce

Strutter

Got To Choose

Hotter Than Hell

Nothing To Lose

C’Mon And Love Me

Parasite

She

100,000 years

Cold Gin

Let Me Go Rock N Roll

Black Diamond

Rock N Roll All Nite

Shout It Out Loud

Lick It Up

Love It Loud

I Was Made For Loving You

Love Gun

Detroit Rock City

Ace's Smoke Guitar

Ever wondered how Ace's smoke guitar works? Here are two really cool photos I took at last week's Sweden Rock Festival shortly before Ace's set started. In the photos you can see Ace Frehley's guitar tech preparing the smoke guitar. He is carefully putting the smoke machine into the body of the guitar.

New Issue Of Kiss Kollector

A new issue of the absolutely best Kiss fanzine has recently been released. Kiss Kollector's spring issue is now available. Check out the cover here. Go to http://www.kisskollector.com/ for more details. It's definately worth subscribing to!

Ace at Sweden Rock Festival

This is the door to Ace Frehley's dressing room at Sweden Rock Festival last week.

Kiss In Mannheim

Yesterday (June 10th) Kiss played at the SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany.
The setlist looks like this:

Deuce
Strutter
Got To Choose
Hotter Than Hell
Nothin' To Lose
C'Mon And Love Me
Parasite
She
100,000 Years
Cold Gin
Let Me Go Rock 'N' Roll
Black Diamond
Rock And Roll All Nite
Shout It Out Loud
Lick It Up
I Love It Loud
I Was Made For Lovin' You
Love Gun
Detroit Rock City

The Drum Kit

Here is a photo I took of the drum kit used by Ace Frehley's drummer at the Sweden Rock Festival.

Kiss On The Cover Of Italian Rock Hard

This is the cover of the new issue of the Italian Rock Hard Magazine.

Ace's Set List At Sweden Rock Festival

Here is a photo I took of the set list at Ace's monitor. An interesting detail is that both Hard Times and the Medley are included in the list but these songs were never played during the show (thanks to Paralyzed at the Kissarmysweden forum for pointing this out).

KISS World Record Attempt at Download Festival

This weekened the Download Festival is taking place in England. They will make a world record attempt for the most people made-up as Kiss. They have issued the following statement:

ARE YOU DEMON, STAR CHILD, CAT OR SPACEMAN?09.06.2008
Join us for our World Record attempt for the Most People Made Up As KISS - taking place at Download on Friday! - Only you can help make it happen...We have joined forces with FACE, the official body of face-painters who are providing at least of 20 professional face-painters in order to achieve our goal! - We hope to be able to set a record for over 400 faces painted within 3 hours. Face painting by our accredited painters is FREE, please don't do your own make up - remember - in order to break the record, we can only accept faces painted by FACE members. Expert face paint makers, Mehron, are very kindly sponsoring the attempt by providing all the necessary paint...The attempt will take place on Friday 13 June with face painting starting at 13:00 and finishing at 16:00. - The face painters stations will be based in and on the edge of ‘Kidney Wood' which is the kidney shaped green area close to the day ticket entrance in the Main Arena.The stations will be split into four sections concentrating on each of the faces – The Demon, Star Child, The Cat and The Spaceman.Once you've had your face painted, you'll given details of where to congregate to be part of our mass KISS award-winning photograph!

Ace's guitars

Here are two exclusive photos of Ace's guitars before the show at Sweden Rock Festival last Friday.

Statement from Paul Stanley

After the discussions and rumours about Kiss planning to replace themselves with new musicians chosen from a TV reality show (the same way as American Idol) Paul Stanley has now issued the following statement:

A KISS clone reality show? First of all, contrary to what was said by anyone, there is no signed deal. Secondly, if we were to do a "KISS II", and I don't rule that out, it would be in addition to, and never in place of KISS. If we were to do it, I know it would be done in a ground breaking way and would be tremendously entertaining. KISS has always defined itself by the rules we break, so what's the big surprise? We are in the middle of our biggest and most successful tour of Europe ever, playing to over a half million people, and neither KISS or I have any plans to stop afterwards!

Ace Frehley at Sweden Rock Festival

I have just returned from Sweden Rock Festival in Sölvesborg (southern Sweden) where Ace Frehley did an amazing show last Friday!

During the next couple of days I will post some really cool exclusive photos that I took backstage. Be prepared for close-ups of Ace's guitars etc.

Ace played the following songs during the show:

RIP IT OUT
PARASITE
SNOW BLIND (incl I Want You)
ROCK SOLDIERS
BREAK OUT
INTO THE VOID
STRANGE WAYS
SHOUT IT OUT LOUD
NEW YORK GROOVE
2000 MAN
SHOCK ME
ROCKET RIDE
DEUCE
LOVE GUN
COLD GIN

When Ace introduced Breakout he dedicated the song to Eric Carr. To me the highlights of the show were Rocket Ride and New York Groove. Absolutely amazing!

I took this photo from the side of the stage during the show.

Come back to kissonfire.blogspot.com during the next couple of days and I will guarantee you some really cool photos you never seen before.

Confetti canon in Hamburg

Some nice video footage from last night's show in Hamburg featuring "Rock And Roll All Nite" with the confetti canon can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHf3juR6ROo

Ace Frehley in today's Expressen

Ace Frehley is interviewed in today's edition of the Swedish newspaper Expressen. He will play on Friday on Sweden Rock Festival. Ace says in the interview that he won't play any new songs. The new solo album will according to Ace be released during the summer. He promises to use the smoking guitar plus some totally new special effect.

The entire interview (in Swedish) can be found here:

http://www.expressen.se/noje/musik/1.1186263/ace-frehley-lovar-kiss-latar-och-rykande-gitarrer

Meet & Greet in Oslo

Video footage from the meet & greet in Oslo (May 31st) can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv6d5vB1y6g

Kiss in Copenhagen

Yesterday's show (June 3rd) at Forum in Copenhagen was almost sold out, but not completely. 9000 fans came to the show.

The set list was the following:

1. Deuce

2. Strutter

3. Got to Choose

4. Hotter Than Hell

5. Nothin’ to Lose

6. C’mon and Love Me

7. Parasite

8. She

9. 100,000 Years

10. Cold Gin

11. Let Me Go Rock ’N’ Roll

12. Black Diamond

13. Rock and Roll All Nite

Encores:

14. Shout it Out Loud

15. Lick it Up

16. I Love it Loud

17. I Was Made For Lovin’ You

18. Love Gun

19. Detroit Rock City

Give-away CD with re-recorded material

Rumour has it that the English daily newspaper The Mail will give away a CD with newly re-recoreded Kiss songs. This is supposed to happen on the weekend of June 13-15, i.e. the weekend of the Download Festival where Kiss are headlining one of the days.
It has previously been mentioned that Kiss have re-recorded some songs since the band then would have the copyright themselves without any record labels involved.

Kiss in Bergen

Some really cool footage from the Kiss show in Bergen (Norway) can be found here:

http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/distrikt/hordaland/verdi/59117

There was no support band on this show and Paul did not fly to the mixing position.

Video footage from Tommy's and Eric's signing session

The Swedish newspaper Expressen has posted the following video report from Eric's and Tommy's signing session at a Stockholm guitar store:

http://www.expressen.se/webb-tv/index.html?serialid=10467

Package deal on the KISS wine

Kissonline will do a package deal on the KISS wines.

Order now and receive a bottle of KISS Cabernet Sauvignon and a bottle of KISS Chardonnay for only $39 for both from the paper label collection. This is a $21 savings from our current price.

More details can be found here:

http://www.celebritycellars.com/index.php?cPath=23&utm_source=Publicaster&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EML-KIS-0602-Fathers_Day_CelebrityCellars_campaign

US dates confirmed

Some US dates have now been confirmed. The dates are the following:

August 4th - Sturgis, South Dakota
August 30th - Lake Tahoe, Nevada
August 31st - Kelseyville, Kalifornien

More dates will most likely be confirmed soon!

Reviews from the Stockholm show

The Swedish newspapers gave the Kiss show at Stockholm Stadion medium-good reviews.

Aftonbladet gave the show 3 out of 5. http://www.aftonbladet.se/nojesliv/article2581917.ab

Expressen gave the show 2 out of 5. http://www.expressen.se/noje/1.1181840/raddades-av-gene

Göteborgs-Posten gave the show 3 out of 5.

http://mobil.gp.se/gp/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=870&a=424117

Some more photos from the show at Stockholm Stadion May 30th.

Some photos from last Friday's KISS show at Stockholm Stadion.