Kiss Convention – Oslo 1995Ace Frehley interview
– on the stage at the norwegian Kiss convention in Oslo – Rockefeller Music Hall the 13th of June 1995.
ACE: Good afternoon!!
Interviewer: Hello Ace! And welcome to Norway and the Norwegian Kiss convention.
ACE: Thank you. its a pleasure to be here. Continue reading
Sean Delaneys Hell Box
By: Bryan Kinnaird
Published 2005, 118 pages
The book about the man who together with Bill Aucoin discovered Kiss. The man who had a big part in shaping the band into the super-group they became. Sean was their first road manager, who loved them and was willing to sacrifice everything for them. This is a book that most fans had looked forward to since Sean first talked about It in 1995. Unfortunately Sean died in 2003 before the book was finished. So Bryan Kinnaird had to finish it after Sean’s death.
It’s a fairly short book with It’s 118 pages. But It’s 118 pages that are worth reading. Maybe not so much because of the Kiss stuff. But the book really paints a good picture of what kind of person Sean was. The first part of the book tells about Sean’s life before he met Bill Aucoin. Homophobes probably will have a problem with the content, but I found It very interesting. Bill seems to be the big love in Sean’s life, a love he was willing to sacrifice everything for. But who let down Sean after ten years, because of a situation were Sean just had tried to help Bill out.
If you have read some interviews with Sean It’ easy to get the impression that he is a real big mouth, who takes a lot of credit for Kiss making it. But in the book he really seems quite objective. He gives the band members most of the credit for the success themselves. He just tries to show how he polished the band into becoming a super-group instead og just another great band. Continue reading
Kiss Alive Forever: The Complete Touring History
By: Curt Gooch and Jeff Suhs
Published: September 1, 2002 – 288 pages
Is there a thing as a Bible for Kiss fans? Yes there is and It’s called “Kiss Alive Forever”
This is the holy grail of Kiss books. Listing every tour date 1973 to 2001. I must admit that I didn’t expect much from this book when I first heard about it. The concept of a book with a complete listing over all Kiss concerts over the years sounds quite nerdy and boring really. But Curt and Jeff have made the book like a magical tour trough “Kisstory”.
The mixing of listings of tour dates, short stories and great pictures has made this book just magical. The autors have managed to track down a lot of important who have worked with and known Kiss over the years. And their comments and the autors details about each tour and show really makes this book come alive. The pictures troughout the book are also great. Even if one can see that they probably didn’t have the largest budget to use on pictures, the pictures fits the book and illustrates the text perfectly.
For Kiss bootleg collectors the book is also great reference book. I know a lot of collectors who are on their second or third copy. I have used the book almost daily for nearly ten years myself. Continue reading
Kiss Army Worldwide!: The Ultimate Fanzine Phenomenon
By: Ken Sharp, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley
Published: October 1, 2009 – 240 pages
This is probably the Kiss book that have surprised me most through the years. I must admit that my expectations was quite low when I heard that Kiss with the help of Ken Sharp were supposed to publish a book about the Kiss fanzine phenomenon.
Not that some of the “official” books haven’t been good. But my thoughts easily went to Kissology II who was the only other reference book that Kiss had released before. But I should have known better. At usual when Ken Sharp is involved with something Kiss related the result is good or close to great.
I must admit that I was expecting a bunch of re-printed fanzine covers and excerpts from the fanzines, but Ken Sharp know what Kiss fan wants. What we got was a great book with cool articles about each fanzine and a lot of great pictures of the band. There are lots of photos that I’ve never seen published before from the early years through June of 2009. So the book is worth the price alone just for the pictures.
The fact that Gene & Paul were involved would often be a negative thing, but in this case it gives the book a stamp of legitimacy, and does not distract from the book at all. The comments they have provided are probably some of the most touching stuff I have read from them. So It’s clear that the fanzines have meant a lot for them during their career. Continue reading
Sea
led with a Kiss
By: Lydia Criss
Published: October 31, 2006 – 368 pages
Some books you just love from the first time you lay your eyes on them. And “Sealed With A Kiss” is one of them. I only buy two copies of a few books that I’m sure I will destroy one copy of because I read them til they fall apart. “Sealed With a Kiss” is one of them.
The first rumours of this book started i the 90′s when Robert Conte was supposed to release the book of Peter Criss ex-wife Lydia Criss about her life. It was one of the books I was really looking forward to seeing. A tale of an insider in the Kiss camp at the beginning. And one who also took a lot of pictures. I already had the pictures she had sold since the early 90′s and the great poster from Bleeker Street Loft in 1973.
As the years went and no more information about the book came I almost gave up on it. Until the news that Lydia would publish it herself surfaced on the net about a year before the book came out. She was also featured in Kiss Kollector and on the Backstage Auctions site at the same time. Backstage Auctions sold a lot of the Kiss/Peter related stuff for her that she had used in her book. Continue reading
I just thought I would write a little about why I put up this blog. Some of you know me as the webmaster for Kiss Army Norway since 2004. And I am still the webmaster for Kiss Army Norway. I still and will always probably think my main task on the web is giving the Norwegian Kiss fans a community.
But thats also the reason to put up this site. Kiss Army Norway is a closed site for members in norwegian. And a lot of the stuff I have made before are reviews and refrence articles written in english that I would like to share with the whole Kiss world (at least those who are interested). So the stuff that does end up here is the content I don’t think fits into the framework of the Kiss Army Norway site. There are also articles in norwegian, so if your just interested in articles in English just go to the category for English articles.
Any comments on the articles, and especially about the book reviews would be really cool.