It's beginning to look a lot like Kissmas...

On December 25th, 1982 I got a Christmas present that would wind up having for the rest of my life.

It wasn’t the 1/16 scale talking Knight Rider K.I.T.T. complete with David Hasselhoff action figure that my mom & dad waited outside Child World in a snow storm to get.


It wasn’t the Tyco electric slot-car track with the cars that had bodies that would pop up when you went fast down the straight aways! That race track died an untimely death when Collie & Sunshine my mom and dads dogs started fighting in the living room basically ON the track.


It wasn’t the G.I. Joe ‘Headquarters Command Center’, which I was devastated about when Santa didn’t bring it. My Godmother however saved Christmas that year when she showed up with it sometime after dinner.


It wasn’t the Aeros-Ace BMX bike that I loved even though no one has ever heard of that company. I was convinced that it was some super high-end west coast BMX company and I was the only kid in New England with one! (I wish I still had that bike!)

*PHOTO NOT AVAILABLE

Nope… it wasn’t any of those things… so what was it you ask? Well let’s just say that even though I was 8 years old in1982 it was my first Kissmas! I don’t really remember any of the other gifts I got that year because the stand out gift was so good. I opened a brand new pristine copy of Kiss Alive II (probably the greatest live record of all time). Not only is it a double LP with a gatefold sleeve featuring a 12x24 photo of the band live on stage complete with smoke, fire and the drum riser towering high over the audience, but there is more to this LP. Kiss were the original masters of merchandising starting in the mid 70’s and continue to be today. So also included with this record was an 8 page 12x12 picture book showing Kiss from their inception in 1973 up to the release of the LP in 1977. There was also an order form with pictures of other Kiss merchandise you could order. This was many years before we would see images of The Demon and The Starchild on coffins & condoms, but you could order some T-shirts, the now classic silver sparkle Kiss logo belt buckle and the Kiss AM/FM transistor radio, which I always wanted (and still do), but was never able to get my dad to order for me. The last thing included was the like the holy grail to any 8 year old budding metal head… Kiss temporary tattoos! It was a small sheet with a bunch of tattoos like the Kiss Army logo, portraits of Gene, Paul, Ace & Peter, a star, a rose and 11 others. These were the kind of tattoos that you had to cut out the one you wanted to use and press it onto a pre-moistened spot on your body, let it dry and then pull it off so you could proudly display your Kiss pride until the next time that you mom made you take a bath.


Somehow 8 year old me saw the future that day. I resisted using those tattoos and can tell you that they are still housed in that same LP along with the book and merchandise order form and the whole package is resting comfortably amidst the rest of my Kiss records which complies the entire discography from the debut LP up to 1989’s Hot in the Shade (including the solo records, The Elder, Killers & both covers for Creatures of the Night). Each LP is sealed in a clear plastic protective sleeve and they are all complete with every merchandise order form, sticker, poster or any other swag that they originally came packaged with.

Ok…. So I have told you about the glorious gatefold sleeve and all the amazing free gifts that were factory packed in with those 2 classic slabs of black vinyl. What I haven’t told you yet is that there was something extra slid into that record sleeve. Two things actually.

Carefully slid into that gatefold through a small slit in the shrink wrap were 2 tickets for me and my dad to go see ‘The Hottest Band In The World’ at the Worcester Centrum on January 22nd, 1983!

I don’t remember my exact reaction, but I’m sure there was slight confusion with these most likely being the first concert tickets I had ever seen. Once the confusion subsided there was probably a gasp of some kind and then an overload of excitement.

I do remember it seeming like I was waiting months for the concert date to arrive when in reality it was only 28 days. I have a memory of lying in my bed with the lights off and waving a flashlight around shining it on the ceiling thinking that I was doing some sort of training for the spectacular light show I knew Kiss would have, but that’s about all. I don’t remember anything else that happened before the day of the show.

The fact that this was 27 years ago means that the memories have faded to some extent, but there are a few things that I can still picture like it happened yesterday.

1 - Standing outside the Worcester Centrum with my dad inline waiting to get in. I remember feeling even smaller than I actually was with the legions of denim clad, face painted heshers standing in front and behind me. I remember it was cold out and that the air smelled funny. The smell was something that I wouldn’t encounter again until I saw Alice Cooper at the Providence Civic Center in 1987 and then again the first time I saw Jimmy G. from Murphy’s Law singing ‘Who’s got the bong’?

2 – The opening band who for years I remembered as being Def Leppard, actually turned out to be Night Ranger. I don’t remember if they played ‘Sister Christian’ although I assume they did, but I do remember a rockin’ song called ‘Don’t Tell Me You Love Me’. It took me some years to find that song again, but once I did it made it on to my ‘favorite rock songs of all time’ list.

3 – Paul Stanley’s introductions to ‘Firehouse’, ‘Cold Gin’ and ‘Ladies Room’. I’m sure I remember these because they were near identical to the ones on the Alive II record, except I was there to see them live and in person. I also remember Paul wearing the Kiss fire hat. I don’t know if it was the one that says “Humper Captain” or the one that says “Kiss Engine 3”, but I clearly remember the fire hat along with the sirens and red lights reflecting off the smoke.

4 – I’m not sure exactly what tour this was, but the line up was Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Eric Carr all in full costume & make-up. I assume it was around the ‘Creatures of the Night’ album, but I’m not sure. I do clearly remember that the stage was a giant tank. The sides of the stage had big treads and the drums were on a huge riser that was shaped like the turret of the tank with a bunch of extra pipes that expelled smoke and sparks at different points in the show. During the drum solo the entire drum riser moved forward so that the turret was hanging out over the first 15 rows of seats. At the climactic ending of Eric’s seemingly endless drum solo the pipes bellowed smoke and the turret launched a huge explosion of smoke and confetti covering the floor of the arena!

5 – The most vivid memory I have of the concert is the bass solo. The one and only Gene Simmons standing on the huge tank stage all alone. The entire room dark except for a single red spotlight beaming down on him like a beacon from hell! A huge distorted rumble filled the air, followed by complete silence. Then another rumble and more silence. The rumbles started coming faster and faster and the silence began to be filled with screams & cheers. Suddenly the rumbles were almost constant with no silence and the cheering was louder as I intently watched, eyes glued on The Demon, not even daring to blink and then there it was… A massive flow of blood coming out of Genes mouth, staining the ‘Steins clown white’ make up that was already beginning to melt off his face, splashing his chest armor and then across the strings of the mammoth sized axe shaped bass guitar he wore more like a warrior then a musician. Then as fast as it had started, it was over and the stage went completely black.

As if I wasn’t already, after the concert I was hooked and I made it my mission to spread the word about Kiss to all the kids at the, ironically a catholic, grammar school I was attending. I would bring the ticket stub from the concert to school with me and would wear my ¾ length sleeve Kiss 1983 tour shirt to gym class at least once a week. Unfortunately for some of the kids, but fortunately for me it was around this time that a big rumor spread that Kiss were Satanists and that K.I.S.S. was actually an acronym that stood for Knights In Satan’s Service. As far as I was concerned, that just made them even cooler, but most parents didn’t agree with my opinion (luckily mine didn’t seem to care if they were Satanists or not). So when the kids at school were forced by their parents to get rid of their Kiss records and T-shirts they gave them to me! One of my friends that was forced to forfeit all his Kiss records actually started collecting Abba records at the suggestion of his mom…. Yuck! So many years later it’s thanks to that rumor, that I have doubles and triples of some of the early Kiss records!

My obsession with Kiss may have faded a little over time, I mean how can they expect me to show the same dedication when they have 2 different guys dressed as Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. Let me say for the record that there is only one Catman and there is most definitely only one SpaceAce! That being said, I do still sing along proudly to all my favorites and Kiss Alive II will always hold a special place in my heart and it’s partly in thanks to Kiss that I wanted to learn to play an instrument and I picked bass guitar because Gene was so cool.

So thank you Mr. Gene Simmons for over-merchandising your band of uber-rockstar cartoon character! Thank you for Kiss Mr. Potatohead, Kiss hotwheels cars and Kiss action figures. I thank you for Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park (Ack!) and I even thank you for The Elder…. Thank you.