Mambo Kurt, the German organ player who has covered many international hits over the years, was interviewed recently for the March issue of Holland’s Live XS magazine to talk about his favorite party hits. His number one is KISS’ I Was Made For Lovin’ You. Says Mambo Kurt: “This is really Holland’s unofficial national anthem, eventhough it’s in English!” Other favourites of his include Slayer’s Reign In Blood and Depeche Mode’s Just Can’t Get Enough. His own version of I Was Made For Lovin’ You – as featured on his 2000 album Back In Beige – The Return Of Alleinunterhalter Vol. II – can be heard here in MP3 format.
KISS Forever Band to play Holland again
On their 2006 World Tour, Hungarian tribute band KISS Forever Band will once again play Holland. This time they’ve scheduled no less than five shows in Holland. The band is wearing new outfits, made in the USA (in Texas), and now portray KISS’ Destroyer era. In the meantime, this great tribute band has played more than 200 shows in the past 10 years, since they formed in ’95. Their new tour also sees them playing in Russia (see
image of concert poster below), where KISS or any other KISS tribute band has never played so far. After the European tour, they’ll head for Canada where they’ll be touring for three weeks in July.
May tourdates in Holland
May 5, Monsters Of Rocco‘s Fest in Geleen
May 6, Total Music in Schiedam
May 18, De Abdij in Brielle
May 19, Manifesto in Hoorn
May 20, BorstRock Fest in Nieuw Vossemeer
New Marislym EP includes KISS cover
Marislym‘s new EP, which was released in Sweden last year, should be available in Holland too this week. It’s a 6-track EP, featuring two covers, one being Turbonegro’s No Beast So Fierce and the other one being KISS’ C’mon And Love Me. The EP comes along with a 7 track bonus EP, titled Live N’ Loaded, consisting of live tracks (which they already released as an album in 2002). Marislym’s KISS cover previously ended up on the Independent Music For Independent People – Vol. 10 compilation album. This sampler from Sound Pollution Distribution in 2003 featured artwork inspired by KISS’ 1974 Hotter Than Hell album (see above image).
Marislym’s of C’mon And Love Me also ended up on the split vinyl single KISS This, which featured Adam West’s cover of I Stole Your Love on the other side – the artwork featured alternate version of KISS’ Destroyer album cover (see image below). And Marislym also covered Comin’ Home on the 2003 Creatures Of The Night KISS tribute album. Not too surprisingly, the band has been described as “a snotty mix of early KISS, New York Dolls and various punk rock with some heavy AC/DC-riffing”.
More news on Christine 16 tribute project
The Christine 16 tribute album that was scheduled for an April release is now expected be available next month. As we reported early last month, the “High-School Tribute To KISS” will be released in a limited edition of 500 copies. Recently, an extra track has been added to the album – being an exclusive interview with former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick. The final mixes have been made, and the album is now scheduled for late March.
More details on KISS Expo Belgium
As promised on February 5, here are some more details on this summer’s first ever KISS Expo Belgium, featuring special guest Bill Aucoin and a big show by Belgian tribute band KISStory. Tickets (only 10 euro during pre-sale or 12 euro at the doors on June 3) can be ordered via the KISStory website by clicking here.
As stated before, international KISS dealers will offer you the best in vintage and new KISS merchandise, local band Dirty City will perform KISS classics their own way, Bill Aucoin will do a Question & Answer session, pose for photos and sign autographs, and KISStory will end the festivities with a big show. Keep checking back here on KISS Kollector Online for info and more news on KISS Expo Belgium, to take place on June 3 at CC Het Spoor in Harelbeke, Belgium – the exact same venue where KISS ended their very first European Tour in 1976.
KISS and Bill Aucoin on Norwegian TV
As we quickly mentioned yesterday, there will be a special on bands wearing make up/masks on Norwegian TV on March 1, in the Lydverket show on NRK1. We have more info on that 30 minute special now. KISS will be on the show too, along with acts such as Alice Cooper, Mortiis and Slipknot. Apart from short KISS videoclips, former KISS manager Bill Aucoin will be on the show talking about KISS. The interview with Bill was taped when he appeared at the Stockholm KISS Expo in Sweden in 2004. The weekly show airs at 23:10 hours.
Gene Simmons' NGTV cable channel to go public
According to an article titled “KISS his network” on the “rumor mill” section on the Hits Daily Double website, Gene Simmons is looking to launch his NGTV cable television channel with an IPO (Initial Public Offering, which is defined as the sale of equity in a company – usually in the form of shares of common stock through an investment banking firm). As Chairman of the Board of his No Good TV, Gene along with the Boca Raton, FL, investment firm of Capital Growth Financial filed papers with the SEC two weeks ago to take the company public.
Late December we already mentioned that Gene’s television network is supposed to go on air this summer. Apparantly, Gene’s cable channel will be featuring uncensored footage of celebrities. According to the filing, NGTV will produce raunchy programming for pay TV, featuring more than 150 celebrities from which the company claims to have previously unseen footage. If the initial $6-per-share offering on the American Stock Exchange sells out, it will raise an estimated $125.6 million.
Eric Singer as busy as ever
Eric Singer, who just came off a tour with Alice Cooper (see photo) in Germany as very special guest of Deep Purple, is featured on the poster in the February issue of Drummer magazine in England. Eric Singer will be in Japan within a few days with ESP for the February 25/26 KISS Expo’s, and the performances might be recorded for a new ESP CD. Eric updated his site yesterday with news on how the Purple/Cooper tour went over and how honored he was to share the stage with Deep Purple’s legendary drummer Ian Paice. According to Eric, rumor has it there will be more Deep Purple/Alice Cooper dates this summer.
Interestingly enough, several Alice Cooper concerts for later in the year have already been announced, whereas so far there are only two KISS shows scheduled for 2006. One of which being July 22, the same day as one of the Cooper shows – so it will be interesting to see once again on which drumstool Eric will end up that day. Alice Cooper concerts that have already been announced for this year include 11 shows during the month May, plus some dates in June (including a June 3 appearance at the Monsters Of Rock festival in England) and July (including a July 22 show in Canada – the same day KISS is scheduled to play at RockFest 2006 in the USA). In other slightly KISS/Cooper related news, former KISS manager Bill Aucoin and Alice Cooper will appear on the Norwegain TV show Lydverket on March 1 in a special on bands wearing make up/masks.
Three new Peter Criss songs released on CD
A while ago, a handful of songs co-written by original/former KISS drummer Peter Criss were published by Athletic Cowboy Music and released on the debut album by One Of A Kind, the band formed by former Criss bassist Mark Montague. The tracks Golden Arm and The Shooter are listed as co-writes by Peter. However, a third song, U Gotta Know is only credited to Montague in the CD booklet whereas the ASCAP registration also lists Peter as a writer of the song that also has been published by Peter Criss Publishing – just like the other two songs credited as being Peter Criss co-writes.
Along with 10 other songs, these tracks appear on the selftitled One Of A Kind album, released on Azimuth Records in October of last year. In the booklet, Peter and Gigi Criss are amongst the many people thanked by the band, and Peter’s website is also being listed, by the way. One Of A Kind’s history goes back to 2004, when Mark Montague’s new band hit the metal scene and completed by drummer Ryan Brown and another former Criss member, guitarist Mike McLaughlin, he recorded the first album. The trio was helped out in the studio by a handful of other musicians, including KISS drumroadie Ed Kanon and Eddie Rogers who replaced Peter in Criss when Peter reunited with KISS (Criss then went on under the name Skoff). Montague of course co-wrote most songs on the 1993 Criss EP as well as the band’s full length debut album Cat #1 as released in 1994. (The photo below shows the 1994 Criss line up, consisting of f-l-t-r: Peter Criss, Mike Stone, Mark Montague and Mike McLaughlin.)
The song The Shooter (lyrics by Peter and Montague/music by Montague) happens to be an old Criss tune that they played during their live performances in 1995. Golden Arm is a co-write between Peter, Montague and Barbara Degennaro, while Montague wrote the music. The album’s opening track, One Of A Kind, probably also was born in 1995 during the final Criss days, as it’s a co-write between that year’s Criss members Montague and Jason Ebs (lyrics) as well as Montague and Mike McLaughlin (music). For more info on the One Of A Kind album, please check out KISS Related Recordings. A full review of the CD will appear in the next issue of KISS Kollector magazine.
And talking about Mike ‘Angel’ McLaughlin, the former Criss lead guitarist co-wrote most of the 11 songs Peter had published in his name last year, as we already reported on November 16 (only the song Doesn’t Get Better (Than This) also lists Charles Kipps as another writer – whereas more recently the song Space Ace, which Peter co-wrote with Montague, was also administered in the ASCAP database). Administered by Peter Criss Publishing, these songs all have Peter listed as being the performer. So, it’s likely (some of) these songs will end up on Peter’s longawaited solo album(s).
Final day of R & R Fantasy Camp with Bruce Kulick
This year’s Rock And Roll Fantasy Camp in Hollywood, California, is about to be wrapped up. Taking place from February 16-20, today is the last day of the camp, where former KISS guitarist Bruce Kulick once again is one of the counsellors. Pictured above is Bruce with Journey’s Neil Schon, taking a break two days ago at the Archie Ice Cream truck, while the photo below shows Bruce playing a toy guitar in Archie’s Ice Cream truck.
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