Kissteria: "Press Darlings" part 2

We continue with more clippings from papers and magazines from the time.


I think this was the first time I heard the expression "Kissteria". Not sure which magazine this is from, likely TV Week, circa August 1980.

Here is a (less than perfect!) pinup from Australian Women's Weekly - Sept 10, 1980. This was promoted at the time as revealing KISS' new drummer Eric Carr.
I'm pretty sure this was not an exclusive, but I think it may be the earliest image I had seen of Eric at the time. I'm assuming the image comes from Carr's debut at the Palladium in NYC.

Just check out the prices! Not sure if you can still buy Iron On Transfers, but at the time there were quite a few KISS ones available.

Here is the earliest B&W KISS Army notice board listing from TV Week that I have.And the reason the enlisting form is missing is because this is the one I used to join. For a measly $7.50 a year!

A tour report from Australian Women's Weekly - Oct 1, 1980.Great image too (second page is missing sorry).

KISS Army notice board listing from TV Week. Oct 25, 1980.

A snippet from the Ansett Airline (now defunct) inflight magazine. Circa Oct/Nov 1980.

Ah...Norman! Australian satirical comedian Garry MacDonald's character "Norman Gunston" aware of KISS' impending tour and the hysteria the band was creating, released a single "(I'm Marching in the) Kiss Army" sung to a tune not dissimilar to "I Was Made For Loving You". Norman also appeared at the Sydney press conference asking a number of questions (some confusing...some controversial...KISS gave as good as they got!). Below is a (wrinkled) image from the press conference. In Norman's hand is a stamp and pad so he could quickly give KISS his autograph!!!
"Let's face it...it was a pretty smart move...you guys touring Australia just as I had my record out!" Norman Gunston.

Said record. The B-Side was called 'Normdrum' a very funny parody of 'Humdrum', the chat/review part of "Countdown" presented by Molly Meldrum. KISS fans would know him from KISSOLOGY II.

Not sure what magazine this was from, but the rider makes for interesting reading. Circa Oct/Nov 1980.

Not all Australian media had a positive response to KISS' tour. This is from The Post magazine, circa Nov 1980.

Here is a bit of snotty journalism from one John Hindle of the Melbourne Age (I believe) paper in his regular article "It's All Too Much". Late November 1980.

This the first page of the "KISS Souvenir In The Land of Oz 1980" from November 8, 1980. I have a few others bits and pieces from this, but most haven't survived.

Another surviving page from "KISS Souvenir In The Land of Oz 1980" from November 8, 1980.

A brief Kisstory lesson from New Idea magazine; Nov 15, 1980

These are images of my ticket stub (front and back). This was my first KISS concert and the first big show I attended period. I was 9 years old and one of 45,000 people (their largest crowd up to that point). That's jumping in the deep end. It was a very hot day (42 degrees!) and a good time was had by all. Support band was The Eyes (don't remember them being that impressive). I'm pretty sure Gene is incorrect when he said The Eyes opened for them in South America 1983, unless there was another band with the same name in Rio. Tickets for the Aussie Tour were $13.50!!!! If you click on the thumbnail you'll see the approximate size of these larger than average tickets.

Here is a collage of images from a Melbourne paper, the day after the show in Melbourne.


Here are some great images. I can't lay claim to these. A very good friend of mine gave me these about 10 years ago when he worked in a record shop. He didn't take these either but was living in Sydney at the time and attended both shows. The following images are from night 1(Nov 21, 1980). My friend doesn't know who took them, if anyone does, please let me know and I'll be happy to credit them.





And to finish up, an early example the Eric Carr's generosity to KISS' fans. It speaks for itself.

KISSteria - (1979 - 1981 era) Part 1: "Press Darlings"

It's difficult to ascertain when one 'becomes a fan'. I have my cousins to thank for introducing me to KISS as they were all fans. And most school holidays I would visit and stay with them. So I calculate that I first become aware of the band around mid-1978, which as I write this, is approximately 30 years ago!!! It could have been 'Rock and Roll All Nite', but it is more likely that 'Shout It Out Loud' was the first song I heard. Either way I was captured by a band who were pretty unique at the time.

As 1978 bled into 1979 it seemed there were changes afoot. Solo albums emerged (my middle-aged Aunt really liked Gene's rendition of 'When You Wish Upon a Star') and a change in sound was about to occur, but as a young (8 years old) new fan, these were part and parcel of the whole KISS experience. I suppose I hadn't been a fan long enough to realise there was a 'formula' that was being broken. But my fandom was soon to pick up into obsession.

The period between mid 1979 to early 1981 were a great time to be a KISS fan in Australia. KISSteria was in full flight. As rumors about an upcoming tour and a change in personnel became fact, the Australian media became saturated with images, articles and information about KISS. Of course this was many years before the web and all info was via magazines, newspapers, TV and Radio news and often word of mouth. And not only were these often less instantaneous mediums than the web, Australia was a long way away from the source, so it sometimes felt like news was often behind. Perhaps this is what prompted me to collect as much newspaper and magazine clippings as I could at the time. Not all of it I have anymore, it's been lost, stolen or simply disintegrated over the past 28 + years.
So please excuse some of the wear and tear on some of this material. Hopefully it will still give you a sense of what it was like at the time, the hysteria prior to the first Aussie tour, the tour reports and the aftermath. Perhaps you'll be seeing some of this stuff for the first time.

I plan to add to this when I get the chance, I'll add non-Australian elements and some merchandise of the time where appropriate. I also plan on doing a little section covering all the "Elder" period clippings I have, (mostly non-Australian).

Hope you enjoy it.



Admittedly this is from a magazine I found much later at a thrift store. I didn't own this mag back in the day...hence the good condition. It is from a Australian mag called BUZZ and is from early 1978!




Back in the day, if you wanted to know the latest pop chart positions locally, you could pick these A5 sheets up from your local record bar. This is from my local AM radio station in April 1979. See what's underlined! Also interestingly, higher in the chart...a future replacement in a session capacity...small world huh? Now that's nerdy!




One of the earliest confirmations of an upcoming Australian tour. A Tasmanian insert for the Australian TV Week magazine. June 28, 1980. Sorry about the condition of this item.


And the second article from the same issue of TV Week, this time more specially about Peter's departure.




An article about the recording of "Unmasked" in the Australian Women's Weekly (yes even in that mag our boys were featured). This is circa July 1980. Sorry bits of it are missing, but some great pics anyway.




At some point, Aucoin management, the Australian chapter of the KISS ARMY and TV Week magazine made a deal! In the months leading up to the Australian tour, TV Week became the 'notice board' for the KISS Army. This is an announcement for this, circa July/August 1980.




Here's a nice one. This is the first report for the KISS ARMY that appeared in TV Week, August 9 1980. To my knowledge this was the only one in colour and I'm not sure if they did any more profiles. I'm happy to be corrected on this. Most of the other reports I have have a generic B&W layout.



Okay that's it for now...but there is much more to come. I'll try and do this chronologically, but I thought I'd leave you with a very cool item. It's a bit rough round the edges, but still nice. 'The Truth' paper was (may still is) a dodgy 'page 3 girl' kind of paper. But this particular weekend edition had a different kind of pinup altogether. It's Mr Simmons in all his glory. It is a full newspaper page size drawing/painting, based on one of the Solo album promo photo sessions. Not sure if they continued this with all the band members each week, but as my Dad was a regular 'reader', I'm sure I would have seen more so I don't think so...but again I'm happy to be corrected. Enjoy!