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!