When you go to a Kiss gig, before the lights come up, you’re met with one of the most booming introductions that resonate across music. “Ladies and gentlemen, you wanted the best, you got the best, the hottest band in the world… KISS!” They don’t mess around with flaunting their brilliance, and can you really be surprised that a band who use that as an introduction are a little big-headed?
Kiss are dealt an unfair hand in my humble opinion. I say this as a fan, as one of the punters who was inside the stadium, they were playing as that introduction bled through the speakers, my face painted like Paul Stanley and my Dad’s as Gene Simmons. They are often pushed aside as a gimmick; people see the face paint and the pyrotechnics and assume that Kiss are selling set design before they are selling good music.
The words of John Lydon are echoed across music. “There’s a lot [of artists] that are selling you an image that’s false, deliberately fake, and deliberately commercial,” he said, “I’ve met the Kiss lads. They’re all right. You know, [but] without the makeup, there ain’t much going on.”
A lot of people seem to share this opinion, but I have to disagree. Kiss has definitely been able to use the makeup to their advantage, as it makes them recognisable and marketable; however, the suggestion that it’s the only thing which contributed towards their success seems harsh.
The band initially decided to don the make-up because they didn’t think there was much individuality in music when they first started out in the industry. Simmons referred to bands from the ‘60s and said that nobody from the Rolling Stones could be in The Beatles and vice versa. When they put on the makeup, they were creating a band that couldn’t be mistaken for anybody else.
Their intentions with the makeup were honest, and even with it and the pyrotechnics, they still had to make music that appealed to people. If their writing hadn’t been up to scratch, then people wouldn’t have listened, no matter how pretty the set design looked. They have always put exciting songwriting and great music at the forefront of everything they do, and that resonates in the quality of their discography. In fact, the band almost didn’t get together at all because Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons were worried about whether they would be able to bring the best out of each other creatively.
The two of them were playing in different bands, Stanley with a man called Steve Cornell and Gene Simmons in a college band called Bullfrog Bheer. They met at Cornell’s house when Simmons was borrowing some equipment and ended up playing one another some songs. Simmons knew immediately that they would work well in a band together, but Stanley was hesitant, as he wasn’t sure how well they would be able to write songs with one another.
“I thought we should be in a band together, but Paul didn’t like me at all,” admitted Simmons. Clarifying his hesitation, Stanley admitted, “I think he thought Lennon, McCartney and Gene were the only three songwriters in the world, and all of a sudden he had to make room for a fourth.”
Thankfully, the two managed to overcome these eventual differences, and the result was the creation of one of the most iconic rock bands of all time.
