well, look you see, if you have stumbled upon this blog post hoping to find one of them mucky things where ladies kiss each other in front of one of them "web cam" things, you've taken a wrong turn, or if you like you've lucked out. this isn't about that sort of kiss thing. instead it's all to do with that rather well known band of that name.
i had a speculative conversation with Spiros about the idea of putting some Kiss on the stereo in my car. yeah, i am back driving, so i am ploughing through all them blank cd's once more to make smart mixes to as i drive around. as Spiros is quite the Kiss man, so to speak, he was very enthusiastic about this idea and to celebrate shared with me a number of relatively rare and obscure videos of the band in, as it were, action.
for some reason i thought some of you might quite like to see them. here we go, then, with Kiss blazing the way for the likes of Michael Jackson and, if i remember right, Madonna by agreeing to promote the most splendid drink Pepsi as an item you may want to buy.
there's a school of thought that says neither Paul Stanley nor Gene Simmons ever met a dollar that they didn't like, and were always more than happy to accept it in exchange for, well, whatever they had. seriously, if you are bored, go ahead and google "Kiss merchandise" or "Kiss licensing" and be amazed at how many hours you can spend staring at things they gladly sold the band name to.
and i say there's absolutely nothing wrong with any of that. why, pray tell, would you go off and be a rock star if not to make huge mountains of money? this crap that some so-called fans go on about, about how rock stars should not "sell out", doesn't pay the bills or let you live the extravagant life of a rock star. if it were the case that i had an ounce of talent and had some sort of music career, you can be certain i would have gladly exploited and sold it any way i could, thanks.
that said, maybe i would have drawn a line if something like Kiss Meets The Phantom was thrown at me as a commercial opportunity.
if you got all the way through that trailer, well done, even if some 30% of it is promoting NBC or whoever opted to broadcast that film.
i am one of the select few to have witnessed the whole thing, as it happens. Spiros had a smart VHS tape of it, and made me (and possibly my (considerably) better half) watch it one night. my abiding memory of the film was that one of them had lasers firing out of their eyes, whilst another had lightning that came out of their fingers. i think the latter was Ace, and actually it was pretty smart, with the idea being pinched 5 or so years later for that Star Wars thing when the Emperor or someone did the same thing.
whilst the film has a certain curiosity level to it, and in following on from the above point about that Emperor a bit like that Star Wars Holiday Special it's possibly a film best left as a curiosity rather than a thing you actually watch. at least when Frankie Goes To Hollywood appeared in a film, it was totes smart in the form of Body Double.
finally, for this blog post and not for the Kiss money making machine, here's the band quite happily accepting however much money them b@stards in Sweden, or if you like Sverge, would throw at them for appearing in a lottery commercial.
if it's no surprise that Kiss would accept coins of money off of them b@stards in Sweden for doing a lottery advert, is it a surprise to me that them b@stards in Sweden would consider Kiss popular enough a reference point for adverts? not really. whereas i wasn't aware of Kiss being all that big or popular in England as i grew up, they were absolutely massive in Australia in the early 80s. i remember it being something of a matter of pride, when you went to visit someone, that they would show you which Kiss albums they had. Unmasked was the most popular, closely followed by Destroyer.
have i had a listen to some Kiss in the car as such as yet? no. today i had a bit of Stone Roses on, followed by a dash, or if you like flash, of Queen. i have no doubt that i will have some Kiss on the go in the car soon, though.
hopefully this has been of some slight interest to one or two of you!
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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