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Wicked Lester
- Kiss traces its roots to Wicked Lester, a New York City–based rock band led by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley. That band recorded one album, which was shelved by Epic Records, and played a handful of live shows.
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English glam rock band Slade (pictured in 1973) was among the band's influences. Kiss was strongly influenced by Alice Cooper and New York Dolls, [287] while Gene Simmons has stated that the band's "musical heart and soul lies in England". [288]
Jul 9, 2022 · D Generation was one of the most popular punk rock/glam rock bands of the 1990s influenced by bands such as Motley Crue, Guns N' Roses, New York Dolls and Hanoi Rocks.
Aug 6, 2019 · By the early ’70s, glam rockers such as the New York Dolls and Slade were already playing with costumes and sexuality in the cause of free expression, extending the explorations of...
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- T. Rex. The band that started it all. T. Rex’s March 1971 appearance on Top of the Pops is largely credited as the birth of the glam rock era in Great Britain.
- Roxy Music. Roxy Music formed in 1970 in London, and was founded by frontman Bryan Ferry and early bassist Graham Simpson. Two years later, they dropped their self-titled debut album after rounding out the band with lead guitarist Phil Manzanera, drummer Paul Thompson, saxophone and oboe player Andy Mackay, and short-term synth player (and future über-producer) Brian Eno.
- New York Dolls. The birth of glam rock didn’t just occur in the U.K.; it was happening across the pond as well. Take New York Dolls, for example. The band didn’t achieve much commercial success or critical acclaim at the time they were making rock music in the Big Apple.
- KISS. Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss birthed KISS in 1973, and immediately stood out thanks to their instantly recognizable face paint, black-and-white aesthetic, and shock-rock performing style that often included spitting blood, breathing fire, and playing smoking instruments along with over-the-top pyrotechnics and levitating drum sets.
- Overview
- Formation and first shows
- Breakthrough
- Lineup changes and final years
Kiss, American rock band, one of the most influential and best-selling rock groups from the 1970s through the early 2000s, known in particular for its theatrical live performances, involving pyrotechnics and other shocking visual effects and including extravagant outfits and makeup. Kiss formed in 1973. By 2023, as the band was nearing the conclusi...
In 1972 Simmons and Stanley were members of Wicked Lester, a rock-and-roll band based in Queens, New York. Although the group found some success in a crowded New York scene, Simmons and Stanley quit after its debut album was rejected by Epic Records, citing unhappiness with the band’s creative direction. The duo began recruiting a drummer and guitarist for a new outfit, envisioning a more uniform hard rock sound. Later in 1972 Simmons saw an advertisement in Rolling Stone magazine that had been placed by journeyman drummer Peter Criss. Criss auditioned and soon joined Simmons and Stanley. They began rehearsing as a trio but decided they needed a fuller sound. Stanley placed an ad in The Village Voice soliciting auditions for lead guitar. In January 1973 they added guitarist Ace Frehley to the band. Soon after, Stanley came up with the name Kiss, and Frehley drew the band’s iconic logo, which styles the name as KISS with the SS resembling two lightning bolts (the logo was subsequently banned in Germany because of its resemblance to the symbol of the Nazi Party paramilitary organization SS).
Kiss performed its first show on January 30, 1973, at the Popcorn Club (later Conventry) in Sunnyside, Queens, to a paltry turnout. The group initially attempted to adopt the glam-punk androgynous appearance of the rock group the New York Dolls but thought the imitation lacked originality and honesty. Instead, the band began to don black-and-white Kabuki-inspired clown makeup. Each member developed a different persona to accompany his face paint; Simmons became the Demon, Stanley the Starchild, Frehley the Space Ace (or the Spaceman), and Criss the Catman. That August, at a show at Hotel Diplomat in Times Square, Kiss grabbed the attention of Bill Aucoin, who would become their manager. Aucoin bought the band fog machines, a drum elevator, and spandex costumes. He also helped the band sign with the nascent Casablanca Records, which produced Kiss’s self-titled debut record in February 1974.
Kiss sold poorly, but the band’s live shows were electric. To go alongside the levitating drum platform and choreographed moves, Simmons had learned to breathe fire and started drooling fake blood—stunts that subsequently became major parts of Kiss’s act. The group released two additional albums, Hotter than Hell (1974) and Dressed to Kill (1975), neither of which sold well, continuing the group’s disappointing run of studio album sales and furthering a financial crisis for Casablanca Records. Instead of paying for another studio album, the label decided to release a live record, hoping to capture the energy of the band’s live performances. The double album, titled Alive! (1975), proved to be the band’s breakthrough, winning the group its first gold record and a top 40 hit, “Rock and Roll All Nite”; the song had first appeared on Dressed to Kill, but the live recording, which featured a guitar solo, became the most recognizable version.
Kiss exploded in popularity following Alive!, and in 1976 it released Destroyer, which became one of its best-selling studio albums. In June 1977 Kiss was named the number-one band in the United States, according to a nationwide Gallup poll. In October that same year, the group released Alive II, another live double album but this time including new studio material on its fourth side. In 1978 each member of the group simultaneously released a solo album.
After releasing the 1979 studio album Dynasty, tension among Kiss’s members peaked. Criss was particularly frustrated with his bandmates and began to sabotage live shows by drumming at the wrong tempo. He was fired by the band in 1980 and was replaced by Eric Carr, who became the Fox. In 1982, after the commercial failure of the band’s concept album, Music from “The Elder” (1981), Frehley left the band. He was soon thereafter replaced by Vinnie Vincent, the Ankh Warrior, who would in turn leave and be replaced by Mark St. John in 1984; St. John was replaced by Bruce Kulick the following year.
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In 1983, sensing it was time for a change, Kiss abandoned its signature face makeup. During this “unmasked” period, the band released a series of commercially successful records, highlighted by Animalize (1984) and Crazy Nights (1987). After appearing on the popular MTV program MTV Unplugged, the band’s original lineup reunited, with makeup, for the highly successful Alive Worldwide tour in 1996.
Jul 19, 2022 · By the spring of 1975, the members of Kiss – vocalist/guitarist Paul Stanley, bassist Gene Simmons, lead guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss – should have been giving serious thought to taking their band in a radical new direction or just shutting it down altogether.
Feb 15, 2024 · What followed established Kiss as one of the most memorable hard-rock bands of the 1970s and ’80s, with a globally recognised legacy. The early days. In 1972, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons shelved...
