When Kiss’s manager told them to play worse: “We built a reputation that made it hard for us to get gigs” – MariskalRock.com


January 22, 2023 5:14 pm
published by Drafting

The beginnings of any band are usually complicated, something that, for example, has been reflected in the case of kiss in the long-awaited film from the record company that went from owing 7 million dollars to dominating the industry. By then Gene Simmons and company also received curious requests from their manager, like the one that asked them to play worse, since the reputation they had to date prevented them from getting concerts.

Such a revelation was made by the vocalist and guitarist paul stanley in a recent interview with yahoo in which he explained that at the beginning of kiss they used to take advantage of loose contracts in performances to increase their prestige, something that worsened their situation and led to a curious suggestion from the head of their record label, Neil Bogart.

These were his words:I think the bands that played after us knew they were screwed. At first they didn’t know. Surely there were groups that as soon as they saw us they began to chuckle. They didn’t laugh after playing us.”

Stanley pointed out some of the peculiarities of that time: “What we were doing was so new back then that they allowed us to do certain things that are now impossible because the headliner won’t let you… I’m referring to the fact that there were headliners who came out onstage with the Kiss logo hanging behind them. We put up the Kiss logo, but we didn’t remove it… No one dared to say: “Is this group going to use fireworks, do they have a logo and all that? It was all uncharted territory. We basically did whatever we wanted and quickly built a reputation that made it hard for us to get gigs.”

At that moment the manager burst in: “Neil Bogart had us go to his Los Angeles office and said, “It’s getting impossible to get you gigs. Could you play worse? Could you play not the way you usually do? We looked at each other… It was something like: “Do you want us to like each other or to give up?”.

Needless to say that paul stanley and company ignored that advice and continued to find their own way until they reached their fourth album. ‘Alive!’which secured his headlining status: “That was a lifesaver for us, because it had become almost impossible to find bands that would let us open for them.”.

kiss will be one of the main attractions of the second edition of the Rock Imperium Festivalthe great rock event that awaits us in Cartagena in the summer of 2023, which has already revealed the distribution of your poster by dayswith Helloween, Blind Guardian, Deep Puple or Europe among others in front.

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When Kiss’s manager told them to play worse: “We built a reputation that made it hard for us to get gigs” – MariskalRock.com