People, Let Me Get
This Off My Chest

I read a Q&A with KISS' Paul Stanley at Spin.com and the interviewer mentioned a compilation called “Let Me Get This Off My Chest” (Megaupload link).

It’s 70 tracks of the between song raps/banter that Paul has done at KISS concerts over the years. Cities are name checked, alcohol consumption and screaming are both encouraged.

I recognised a few excerpts from KISS Alive and an odd one or two that must have been from his solo shows. After seeing KISS in Manchester in May you do appreciate what a great front man Paul Stanley is.

Slayer

Usually I'm at the venue way too early. I walk around The Academy, to check out the tour buses and the trucks. Then I stand in the queue, soaking up the pre-gig atmosphere, for about half an hour. Then I stand inside waiting for it all to start. But with the date changes, this should have been the 20th of November last year, the ticket said doors 7:30pm, I was there just gone 7 and everyone had already been let in. Maybe this was a good thing.

This meant that I only had 15 minutes to wait, at my spot in front of the mixing desk, before the lights went down and The Haunted came on. It has to be tough for all opening bands, but opening for Slayer has to be even harder. I hadn’t heard of them, or any of their music, before. But my god they were loud. I don’t know if the sound guy was using all of the 24 Marshall cabinets across the back of the stage but it certainly sounded like it. I could feel my clothes flapping against my chest. They played well enough but I think after a while all the songs seemed to sound the same. Lots of devil horns thrown by the band and hurled back by the crowd as a tribute to Ronnie James Dio.

Set List

World Painted Blood

Hate Worldwide

Cult

Disciple

Expendable Youth

War Ensemble

Jihad

Payback

Beauty Through Order

Seasons in the Abyss

Hell Awaits

Mandatory Suicide

Chemical Warfare

Raining Blood

Aggressive Perfector

Encore

South of Heaven

Silent Scream

Angel of Death

I've wanted to see Slayer since I started going to gigs again but they only ever seemed to play the M.E.N. with about 4 other bands I hadn’t heard of. I can’t believe that they've been going for nearly 30 years. I remember the review in Kerrang! for Show No Mercy, an album/CD that I still don’t own, which said that it was practically unlistenable. Then Geoff Barton, yes the huge KISS fan Geoff Barton, reviewed Hell Awaits when it was released on import in 1985 and gave it a maximum five K’s. Looking back at the music I was buying at the time it was all hair metal: W.A.S.P, Motley Crue, Ratt, the album I bought after Hell Awaits was Asylum by KISS. Of course I'd bought everything by Venom and was looking for music in a similar vein.

Stage time for Slayer must have been 8:30pm because everything was ready. Guitars tested, microphone checked, blue lights and smoke. Each time the interval music stopped there was a huge roar from the crowd and the Slayer chant started. Then some more music would play and we'd have to wait again. That must have happened at least 4 or 5 times until the stage lights went out, the Slayer logo appeared on the video backdrop and the band ripped into World Painted Blood. A testament to the strength of the new album to open the set with the title track.

From that moment on it was like having a sledgehammer slammed into your chest for nearly 2 hours, but in a good way. Tom thanked the audience for the good wishes he'd received. He sang and played perfectly, of course, but from the concert DVDs I own I could tell that he wasn’t banging his head or thrashing his hair around as much as he used to. I've never seen so many black, band logo t-shirts in one place before. A packed Academy isn’t big enough for a pit but there were plenty of people crowd surfing, so the security guys in front of the stage certainly earned their money. There was hardly any between song banter from Tom although he did ask if we liked beer that we should probably try drinking it instead of throwing it about.

With the main set over the encores ended with Angel of Death and the crowd was doing most of the singing. Tom thanked us all, Jeff was throwing guitar picks, Dave came down from the drum riser and handed out drumsticks and Kerry pointed to some new ink down the inside of his left arm. Just an amazing couple of hours. Long may Slayer reign.

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Update
I've just read the review of the Leeds show in Kerrang! magazine and found out that Kerry was checking a guitar tabs book of Slayer songs for one of the old tracks from Show No Mercy. And also that Tom had forgotten the words to one song, I think it was Angel of Death. That would explain the sing-along-a-Slayer sections to Angel of Death at the end.

Alice Cooper:
Golf Monster

• How a Wild Rock 'n' Roll Life Led to a Serious Golf Addiction
• Alice Cooper with Keith and Kent Zimmerman
• Biography

KISS
Sonic Boom
Over Europe
2010

It’s been well over 30 years and even I didn’t think that it would happen.

I've mentioned before how I became a KISS fan via a Scotch C90 tape of KISS Alive II and I saw them at Manchester Apollo in ‘84 on the Animalize tour. Back then Mark St. John had just recorded the album but Bruce Kulick had to step in to do the tour and later to become a full time member. Even then I couldn’t believe that they'd play a venue as small as a theatre in Manchester. This was only my second concert, I'd seen Iron Maiden on the Powerslave tour the week before. The support band for KISS was Bon Jovi back when they were fresh faced little scamps.

KISS played the M.E.N. Arena on the Psycho Circus tour but I didn’t go along. I'd bought the CD and was interested in the reunion with Ace and Peter but I was listening to Nine Inch Nails and lots of other genres at the time. And then they did a Farewell Tour, which was less of a final farewell and more of a bye bye to the two original members who had started to become a pain in the ass. That’s from what I've read.

So last year they did the Alive 35 shows with Tommy and Eric in the band. Things were going so well with the current lineup that they decided to record an album again, 10 years after the last one. All analogue, no ballads, no outside writers, just the four of them writing songs and it’s amazing.

Of course I didn’t go alone. I knew Zoe would like to come along, which meant seat tickets, because she is only little and wouldn’t see much of the show from the floor of the arena. To save Zoe reenacting the whole show, song for song, note for note to her mother when she arrived home I bought Lorraine a ticket too. This was via a Classic Rock pre-sale the day before the tickets were available to the public. Between last November and today there’s always been the question, “Who are we going to see?”. Even when I told them the date and that we were going to Manchester. I don’t think it really sunk in until we were cutting through Boots to get to the Food Court when I stopped and asked my sister if she thought she might need ear plugs.

We had something to eat, wandered around the Arndale and then headed out to the M.E.N. I bought two programmes, Zoe and Lorraine would have to share and we walked around inside the arena. We looked at the merchandise stalls, but none of us bought anything and watched people getting their faces painted. After we'd done a complete circuit of the arena we headed down to find our seats. Not bad seats at that, block 105, Gene’s side of the stage in the corner.

You really have to either admire or feel sorry for a band opening for KISS but Taking Dawn were the opening act. Admire them for the fact that they have a chance to play to half full arenas. Feel sorry for them because no one is really there to see them specifically, they’re just the distraction before the main event. They played typical eighties metal, all flaying hair and bobbing heads. Coming from Las Vegas is a novelty simply because I can’t think of any other band that hails from there.

There was a cheer when the curtain with the KISS logo on it was lowered to cover the stage. People were queuing on the stairs near us to get to the floor. Looking around the arena did seem to be more or less sold out. This was supposed to be the first date in England until more dates were added due to demand. This was certainly the first concert I've been to where children, probably as young as six or seven, were attending.

Set List

Modern Day Delilah

Cold Gin

Let Me Go Rock 'N' Roll

Firehouse

Say Yeah

Deuce

Crazy Crazy Nights

Calling Dr. Love

Shock Me

I'm An Animal

100,000 Years

I Love It Loud

Love Gun

Black Diamond

Detroit Rock City

Encore

Lick It Up

Shout it Out Loud

I Was Made For Lovin' You

God Gave Rock And Roll To You

Rock And Roll All Nite

The lights finally dimmed, the video screens showed the first part of the Modern Day Delilah video (with thunderous footsteps), then shots of the band walking to the stage with Doc McGhee. I must have heard the intro hundreds of times on the Alive and Alive II records but it doesn’t come close to hearing it in person.

The curtain comes down, all the screens are on, the bombs go off and Gene, Paul and Tommy are lowered to the stage on a huge platform playing the start of Modern Day Delilah. For any other band playing the single from their new album as the first song would be considered a miss step but the track is so strong that it’s a perfect opener.

From then onwards it’s just a blur of classic songs, new songs and the vast spectacle of it all. Gene stalking around the stage flicking his tongue out as if it were the only way to consume oxygen. Tommy cranking out the riffs and solos and making them his own. Eric keeping it all together with his power house drumming. But it was Paul who impressed me the most. He must be the greatest front man of any genre of music. Covering all the stage and more, playing with the guitar between his legs, flicking guitar picks, strutting and dancing around, being able to pronounce Birmingham and Glasgow correctly (no mean feat for an American) and singing absolutely note perfectly as well. All four of them were just amazing.

Only two little niggles: Shock Me, as a song written by Ace and being so heavily linked to him, should only really be sung by him. Tommy should have sung When Lightning Strikes instead. I'm An Animal, that Gene sung, I'm not a huge fan of and should have been replaced with God of Thunder. But that’s just me.

Zoe even started to loosen up towards the end, playing air drums and air guitar, but quite rightly not at the same time. Both of them managed to stay standing for the full two hours. I could remain seated and still see all the stage. Being on the tiers for the first time did make things seem kind of strange, as if you’re watching a concert instead of being part of it. On the floor, near the stage, your whole field of vision is filled instead of just a small part of it.

For the last song of the encore, Rock And Roll All Nite, Gene and Tommy were high up on platforms, Eric’s drum riser had lifted up and they must have set off every bomb, firework, fire jet and confetti canon that they had. It really was a sight to behold.

Walking back to the car Zoe said that when they froze at the end of one of the songs she thought it was going to take them a while to straighten up! Ageist yes, but quite funny nonetheless.

I can still remember Harry Sime recording KISS Alive II for me on to a Scotch C90 tape. I don’t think any of us are going to forget tonights show any time soon.

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106.1 Rock Radio interview with Gene
Part One mp3
Part Two mp3
Absolute Radio interview with Paul – mp3

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Let Me Go Rock ‘N’ Roll
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Rammstein

Easily the best concert that I've ever attended and I saw Rammstein in this same venue when they played in 2005.

You would think that there would be more people leaving Manchester during rush hour, but for some reason the roads that are usually are quite clear were grid-locked. Luckily I was still in plenty of time to get to the M.E.N. Arena and have a wander around before heading inside.

Quite why the venue security insist on everyone sitting down I don’t know but I guess it’s a chance to rest your legs in preparation for the next 3 hours. Strange that we all stood up at the same time. There didn’t seem to be a signal we just did it. I was stood about mid-way between the stage and the mixing desk, dead centre.

The stage was already set for Combichrist so there wasn’t the usual roadies running around checking microphones with the compulsory 1-2 1-2. They have to do that as part of their union regulations. You could tell from their setup that they’re a good match as support for Rammstein. Two drummers either side of a keyboard player with a singer prowling the front of the stage. I hadn’t heard any of their stuff previously and may checkout a track or two of theirs on iTunes. As always with support bands there is always one or two people in the crowd who are total fans. Bouncing up and down and shouting along whilst the rest of us just nodded gently.

When Combichrist had said their goodbyes a woman, who was obviously the worse for drink, moved into the spot in front of me. She was already shouting ‘Rammstein’ in that delightful cracked wail that only the completely inebriated can manage. She kept swaying around and putting her hands in the air making these strange gestures like an Indian belly dancer. At least it provided a diversion during the set change.

Because I'd stopped reading Kerrang! magazine a couple of years ago I didn’t know what was in store this evening. I'd bought the new album, Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da, and to be honest I wasn’t that taken with it. I'd even bought the ticket just thinking that I wouldn’t want to miss Rammstein considering that they may only tour the U.K. once every 5 years.

I have certainly never seen a rock concert like it. It was simply amazing. I think not knowing what was going to happen made the whole experience much more enjoyable. So I won’t even try to describe the whole show. But the lights and the stage would usually be enough for most bands but the flames were simply astonishing. Fire shooting up from the stage and down from the lights. How they manage to remember where they have to be at a given moment is remarkable. One step too far and any of them could be toast, literally. Parts of it were just completely mad: the dolls, the bath, the petrol pump, Till singing at a table next to a floor lamp, Flake ‘walking’ for most of the show, the foam ‘cannon’, the wings, which other band would have the keyboard player ‘sail’ over the crowd in a dingy.

It was just the most amazing spectacle that I've ever seen. I can’t wait to get the live DVD, or Blu-Ray, when it comes out to re-live it all over again.

Related Links
A Gallery of Photos by lodge28 (Warning – Show Spoilers)

Black Gives Way To Blue

Considering the recent weather, torrential rain and strong winds, I really didn’t fancy queuing outside for long if it was going to be typical Manchester weather. Luckily the rain held off and I was outside The Academy at about 7:00pm. Finding ‘a’ queue wasn’t fun. A huge trench had been dug in the pavement and instead of the usual boards covering the gap they'd just put barricades along the full length of it. It also didn’t help that there was a vast amount of people outside the main student union building for another gig, or two. Long and short of it I'd joined the wrong queue. This was eventually pointed out to us by a man shouting for tickets who seemed either drunk, or high, or both so his first announcement fell on deaf ears. A group of us left the queue, which was the ticket collection queue, and walked past the front doors and around the side of the building to where the buses were parked, to the end of the real queue.

It is kind of saddening that you have to be searched before you enter these places. We’re all there to listen to the music and see the band surely? Possibly some aren’t. They’ll have airport style security next.

The audience certainly seemed about the same age as me, maybe older. I bought Dirt back in early 1993 after Kerrang! magazine voted it album of 1992.

The support act was a woman on guitar and vocals and a bloke on drums. Even now I don’t know who they were. You'd think they'd say “we’re The Support Band, goodnight” at the end of their set.

With only a mic stand and a small drum kit to remove from the stage the change over should have been really quick. At least that’s what I thought. I wonder if someone keeps a list of the amount of times a microphone is checked by a roadie?

Set List

It Ain't Like That

Again

Them Bones

Dam That River

Your Decision

No Excuses

Check My Brain

A Looking In View

Rain When I Die

Heaven Beside You

Got Me Wrong

Black Gives Way To Blue

What The Hell Have I

Acid Bubble

Angry Chair

Man In The Box

Encore

Would?

Rooster

After what seemed like forever the stage lights lit the audience and a cameraman pointed a video camera across the crowd. Then the lights went back to the way they were before, lighting the stage for the roadies to do their job, checking microphones and shining torches on cables. The sight of two members of the road crew with their elbows resting on speaker stacks didn’t bode well at all. The crowd, growing increasingly restless, started booing and slow clapping and for a minute I thought that the show wasn’t going to happen. Then, at about 9:30pm, because I kept checking my watch, after what felt like forever, the band walked on stage.

After Layne died this is something that I never thought I'd see, Alice In Chains playing these incredible songs live. Highlights? Again, Them Bones (during which I almost lost it completely), Check My Brain, all the heavier stuff. Whenever Jerry stood centre stage everyone shouted his name. William sang and played guitar like he was born to do it. The only slow spots were the acoustic, barstool songs. Black Gives Way To Blue was so quiet that I'm sure people talking in the crowd was louder. There was a huge cheer at the end when a really short black and white video clip of Layne was played. It was just the right length and exactly what was needed, fresh faced, long curly haired, smiling and giving the peace sign.

With the technical difficulties, and the curfew, we won’t know if they would have played more songs.

William really did a great job, fitting in like the role was always his. Certainly big boots to fill but I think the crowd, like I was, was just pleased to hear those songs again. Like the man said, “This is just the beginning!”.

Somebody check my brain.

Update
Official blog entry for the Manchester show

Amazon.co.uk

Rock documentaries, or rockumentaries if you will, just don’t get any better than this.

Yes, of course I was a fan of Anvil back in the early eighties. They had Kerrang! covers, rave reviews and multi-page spreads. Hard N Heavy, Metal on Metal and Forged In Fire were the albums that I bought, listened to repeatedly and read all of the song lyrics and the liner notes. At the time I was possibly only buying one album per month out of my pocket money. I remember buying either Hard N Heavy or Metal on Metal just before Christmas when I should have been saving money for presents. They were just one of many favourite bands that I had at the time. Even though I was still reading Kerrang! magazine they seemed to disappear from my radar, from everyones radar for that matter.

When I heard that a documentary was being made about them I was surprised to say the least. Surprised that they were still going, thirteen albums and counting, and dumbfounded that they could warrant being the subject of a film documentary. Not just a TV special on some obscure cable channel but a full blown cinematic release.

They are essentially a ‘real life’ Spinal Tap, except Tap never had day jobs and extended families. Anvil get a chance to tour Europe, they get lost in cities with foreign road signs, club owners don’t pay them, they miss trains, but they play in front of any thing from 10 to hundreds of fans and that is all they’re doing it for. Not for the fame or the money, they don’t actually make any money on the tour, but just for the love of the music. Corny I know. When the tour is over they go back to their families and their day jobs. Cue shots of Lips wearing a hair-net and their bald bass player also wearing the same head-gear because that’s the rules when preparing school meals. They get to work with C.T., the record producer, but only if they can cough up £12,000 (I think it was pounds sterling). It’s Lips' sister who gets them the money and, a few twists and turns aside, they make their thirteenth album. That’s the easy part. Going ‘round record companies in this day and age trying to get it distributed was a thankless task. So they decided to get it made and sell the CD via their web-site. That’s when they get asked by a Japanese promoter if they want to play in Japan.

What occurred to me, watching all this unfold, was why didn’t they just ask their fans to contribute to the making of the album. It worked for Jill Sobule and she made California Years. Any fan making a donation over a certain limit would get a name check on the liner notes and a copy of the CD when it was made. They certainly have enough enthusiastic fans. Even some of the rock musicians interviewed could have given some money. I'm sure Slash, Lemmy and Lars would have given a buck or two. Possibly there just wasn’t enough time to organize that kind of thing if studio time needed to be booked.

One very odd thing on the disc was part of the special features. It’s the full interview with Lars Ulrich of Metallica, which is about 30 minutes long, during which he mentions Geoff Barton and Xavier Russell and that they were both working for Sounds and then for Kerrang!. He says that usually whatever Geoff said was good really was worth checking out because he would rave about obscure bands like Silverwing (MySpace). Lars says that these bands would hail from towns like Macclesfield and all the band members would work in chip shops. Now that is certainly not something you hear every day, the drummer of a huge rock band mentioning your home town.

Towards the end of the interview Lars says to Sacha Gervasi, the director, that he has never actually met Anvil. Their paths must have continually crossed during the eighties but a meeting never took place. Lars says that he'd like to buy them a beverage of their choice and sit down and talk about music. I really hope that happens. Maybe one for a follow up documentary.

So Anvil fly to Japan to do this festival which, unlike European festivals, is inside a huge concert hall. The camera zooms in on the bill for the day and Anvil are first on at 11:35 in the morning. You just hear Lips saying that no one is going to come, they've flown all that way to play to a handful of people in a huge hall. The only thing I could think about was Jeanine saying in This Is Spinal Tap, “Oh, no! If I told then once, I told them a hundred times: put Spinal Tap first and puppet show last”.

You’ll just have to watch the film to see what happens.

Related Links
Anvil! The Story of Anvil – on Amazon.co.uk DVD & Blu-ray
This Is Thirteen – Pre order on Amazon.co.uk
Forged In Fire – on iTunes
Metal On Metal – on iTunes
Hard ‘N’ Heavy – on iTunes

Gene Simmons
Family Jewels

Having just finished watching the first season of Gene Simmons Family Jewels I have to wonder what took me so long. I love The Osbournes and have both seasons on DVD (still waiting for the last seasons to emerge) and I enjoyed the MTV Cribs show that Gene did back in 2002. I can only imagine that I was scared of it being corny, I mean I just idolised KISS when I was a teenager, what if it wasn’t any good? Honestly I needn’t have worried.

Yes, Gene Simmons is a rock god outside the home but inside his family just treat him like a father and… boy friend. The ‘M’ word gets mentioned a few times. Shannon even sets up a fake wedding, rabbi and all. But they seem happy not being married. Happier than married people do.

Watching it you have to compare it to The Osbournes but Family Jewels is certainly more orchestrated, with Gene’s intro and the sofa interviews shattering that fourth wall. But it’s only the same as the KISS Exposed ‘reality’ segments, you don’t expect the band to live in the same house surrounded by scantily clad women. As the show goes on you do start to think would Gene spend that long promping his hair, but does he really wear that red romper suit in bed? Or is that just set-up?

One thing for sure is they don’t have as many pets or visitors as The Osbournes. The only regular visitor is Tracy Tweed, Shannon’s sister, and Courtney Love look-a-like. It’s funny how they both call him ‘Genie’.

Back when I was collecting their records with my pocket money it was a very rare sight indeed to catch them on TV, which I think made any footage I did see all the more magical. I'd never think that Gene did his own supermarket shopping, let alone did any cooking. But Scott Ian of Anthrax is in one of the shows, he’s being interviewed for a magazine and is outside with his KISS records under his arm and a car pulls up to the house and Scott says, “Gene drives!”. Almost as if Simmons should be carried around everywhere on a sedan chair with women throwing rose petals into his path.

During one show Gene puts on the costume and the make-up in the house. Of course it was only since the reunion shows that I realised that they actually did this themselves. Some of the sofa chats have Shannon sat next to him in full KISS garb and she’s calling him Genie and is taking the mickey. His son Nick is probably the one who pulls Gene’s leg the most with Sophie and Shannon coming in a close second.

After the end of season cliffhanger (Is Shannon pregnant? Is Gene going to go through with the facelift?) I can’t wait for the next two seasons to arrive in the post.

This Is "Spinal Tap"

• Ethan De Seife
• Film

Glenn Gould
Some Portraits of the
Artist as a Young Man

• Jock Carroll