1968 - 1980 | 1981 - 1986 | 1987 - 1995 | 1996 - 1999 | 2000 - into the future

First of all I want to dedicate this story to the friends/Kiss fans I have known threw the years; Eivind Arntsen, André (what’s up with that é?) Storvoll, Thomas Løland, Tony Bisgaard, Kenneth Stern (where did he go?), Sammy, Ståle Redalen, Espen Mortensen, Christian Ellingsen, Håkon Glenne, Lars Kaasa and Kyrre Hysvær (maybe not a big fan, but a great and supporting friend anyway).

And last but not least, Arild Østby for selling those records in 1978.

1968-1977

The first POSTER I ever saw

I was born in November 1968. Before I started second grade in 1976, I inherited money from an old uncle of my mother, and I bought myself a stereo. That's when my relationship with music began. The first music I bought was ABBA, Elton John and Elvis Presley cassettes. I had to wait until 1977 before I could afford a phono player. The first "encounter" I had with KISS was when I was in the USA during the summer of 1976. My cousin's son was going to a concert to a show on the Destroyer tour (I believe it was the NJ show). And he showed me his T-shirt after the show.

1978-1980

1978 was the year I became a KISS fan. I remember seeing KISS on a program about "The history of rock´n´roll". What clip they showed I really can´t remember. It may have been one of the DTK promo shots and a Alice Cooper clip was shown just before or after. Gene and Alice made a big impact on me. I can´t remember anything about their music, but they where soooo cool ;-).

But the real big day was a day in May I believe. The Big brother of one of my friends played "HTH" and "Destroyer" for me. I can't explain how good I thought it sounded. He had a lot of posters from the Swedish magazine Poster on the walls also. So I asked him if he would sell me the records and some posters. He hesitated at first. But after nagging for an hour or two he sold me the two records and some posters for about $10. I played those two records nearly constantly for the next year. And bought every Poster magazine I could get my hands on. I became a big Alice Cooper fan during the same period.

I remember I bought both Dynasty and Unmasked at a grocery store close to where I lived. And I had many "Kiss show" in our basement as Gene with a tennis racket with those two records playing in the background.

Picture from the review about the concert in Drammen from VG (Verdens Gang) 14th October 1980.

The saddest part of this story is that I missed the Kiss concert in Drammen in October 1980. My mother and father have never had a car. But they said that I could go if some of the other kids parents would drive. I was not allowed to go by train the 80 kilometers alone. None of my friends where allowed by their parents to go. So I had to stay at home. I remember sitting at home crying on the day of the concert.

My father felt really sorry for me so he said he would buy me a Kiss record. I ended up with three (Alive II, Love Gun and DTK) because I could not make up my mind on what record I wanted.

I don't know how many times I re-lived the Scandinavian tour threw the articles from the Kiss Scandinavian tour – Poster special.

During the end of 1979 and most of 1980 the Kiss hype was enormous in Scandinavia. I remember seeing Kiss more often in newspapers and magazines than ever. I was the first one who got hold of a picture of Eric Carr. I remember I was so proud when I took it to school. "This is the new Kiss drummer". It was also during this time I saw Kiss for the first time on TV as a fan. I remember a Swedish interview at a program called Bälinge Byfest. The "Shandi", "IWMFLY" videos and other clips were also shown during this period.

At Christmas 1980 I got the last records I missed from the Kiss catalogue. Ace and Gene's solo albums was under the Christmas tree. I even had Peter's "Out of Control".