First OKEJ article with "The Elder outfits"

In 1980/81 the Swedish magazine OKEJ took over as the big source for Kiss information. There was also a Norwegian magazine called Pop Top/Filmjournalen. It was kind of crappy and homemade. Now later I can see that most photos and text was taken directly from old tour books and vintage and magazines. But the posters were cool. And I believe that it was in that magazine I saw Kiss in their "The Elder look" for the first time. The pictures from the “The Elder” photo session have always fascinated me. Probably because there are so few compared to the other periods in "Kisstory".
"The Elder" also made me a shoplifter for the first and only time in my life. The local record store had both "the Oath" and "World without heroes" (picture disc) singles on the shelves. I could not afford them, but I took them anyway. I also saw the "World without heroes" video for the first time on New Years Eve 1981/82.

1981/82 was also the year I became really big music fan. I discovered bands like AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. Hard rock and Heavy Metal became my "genre". And even as much as I liked "The Elder" it was not the way I wanted them to continue.

There was not much talk about the record flopping either. Before the articles in OKEJ and Kerrang! Both had interviews with Paul and Gene where they where speaking about the new hard rock album they where coming out with. That was a couple of months before "Killers" came into our hands. The four new songs were just as I wanted them. "Nowhere to run" is still one of my favorite tracks. I remember the local record store had not got the record on the day of the release. So I had to take the train to Oslo after school that day.

OKEJ also had a couple of articles during this period about Ace and that he was on his way out of the group. Both the "I incident" in January and his puking on a TV program in Mexico in the early fall of 1981 was reported.

During this period I also watched most music shows on TV. Just in case there would be any KISS shown on them. The Norwegian TV had a film report about the "KISS Movie" – Attack of the Phantom. And a program called "Halvsju" showed "Rock´n´roll all nite" (I believe it was the same clip as shown on _______ . Can someone confirm this for me?)
"Attack of the Phantom" was shown on cinemas in Norway. But one had to be 16 years old to get in. So at 13/14 year old, we were not allowed to watch the movie.

"Creatures of the night" came out in the October 1982. It was not supposed to come out before Monday. But the storeowner had sold it to my friend Thomas just before closing time on Saturday. I was so pissed that he had got it before me. I taped it from him and had probably heard it 20 times before I bought it two days later myself.
The record became a favorite really fast. It suited the style of music I had started listening to. Strangely the songs that I liked most on the record were not the ones who became most popular. "Saint and sinner", "Rock´n´roll hell" and "Danger" were the favorites.

OKEJ article about KISS in Stockholm 1982

Kiss came on a promo trip to Europe in November 1982. A Swedish TV show called "Måndagsbörsen" had an interview with Gene and showed the "I love it loud" video for the first time. I was in heaven. The same show showed the "Alive II" promo video just before or after.
There were quite a few articles about the promo tour. A Norwegian magazine called "Det Nye" had an interview with Ace. And the interviewer (Yan Friis) wrote a lot about how Ace seemed tired of it all. There were also articles in Norwegian newspapers and in a magazine called PS!. PS! Let a small kid meet Kiss in Stockholm. We were green with envy. They also gave him the "77 Cream special" to read on the train. OKEJ also had a big article in no 1/83 about the promo trip. I remember being sick and my father buying it to me. So I probably read it 10-20 times the day it came out.

The first time we read and saw about Vinnie Vincent was in Kerrang, in February 1983. They had a little black and white picture and article about him replacing Ace in Kiss. And in the next number there was a color picture on the back of Kerrang!

During that spring there was a lot of articles in OKEJ, Kerrang and Bravo (German magazine) about the "creatures tour". Just around the same time as the last shows in Brazil were played the rumor

The article about the Unmasking from VG - 1983

started about Kiss taking of the make-up.
In early September 1983 Kerrang was the first magazine that reported that they were taking the make-up off and the new record would soon be ready. Both Norwegian and Swedish newspapers had articles and pictures without make-up soon after that
.
"Lick it up" was released in late September. I remember walking into a store in Oslo called "Electric Circus" hearing "Exciter" for the first time. My first impression of the record was amazement. This was even better than "Creatures" (the impression has faded a lot during the years).
Kiss did not come to Norway in 1983. But we were six friends who went to Gothenburg to see them in November. This was my third concert ever. The first ones were Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath the same year.

We took the train down to Gothenburg and hung around town the whole day before the show. We even got a peak at the stage before the show. It was an incredible feeling looking at the empty stage with tanks and logo with full lights on. .

The show was incredible. Even if it was strange to see them come out on stage without their make-up and play "Creatures of the night". I was right in front for about half the concert. After that I went up on the side and sat down and watched the rest of the show. I was amazed. This was what I had been dreaming of ever since 1978, even without the make-up.
I bought a lot of posters, T-shirts, tour book and merchandise that day.

There were a lot of articles in Okej around the time of the visit. Anders Tegner (Writer in Poster/Okej) also interviewed kiss. Today the editor of Okej) on a TV metal show called "Norsken". He also showed the "HTH promo" on one of his shows.

1984-1986

The "LIU" tour ended and Vinnie got sacked. During the summer OKEJ had an interview with Paul and the new guitarist Mark Norton. My friend's and me thought he looked really stupid. But I looked forward to the record anyway.

During the summer the WOW album with Wendy O. Williams also came out. God we hated her voice. The songs were really good. But we could not understand that Gene would use up all these great songs on her. During a holiday to Greece I remember listening to the record over and over, trying to ignore her voice.

The fall came and Animalize came out. God how awful I thought the record was. I hated "Heavens on fire" the first time I heard it and I still can't stand it today. The only song I liked was "I had enough (into the fire)" and "Under the gun" was just OK. The rest of Paul's songs were poor and Genes were real "stinkers". Just after using up whole album worth of great material on the WOW album.

In October there were time for the second Kiss concert. It was in Drammenshallen in Drammen (the same place they played in 1980). I had brought some friends with me that I played in a band with at the time. They were not Kiss fans. But they liked most hard rock and metal at the time, so they were quite open to have a good time.
The stage was the same as the 1980 tour with some modifications. The drums had panther heads in front of them. And almost everything was painted like animal skin. It was the last time for the classic logo in the background also.

The show itself was not that good. They had not much of the fire in them that I had seen in Gothenburg the year before. It felt more like it was a job they had to do. And the friends I had brought with me were not impressed at all. As I remember the audience was not that fired up either. There was no problem standing in front of the stage without it being to crowded. That does not happened often on concerts in Norway. I had also seen Dio the week before and felt much more satisfied after that concert.

Before and after the show we hung around the "Grand Hotel" to get autographs. We got from all the members. And we were just two people left when Paul Stanley came back from a nightclub at 2 o’clock in the morning. He was freezing and felt sorry for us. So he asked if we would come inside for a little while. So we went inside the hotel and chatted with him for about 10 minutes and got another pair of autographs. It was a really cool experience.

I can’t remember there was much fuzz over the Bruce/Mark issue. In one way we were probably just glad to see Mark go, since we didn't like him that much in the first place.

During the fall of 1984 and in 1985, I sold most of my Kiss stuff. Even all the posters that I would really like to have today. A friend of mine (Andre) bought most of it as he did from others. He still has all the posters today.
(He lives in Munich, so it's not easy to check his stuff out. It’s stored in Norway).

I got more and more into other hard rock and metal bands (and played in a band myself.) So Kiss became more or less just another band for me. Of course I bought Asylum when it came out. But I thought most other records I bought from other bands during the same time were better. The exception was the "Animalize-Uncensored" video, which was great, and was played over and over.