1968 - 1980 | 1983 - 1986 | 1987 - 1995 | 1996 - 1999 | 2000 - into the future

1996-1999

I got on the Internet in 1996. Suddenly fandom became much more interesting. A guy who works in the "record industry" told me about the reunion rumors as early as in January 1996. And I was following the progression with great interest. Those were the days when one could still post on the Usenet without going into a flame-war on every subject.

During that time I got myself a new girlfriend that was a “real bitch” about everything Kiss related. Great timing on the “dawn” of the reunion tour..

Kiss at the Grammy awards - 1996

The Unplugged disc and video came out and it vas the best stuff Kiss had made since the “classic” days in my opinion. About the same time Kiss showed themselves at the Grammy awards and the rumors were going wild. Later in the spring Kiss had the press conference at the Intrepid, and the reunion tour was official. Kiss also told about the plans to play Doninton in the fall. So then I knew we had to go to England and see them at the famous “Monsters of Rock” site.

Kiss Army Norway had a Kiss expo with Vinnie Vincent as special guest. It was one of the best expos they have ever had. We got autographs and his new EP. The EP was pure Vinnie music, quite cheesy but fun anyway.

The reports were all over the net when the tour started. It seemed so cool. Even the pictures of the guys looked like the old days. The feeling over all was more or less like the old days. It was really fun to be a Kiss fan again.

In August Eivind and I went to England and Donington to see Kiss on our first show on the reunion tour. I had to drive an English car on “The wrong side of the road” directly out from Heathrow. Quite terrifying if one has not done it before. We came up to Donington two days before the show and had a blast camping and having fun.

The day before the show they started to sell merchandise outside the concert area. I got myself a couple of t-shirts, two tour books and a Kiss Army necklace.

The Donington ticket

The day of the show was really hot and humid. The only drinkable stuff they sold were small boxes of lemonade and beer. As I was driving there was no beer for me. Most of the bands bored me that day. Even Ozzy put on the worst performance I have ever seen him do. So we just sat around relaxing on the grass until Ozzy came on stage. Then we moved in front of the mixing board. And when Its was time for Kiss we had managed to get to second row. It was really crazy. The air was filled with all kind of shit that people were throwing. One had to be really careful not to get hit by something. I have never experienced something like that before. It must be an English custom.

There was the great inflatable Kiss figures on the right side of the stage. And everybody was pointing and laughing.
Then we could hear and see the helicopter that Kiss arrived in. It really built up the anticipation for a great show.
Suddenly they were on stage. They just walked on before the “Hello…. Donington” came over the speakers. It was really fascinating.
Once they started playing I was just standing with my mouth open for the first thirty minutes of the show. It felt like I was having an “out of body experience”. This was what I had wanted to see for almost 20 years, and now it was happening right in front of me. I really don’t remember many details from the show except it was incredible. It was everything I wanted it to be.
We left Donington as the last fireworks were in the air after “Rock’n’roll all nite”. And started our long journey back to Norway. I have never slept so good as when I got back home the day after. Nothing feels so good as your own bed when you have been awake for 36 hours.

During the reunion tour I saw four other shows. The first Oslo show was also incredible. I was there with a lot of friends and we had good seats, so we could just relax and enjoy the show. The show really looked much better indoors than it had done outdoors at Donington.
Before the show there was a convention again. And I managed to get my hand on my first version of C.O.S with good sound.

The next two Kiss shows I saw were in Stockholm the next summer. Kiss had sold out two 20 000 shows at Stockholm’s Olympic stadium. I drove there alone and met up with some friends. There was a real Kiss frenzy in town that weekend. There were Kiss stuff in all stores and people in Kiss shirts everywhere. On both days there were Kiss conventions. So it became an expensive weekend.
The first show was a little disappointment. The band seemed tired and not very inspired. Gene seemed pissed of at his roadie for most of the show. So I must admit that I was thinking about driving home the next morning. I had not bought a ticket for the second show yet. But I decided that I would stay and see the second show also. And I did not regret it. The second show was a blast. Much better than the first show. I even jumped down a 2 1/2 meter high wall just to get down in front of the stage.

Ad for the concert in Oslo - 1999

My last show on the reunion tour was the Oslo show the week after. Not the best show and not the worst. But the band seemed tired, like the first Stockholm show. I managed to get in the first row for the first half of the concert. But it was so crowded there I suffered because of it for a week after. I had a iron bar crushed into my chest for the most of the time I was in front. It may have been a part of what formed my opinion of the concert.

During the fall C.O.S came out officially. And I must admit I was a little disappointed. The songs were great. But the sound on the record was almost worse than the sound of the bootlegs I had. So I have never really gotten into that record (even if I have listened a lot to the bootleg version).

The year passed and I was “ditched” by another girlfriend again. This one had “fucked” me over so bad, that for the next two, three years I had a real battle with depression and anxiety attacks. And many times during those years the only thing that held me up was music, especially the feeling with everything Kiss related. But therapy and strong will helped me through those thought times. Even if I often still get anxiety attacks. Enough of depressing that back to the story.

It was during this period I got to know two of the coolest “Kiss fans” around Christian and Håkon. Not to take anything away from my other great friends. But there was a big need for “new blood” in my life right then.

Christian and I did trade a lot of video during 1998-2000. And went together on Kiss conventions both in Stockholm and in Oslo. Håkon I met on the Oslo convention (with Eric Singer in 98) for the first time. But I really didn’t learn to know him before the Psycho Circus tour.

Psycho Circus came out in the fall of 1998. It was not a very big surprise because the album had been leeched on the Internet for almost a month before it came out. The album was absolutely not what we had expected. It was a really patchy affair. Half of the album was very cool and the rest were fillers. And even today I have a lot of problems with some of the songs. Even if the album has grown especially in the last couple of years. But a great reunion record it was not.

The Psycho Circus tour started in Los Angeles on Halloween. Soon afterwards we got the news that Kiss would tour Europe in February/March. There were no way we would miss this. Christian and I bought tickets for all the Swedish and Norwegian dates. It was time for “Kiss vacation”.

The first show was in Oslo on the 28th of February. It was a nice “taste” of what we would experience later in the week. The 3-D show did not work very well in the hall. But the show was quite cool and tight. Not the best show I had seen, but far away from the worst either. I got myself my second Kisstory book at that show. I just had to have a version with the autographs from the original lineup also. Earlier in the day I went to

the Kiss convention arranged by Kiss Army Norway. The special guest was Bruce Kulick as on all the other conventions that week. We went to all the other four conventions in Sweden also. Kiss Army Norway had an after-party after the concert also. But I headed home to relax for a day before we started on the drive to Stockholm.

Kiss live in Stockholm - 1999 (pic by Håkon Glenne)

We met up with Håkon on the first day in Stockholm. So it was I,

Christian and Håkon that spent the days in Stockholm together. Both concerts were good. The first one probably the best of the five shows we saw that week. Paul “raps” was actually not the same “generic bullshit” he always speaks between the songs that night. It was a really nice change for once. He spoke about the Detroit rock city movie etc.

We chilled down a little on the second day and mostly stood by Paul’s “Love Gun platform”. We had a real good laugh during Love Gun when Paul came flying over. Lars Gjøran from Kiss Army Norway kept throwing himself over us screaming; “I got to touch him, I got to touch him!”. We all thought that was kind of gay.

We also managed to see Kiss at the hotel in Stockholm on our second day there. But it was no big personal experience like my other meetings with Kiss.

On the morning after we drove to Gothenburg. A real cool ride when you have bought a ton of Kiss bootlegs and interview discs. We met up with Eivind in Gothenburg and got some food and managed a little trip to the convention before the show.
This show was in one way the coolest. We managed to get right up in front without it being to crowded. It was the first show since my disastrous attempt in Oslo 97 to see them really up-close. It was also the only date they made any change in the set list. They started the show with Detroit Rock City instead of Psycho Circus.

The last concert that week we just relaxed in the back of the venue. Five shows in six days had more or less “burned us out”. But it was cool just sitting and watching the whole show. Kiss had a lot of fun on that last night in Gothenburg. They made a lot of mistakes musically, but made it up with pure fun, throwing water at each other and making jokes.

After the show we drove directly home to Norway. Just outside Oslo we were more or less met by a blizzard. A “really nice” welcome home after a week on “Kiss vacation”.