Kiss
hile the loyalty between band and crew is frequently W cited, so is the connection between KISS and their fans. In fact, many of those in the team started out as devotees of
the rock gods. “In 1975, I bought their first record on 8-track cartridge,” recalls Bob Brigham, president of PRG Nocturne, which has been responsible for the band’s video production since 1996. “I was a drummer and had a huge stereo system and would play along to the songs. I wasn’t a very good drummer but loved playing along with KISS.” Protravel International’s Kathryn Mercer, who is responsible for crew travel and accommodation, joined the team five years ago and in KISS terms is a relative newbie. However, her history as a fan goes back to the mid-70s. “The first concert I ever went to was KISS on the [1976] Alive tour. It was at the Sportatorium in Miami,” says Mercer, who admits that it brought a smile to her face to find herself part of the band’s tour team many years later. For Hoppe, KISS’s popularity among other musicians proved to be a boon when in 1996 German punk band Die Ärzte got in touch and asked to support their idols. “At that time, Die Ärzte could sell-out the arenas themselves, but it was their childhood dream to support KISS,” he says. “For me
as a promoter it was fucking brilliant because it diminished the risk to practically zero.” KISS have long been tuned into the power of their fans and were quick to co-opt the KISS Army, which was founded in 1975 by Indianapolis schoolboys Bill Starkey and Jay Evans. Frustrated by the local radio station’s refusal to play their favourite band, the two teenagers got together with some friends and began to lobby to get their music aired. Soon after, then manager Bill Aucoin commissioned advertising agency Howard Marks Inc to design a logo for the fledgling fanclub, which in 2008 saw US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, join its ranks following a chance meeting with the band in a Stockholm hotel. On a commercial level, KISS have never been shy when it comes to meeting the fans’ voracious appetite for merchandise, which includes everything from coffins to action figures, chewing gum, dart boards and a series of Marvel comics. According to David Leaf’s KISS: Behind The Mask [The Official Authorized Biography] gross retail sales of merch had generated $111million (€99m) in 1978 alone and the band had licensed between 150-200 products. Moreover, the KISS Army generated several thousand dollars a day in membership fees. An annual subscription now costs $50 (€45) and in addition to a t-shirt, badge and discounts, includes access to tickets and VIP packages before they go on sale to the general public. The latter have become an integral part of the KISS tour, with the top-of-the-range VIP Meet & Greet including admission to the sound check and an exclusive acoustic performance. On a wider level, social media also keeps fans up to date. The KISS Facebook page boasts 12m likes while the band has 920,000 followers on Twitter. However, according to McGhee, Wi-Fi limitations in venues make it difficult to incorporate social media interactivity into the live shows. “Unless you carry your own Wi-Fi system, it’s hard to use social media during the show because the bandwidth gets sucked up,” he says, adding that KISS nevertheless engage with fans using online tools. “We’ve done a lot of fan activation to find out what they want to hear and pick songs, we let them get involved in creating the KISS tours.” In 2009, this included routing a North American tour based on the per-capita demand from fans in different towns and cities.
KISS with manager Doc McGhee, agent Rod MacSween (ITB) and German promoter Ossy Hoppe (Wizard Promotions)
Contributors (left to right): Rod MacSween (ITB), Pino Sagliocco (Live Nation Spain), Doc McGhee (McGhee Entertainment), Robert Porkert (Live Nation Czech Republic), Lon Porter (Smart Art), Will Johns (Stagetruck), Ossy Hoppe (Wizard Promotions)
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IQ Magazine July 2015