Kiss Army
Kiss Army is the name of the official fan club of the US hard rock band Kiss . At the same time, the name is now used as a collective term for all Kiss fans around the world, who do not have to be members of the fan club. Also Paul Stanley , guitarist and singer of the group, says visitors to the concerts with Kiss Army at.
history
In January 1975, two teenagers, Bill Starkey and Jay Evans, began asking the local radio station in their hometown of Terre Haute to include songs by Kiss in its program . That request was denied by the station's director of programming, Rich Dickerson, which resulted in Starkey and Evans beginning to call the station “Kiss Army” and write letters like “Bill Starkey - President of the Kiss Army ”were signed. In some of their letters, the two even threatened to blow up the transmitter.
The station finally began playing Kiss singles in July 1975, and the hosts often referred to the Kiss Army, so some of the listeners called to ask how they could join the Army.
On November 21, 1975, a Kiss concert was to take place in Terre Haute at the Hulman Civic University Center , which, thanks to the efforts of Starkey and Evans, was sold out almost immediately after the advance booking began. On November 10, 1975 , Kiss publicist Alan Miller contacted Starkey via the radio station and explained that the Kiss management team was impressed with his idea and intended to use it for a national fan club. He asked Starkey to use the radio to raise a call to get as many members as possible to the Kiss Army.
When Kiss landed in Terre Haute on November 21, 1975, they were accompanied by a fan escort to the radio station, where they performed as disc jockeys. During the concert that evening, Starkey was brought on stage and awarded a plaque by the band.
Shortly after the concert in Terre Haute, the Kiss Army became the band's official fan club, and its promotion began with the release of the Kiss album Destroyer in November 1976.
An important goal of the fan club was the sale of merchandising items. The club started with an annual fee of US $ 5 and quickly gained large numbers of members. Ron Boutwell, the director of Kiss's merchandising division, reported that the club had estimated revenues of up to $ 5,000 a day and had nearly 100,000 members. Boutwell also had the idea of promoting membership in the fan club and merchandise items directly with the records that were sold.
In 1979 Kiss found itself in serious financial difficulties. In addition to the financial problems, the fan club was no longer able to handle the incoming mail: Thousands of unprocessed letters from fans with money and checks lay in a warehouse , so that the task of the fan club of a company specializing in mail orders (Don Jagoda Associates). Until then, the Niocua company founded by Kiss manager Bill Aucoin had organized the fan club and the merchandising trade.
After the fan club had been on hold for a few years and was no longer operated, Kiss announced on August 23, 2007 that the Kiss Army was once again an official fan club.
The then US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended a concert by the group on the sidelines of a political meeting in Stockholm in 2008 and joined the fan club.
Today the annual fee for the Kiss Army is $ 50 for Americans, and members outside the United States pay $ 75. Included in the entry is a special fan club t-shirt, membership card, sticker, pick , bracelet and badge. In addition, members of the Kiss Army receive special price advantages, for example when shopping in the online shop and when buying tickets for Kiss concerts. Here, each member can purchase up to four tickets per year before they go on the official advance sale, and in the USA, where the halls are usually seated, special seats are sold to the fan club members.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d Curt Gooch, Jeff Suhs: Kiss Alive Forever - A Complete Touring History ; Billboard Books 2002, first edition; ISBN 0-8230-8322-5
- ↑ a b David Leaf, Ken Sharp: Kiss: Behind the Mask ; Warner Books, New York, 2003. ISBN 0-446-53073-5
- ^ CK Lendt: Kiss and Sell - the making of a supergroup ; Billboard Books NY; ISBN 0-8230-7604-0
- ↑ Matthew Lee: Condoleezza Rice enlists in KISS Army fan club . USA Today . May 30, 2008. Retrieved March 22, 2011.