Retro-Active: KISS – The Hottest Brand in the Land!

When KISS first landed onto the music scene in the winter of 1974, the grand idea of rock and roll merchandising had not as yet become big business. In fact, only Elvis Presley, The Beatles and to a lesser extent, The Monkees, mined that rich vein for maximum profits. That all changed once KISS hit it big with the album, KISS Alive! and the follow-up studio record, Destroyer. Given their larger-than-life intergalactic superheroes-with-electric-guitars image, they proved to be the perfect subject for merchandising, with KISS dolls, lunch boxes, trash cans, posters, model kits, Colorforms sets, board games, puzzle, belt buckles, KISS radios and KISS jewelry among the avalanche of merchandise introduced to the public en masse. The KISS merchandising bonanza exploded in 1977 and today continues to be a cash cow. tallying multi-millions of dollars a year with high-end items ranging from a KISS pinball machine to replica KISS costumes to satiate the never-ceasing demand from the devoted legions of the KISS Army.

A terrific new 10″ x 10″ coffee table book, KISS: The Hottest Brand in The World by Nicholas Buckland, exhaustively chronicles KISS’s merchandising heyday in the ‘70s to early ‘80s. Not just an indispensable compendium drawing together all of the band’s merchandise produced during the first flush of fame in their KISStory, the lavish 390-page tome is equally impressive as an art book ala Taschen. Beautifully designed and earmarked by its dynamic aesthetically pleasing visual design, the book, officially sanctioned by KISS, acts as a time machine celebrating the world of KISS merchandise. Documenting KISS songbooks, KISS dolls, KISS mirrors, KISS sleeping bags and more, Buckland draws the reader with both the book’s stylish design flair and textural context; each piece of merchandise provides an informative entry offering relevant background about the merchandise with details placing it against the then pop culture zeitgeist.

In 2020, KISS remain a huge worldwide business phenomenon and long after KISS hang it up after their “End Of The Road” tour winds up in 2021, the KISS brand will continue to flourish. Buckland’s wonderful book is required reading for not only KISS fans but general music aficionados. Highly recommended. For more info/ordering details, visit hottestbrandbook.com.

Join us for a conversation with author Nicholas Buckland.

What makes KISS the hottest brand in the land?
Nicholas Buckland: The sheer scope of KISS merchandise gives the band’s imagery, characters and logo lives of their own. Whilst other groups can play only off the individual members as human musicians, the “superhero” factor of KISS allows them to go where not many others can follow.

Speak about how Kiss more than any other rock and roll band pioneered the art and commerce of merchandising.
While it’s true that The Beatles had their fair share of crazy merchandise (Beatles wigs, shoes and hairspray), it was KISS who took full control and actually started actively promoting their own merchandise in the order forms within albums/tour books. The band’s unique characters led to avenues that were insurmountable to many other groups and the band’s fans welcomed the merchandise. Trash cans, lunch boxes, radios, dolls – you name it, they could do it.

What is your favorite piece of KISS merchandise?
We’re all nostalgia fans, so the one that personally is my favorite is the 1980 Peters Ice Cream box, growing up in Australia the band were massive then with their own range of Australian-only items and I distinctly remember going to the local shop and buying these – along with Empire Strikes Back ones too!

Fill us in on what was the most successful piece of KISS merchandise and share the backstory behind that item.
Probably the most successful is the Marvel KISS comic from 1977. While proposed to Marvel as early as 1976 by (KISS manager) Bill Aucoin and KISS’s director of promotion Alan Miller, the story centered around an idea by Sean Delaney. In fact it was Bill and Sean’s idea to have it printed in the band’s blood. In late February the band donated the blood backstage at a New York gig and then three months later – on May 25 – the band flew to the printing plant to be filmed pouring the blood into the red ink with Marvel boss Stan Lee in attendance (Stanley meets Stan Lee, indeed!). The comic was so successful at combining the band’s look with super powers of classic superheroes, it sold over 800,000 copies. A rumor suggests the blood never made it into the actual run of the comic due to missing a print deadline, instead ending up in a Sports Illustrated magazine. But let’s not let facts spoil a good promotion! KISS warmed up to their comic debut by appearing briefly in two Howard The Duck issues – Issues #12 and #13 in May and June, respectively.

Characterize the contributions of KISS’s manager Bill Aucoin and merchandising partner Ron Boutwell and how they turned the KISS empire into a multi-million dollar business back in the 70’s.
Bill wasn’t really from a music background, he was from an advertising/TV production area. So he probably had no preconceived ideas about what the limitations could be. With no restrictions they were free to build the brand as they saw fit. And magically, the group’s imagery and fan base were in unison with the concept. Without the marketing and merchandise they may not have been as much in the public’s eye if they were just a musical group.

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HITTIN’ THE BIG TIME… Making it big in rock and roll is a proverbial crap shoot where lady luck and timing, far exceed talent alone and are often the overriding factors that push one artist/band over the threshold of commercial success. Two bands that emerged from the late ‘70s, The Babys and New England, were major label acts blessed with massive talent, consummate songwriting skills and impressive instrumental virtuosity but for some inexplicable twist of fate aligned with the aforementioned luck and timing failed to make the jump to the big leagues to become international superstars. Led by vocalist extraordinaire John Waite, The Baby hit close, racking up a few hits, notably “Isn’t It Time,” “Every Time I Think Of You,” and “Back On My Feet Again,” plus garnered considerable FM rock airplay with “Head First” and “Midnight Rendezvous.” Opening shows for the likes of Journey and Alice Cooper and headlining smaller venues in select cities across the States, The Babys were primed for a breakthrough that unfortunately never came. Just released by Cherry Red Records, a new 6-CD box set, The Babys – Silver Dreams: Complete Albums 1975-1980, offers the definitive look at this criminally underrated musical outfit. Alongside newly remastered versions of the band’s five studio albums, The Babys, Broken Heart, Head First, Union Jacks and On The Edge, the collection includes rare radio single edits, mono versions, B-sides and live cuts pre-first album demos, plus a powerful live set recorded in 1977 at the Tower Theater on Philadelphia.

The Babys had two lineups, the founding lineup with John Waite, Wally Stocker, Tony Brock and Michael Corby and the other lineup minus Corby and the addition of Jonathan Cain and Ricky Phillips. Do you prefer one lineup over the other?
Tony Brock: Just the four of us was so special, that was The Babys. Then we became something else with the five of us. There was nothing wrong with it. We were more of a Free/Backstreet Crawler type of a band when it was the four of us. We were doing the thing we loved and it was raw and honest. It became more corporate as we moved on. “

What are your memories of recording the last Babys album, On The Edge?
Wally Stocker: I enjoyed making that record. I was happy with the songs and the sound of it. It wasn’t the easiest record for us to make because we were constantly out on tour and we tried to fit that record in. I think everybody was a little exhausted.

Ricky Philips: I think the record may have been a little bit rushed. It’s too bad because you can really see the growth of the band from Union Jacks. But we just didn’t have the edge that Union Jacks did. The naivete of Union Jacks was the beauty of it. I think we were thinking too much and didn’t really have the time.

Why do you think The Babys never achieved mass commercial success?
Phillips: Timing is a lot of it. When punk came in hard and heavy, right at our pinnacle of what we were starting to realize, and I think the record company was highly influenced by that. They were an English label and although America never really jumped on that bandwagon, they gave more importance to it.

Stocker: I wish I had a good answer for that. Nowadays that name would fit in. I wouldn’t say we were ahead of our time. But I think if we were still together at this point, I think we’d fit in very well with what’s going on musically.

Brock: We got so much respect and to me, you can’t have anything better than that. I have to say, as long as I’m not sounding corny, there isn’t one Babys song that I’m not proud of.

Meanwhile, the story of New England offers a similarly downcast tale of a tremendously talented band who on paper had all the goods required for superstardom. Mining a collision of sound akin to Queen, Boston and ELO, the band released three studio albums, New England, co-produced by Mike Stone (Queen) and Paul Stanley of KISS, which sported their only Top 40 single, “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya;” Explorer Suite; and Walking Wild, produced by Todd Rundgren. Listening to their back catalog of pomp pop classics one is befuddled how a band this talented with songs this strong failed to make it. Now you can judge the merits of their fine work with the 5-CD box set, New England-The New England Archives Box Set: Vol 1 ( Cherry Red). The 5-CD set makes a compelling case for this shoulda-been mega stars with scores of pre-first album demos of the band and pre-New England band known as Target that demonstrate the band’s evolving sound and songwriting adventures, rough mixes of their first three albums plus a disc of demos mooted for a fourth album that never materialized. Listening back to these two career spanning releases, both The Babys and New England deserved much more.

John, you penned the vast majority of the songs for New England, who were the artists that inspired you?
John Fannon: The British pop scene was where I was coming from–The Beatles were a big influence, Electric Light Orchestra, Queen and The Moody Blues. In terms of the arrangements, I already had a direction and idea for how I wanted it to sound but things would get further honed in rehearsals. With both the songs I wrote and the arrangements, I thought in terms of the band and their strengths. The really cool thing about New England was, as full as those arrangements were, we did everything live with just the four of us.

How did the individual styles and tastes of the band inspire the collective whole?
Gary Shea: The cool thing about New England was the diversity of material. With some bands you hear three songs and you’ve heard it all and that wasn’t the case with us. The music is always challenging and interesting. The four of us are a great team that collectively embellishes all the songs with a distinct flavor of our individual strengths. Replacing any one of us would never sound the same because of our musical synchronicity, common influences, and our long history of playing together.

The band had a top 40 hit with “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya” and all signs pointed toward a breakthrough with the follow-up album, Explorer Suite, which in many ways might be the band’s most ambitious release. Why didn’t it succeed?
Fannon: I think it was totally the record company. They just didn’t get behind it. I don’t think our management company was behind it as much. Explorer Suite just went over their heads and the record company too. There wasn’t another “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya” there. [laughs] In those days you can get lost in the shuffle of a record company and it’s really a shame because it was a great record.

Shea: I know exactly why that record didn’t break through. We wrote the song “Conversation” to compete with all the new wave acts at the time like The Pretenders, Nick Lowe, Graham Parker and Elvis Costello. We thought “Conversation” was good song for radio. Elektra Records agreed but said, “We want to showcase the talent of the band by releasing ‘Explorer Suite’ as a single.”We said, “What are you crazy?!” They said, “We’re Elektra Records, we know what we’re doing, we worked with The Doors.” They had somebody edit the song and chop it up into a three minute version, which was horrendous. They put it out and nobody cared about us because they were all crazy about Elvis Costello at the moment and we were some dinosaur band. So that was no fun. We toured all over the place, played with everyone from Molly Hatchet to Thin Lizzy.

From your perspective, which New England album holds up best?
Fannon: Explorer Suite is my favorite of the three albums. It turned out the way I envisioned it with everybody’s performances and I thought the songs did get better. The irony is that album and the next one didn’t do very well and I thought I was getting better as a songwriter so that was a little frustrating.

Jimmy Waldo: The first album. To me, there were several song on that album that were undeniable hits—”Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya,” “Nothin’ to Fear,” “Hello, Hello, Hello” and “Alone Tonight.” That first record epitomizes what the band was all about.

Shea: I like all three but I’ll go with the first one because it was such an exciting time when our career was in full sail.

Hirsh Gardner: That’s difficult to answer. From my point of view each album is comprised of 10 or 11 different pieces of music and each piece comprised of many, many, many different parts and performances. Each of those parts, be it the mellotron in “Get It Up,” the intro guitar riff to “Lose Ya,” any one of the drum tracks, the layered background vocals…all of those parts are so significant to the overall New England sound, that for me, saying that one part, one song or one album is stronger than another is impossible. Break down any song and really listen, really focus on an individual part and performance. That’s when you realize the strength of every song is a combination of all the great performances within that song.

Pick a song that you feel best epitomizes the essence of New England.
Fannon: “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya” because that was our signature song. Also, I’d pick “Hope” with that great jam on the end, the band is just crankin’. To me it’s one of the all-time great grooves. But in many ways, the overall sound of New England is in all our songs, the organs, the mellotrons, the drums.

Shea: I’ll pick “Honey Money.” It’s a powerful track. It’s got a little bit of everything we do. It’s got the Beatle-y kind of stuff, the heavier things going on and it’s got backwards vocals. I also really like “Shall I Run Away” from the first album which is one of the more progressive songs we did—very ethereal, and spacey. That song came off great live.

Waldo: I’d have to go back to our first record, and pick some of those songs, “Lose Ya,” “Shall I Run Away,” “Alone Tonight,” “Nothin’ to Fear.”

Gardner: For me, I’ll go with “L-5.” It was a song idea that the band came up with and it was a song where Todd Rundgren helped write the lyrics. I think some of the outside influences that came in were really great. We were always looking for a producer to take our sound, tweak it a bit and take it to the next level. It’s like what Mutt Lange did with Def Leppard. We wanted someone to take all of this talent, this great songwriting, this great singing, this great musicianship and take it to the next level and give us enough gasoline so the fire can continue to burn.

Retro-Active is written by Ken Sharp, who can be reached directly at sharpk@aol.com or 818-986-9715. ©2020. All rights reserved.