Game with fire

"Neo -fascism, punk, violence." These three words were advertised by the American group of KISS in the legendary “black lists” of musicians banned in the Soviet Union-censorship instructions that were distributed and were executed by Komsomol organizations in the mid-1980s. In the neo-fascists there were many-even the Spanish singer-romantic Julio Iglesias did not escape this stigma. However, Kiss , founded in 1973 by two New Yorkers of Jewish origin, Paul Stanley (Stanley Aizen) and Gin Simmons (Chaim Vits), was the most vivid illustration of the complete degradation of the massive culture of the “rotting West” for Soviet propaganda, disappeared for the purity of youth minds. Black and white “monsters masks”, hiding the faces of the musicians, brilliant armor in spikes and boots on tall platforms in which they went on stage, performances on which rumbling drums, jealous guitars and exploding firecrackers drowned in the squeals of the crowd, and all this under the luminous hundreds of lights, the group’s logums, the group, In which the SS lightning is guessed. Funes in hell, not hard-roots. The Soviet press called KISS musical garbage, puppets on the stage, defectors of the rock and cynical preachers of Kitch, while not forgetting to describe the “Carousel of Horror” they started: “On a huge scene of chromium, glass and neon rush, as if on a bunch of shamans, four devilish figures, roar and gnashing. And it is not clear: where is the “music”? ” It is not surprising that the Soviet schoolchildren of the 80s have the forbidden cult of KISS , despite the fact that there was nowhere to listen to their songs; Years later, having reached the coveted records of the group, many were disappointed - the sound of the Americans was not so unbearably hellish, and they did not sing about demons and violence, but about parties and love.

Kiss - "Rock'n'Roll all nite"

Now KISS , more than 40 years ago, have constructed their style from spare parts taken from the shocking Glam Rock New York Dolls , the Elis Cooper Musical Horroes Theater and superheroes, are one of the most expensive brands in the history of rock. Under it, not only stadium shows are sold, where a record amount of pyrotechnics is used, but also video games, credit cards, bicycles, coffins, cosmetics and condoms. On some branded T -shirts that have changed the design for these decades, the group has earned millions of dollars. A brand with such an experience and history as KISS , you can do anything, just do not change radically, and the American classics of rock and roll circus do not change. Their last, 20th, album “Monster” , released in 2012, is a cocktail of musical stamps, which were also invented in the 70s, uncomplicated texts and thoughtless fun. KISS concerts, at which the half of Stanley and Jin Simmons fly over the seventh ten over the crowd on cables are all the same set of tricks that Soviet schoolchildren dreamed of seeing from the mid-1980s. Only they can be seen better from the far stadium rostrum, since on large LED panels, which were not in the eighties, there is a skillfully mounted video broadcast.

KISS concert from the youth comedy “Detroit is the city of Rock” (1999). The film takes place in the late 1970s, but the group acts in approximately the same way:

The second appearance of KISS in Moscow, which took place on May 1 at the Olympic, did not disappoint the veterans of the Kissomans army, nor the shift they cited - young children. Going down on the stage on a moving platform, a star boy, a demon, an alien and a cat did not retreat from his own canon; Even the replicas pronounced by Stanley Paul, who slightly updated his image with an electric guitar in the colors of the Russian flag and a flirty fluffy tail, just coincided with memorable concert records. In each issue of almost a two-hour program composed of the most famous songs of the group, something exploded or burned. Jin Simmons spit with fire and fake blood, soared under the dome of the Olympic and expressively polished his bass gitar in the form of an ax with scarlet tongue. Paul Stanley regularly broke on high notes, but its vocal failures were compensated by the final flight without safety long and guitar solo on a rotating platform, as well as choral singing of the hall that reached the euphoric peak on the I Was Made For Loving You -Hit. “Carousel of Horror” Kiss , untwisted 44 years ago, continues to entertain people. At the same time, the main element of their show is precisely what the inspiring music, which the Soviet Pisaks called garbage and roar; Spectacular, loud and peppy songs, glowing with a crazy spark of early rock and roll.

Kiss - "Lick it up"

The most amazing thing is that in the songs and shows of KISS , which have long been counted for the rock classic, the exciting power of hooliganism and provocations is still felt, because of which they were afraid and adored in the Soviet Union. "How Many of You Girls Like to Get Licked?" (in literary translation: “Which of you, young virgins like to be linked?”) Shouted to the microphone Paul Stanley to declare the performance of the Lick It Up song, with which the KISS period without a make -up period began. The crowd in the Olympic Basovito hung in a choir merged from thousands of both male and female voices - apparently, they did not quite make out what this elderly man with a whitened face and painted lips asked. If some guardians of the spiritual bastards, of which there were a great many in Russia, occurred to study the texts of the group’s songs with a magnifying glass, they would have found many reasons for censorship-they would see the propaganda of violence ( “cold gin ”) , sex (“love guun”) , or even neo-fascist Concerts, as happened in 2014 with the Russian tour of the KISS student Marilyn Manson. Thank God there was. As they wrote in 1982 in the newspaper Sovetskaya Culture: "Kiss continues to play with blood and fire."