Description
Double album on white vinyls with gatefold cover, poster and 5 colour photos. Limited 125 copies
Kiss released “Creatures Of The Night” on the 25th of October 1982 and by the same time lead guitarist Ace Frehley decided to leave the band to pursue a solo career. Frehley was replaced by Vinnie Vincent in time for the Kiss 10th Anniversary Tour. Vincent is given the character of an Egyptian ankh warrior. Just like Criss with Unmasked, Frehley had not played a note on the Creatures album (although rumours say otherwise). The 10th Anniversary Tour was the second tour with new drummer Eric Carr but his first tour that took him through United States. It was of course the first tour with Vinnie The Wiz Vincent. The groups’s lucrative record contract with Polygram required Kiss to be composed of founders Gene Simmons (bass), Paul Stanley (singer/guitarist)- and Frehley. The release did not say Frehley had quit, but instead stated Frehley was too injured from a recent car crash to tour, but might make appearances onstage when able. The band used group photos containing Ace Frehley for the tour’s press kits and ad material during early dates; these were used by promoters for advertising, so many fans did not realize Frehley was replaced until they came to the venues. Before Vincent was announced, new photos were taken and later dates featured the band with Vincent in show ads. The tour was billed as their “Tenth Anniversary Tour” and silver was used in tour promotion and for the guitar pick and drum stick signatures in keeping with a ‘silver anniversary’ theme. The tour started out on the 29th of December 1982 and it ended on the 3rd of April in 1983 a tour that took them through Canada and Usa only. The Creatures Of The Night album had been voted to fifth place in Kerrangs top ten albums of 1982 and the album was at place 53 on the Billboard charts in the Usa in early 1983. Still the attendance during this North America tour was abysmal; even though the band had returned to its signature hard rock after several years of pop and disco-influenced music, very few people showed up at the concerts on the tour. Co-frontman Paul Stanley recalled a show in Lexington, Kentucky (on the 6th of January) where he threw a pick that went over the entire audience of 2,500 and hit the floor. This album features a recording made two days earlier at Charlestone Civic Center in Charleston, West Virginia and it was during this show that the band cut the second verse of I Love It Loud. I Want You was a track that returned for this tour and it was the first time since the Alive II tour in 1978, Vinnie Vincents guitar solo sounded different and it wasnt until i heard that it was one of the few occasions that Vinnie was using a Violin bow for his solo. The band had mainly three different support acts for this 10th Anniversary Tour and they were Motley Crue, Plasmatics or Night Ranger, however none of these three seems to have done the Charleston gig. What i have read it was an early 80s new wave band called Defectors that opened for this perticular show. A few weeks later the band had to cancel the announced gig at Civic Center in Providence on the 23rd of January due to poor ticket sales (less than 2000 tickets sold). The band decided to cancel the rest of their touring plans but instead they were offered 3 dates in Brazil in June, where they played to the biggest crowds of their career, the last shows with make up until the reunion shows in the 90s.
Track list:
1. Radio Advertisement For The Show
2. Creatures Of The Night
3. Destroit Rock City
4. Calling Dr. Love
5. Firehouse
6. I Want You
7. Guitar Solo-Vinnie Vincent
8. I Love It Loud
9. Cold Gin
10. Bass Solo-Gene Simmons
11. God Of Thunder
12. Guitar Solo-Paul Stanley
13. Love Gun
14. Drum Solo-Eric Carr
15. War Machine
16. I Still Love You
17. Shout It Out Loud
18. Black Diamond
19. Strutter
20. Rock And Roll All Nite