It's still my fave Kiss album! Enjoy..Kiss Album Focus - Creatures of the Night
“Creatures Of The Night” can essentially be considered as a direct carry on from the new “Killers” studio tracks, and in some ways separating the two albums is pointless because of the time-period in which both were created. However, some separation is required due to the change in guitarist methodology and sonic input. There were very few guitarists involved in the recording of “Killers.” This is in direct contrast to the jumbled confusion and mess of the guitar saga on “Creatures Of The Night.” The differences between the sound, the style, and most importantly the purpose do separate the two products. “Killers” was a stop-gap measure, while “Creatures Of The Night” was supposed to be the first step, and hopefully only step, needed for the band to regain their credibility with their shrunken fan base.
As yet another connection with KISStory (or tangent), Paul Stanley had produced the debut album from a new Boston band, New England, for Infinity Records in 1979. This band had been discovered by KISS manager Bill Aucoin and opened for KISS on some dates of the 1979 “Return Of KISS” tour. Drummer Hirsh Gardener’s biography describes how Paul got involved in a brief vignette: “The boys were offered a choice of any record producer in the industry, as the record company was really into the band and basically all they said was, ‘OK, who do you want?’ Aucoin suggested Paul Stanley of KISS, who wasn’t really a consideration at that point, but the band was open-minded and said, ‘Sure, send him up to Boston for rehearsal.’ That was it. Done deal. Paul flies in, great vibes, knows the board well and production starts” (Dirtywater.com).
The more relevant part of this discourse is that members of that band included Gary Shea, Jimmy Waldo, Hirsh Gardner, and John Fannon. The band had #40 radio hit with “Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya” during the summer of 1979. However, their follow-up single stiffed at #65, and after recording two more albums the band broke up. Following the band’s demise something interesting occurred. According to Gary Shea, “After New England broke up Hirsh, Jimmy and I went to Los Angeles to play with Vinnie Vincent in a group called Warrior” (AORland). And thus Vinnie Vincent enters the story...
There was a bit more to the story than just that. Vice-president of Epic Records, Lenny Petze, had heard that the band had broken up and got in touch with Hirsh suggesting that he try and hook up with a hot guitarist he thought would fit in well with the prospective mix. Hirsch called “Him up and invited him to Boston to jam, and the collaboration cranked out tunes like, ‘Gypsy,’ ‘Back On The Streets,’ ‘Boys Are Gonna Rock,’ ‘Love It Loud,’ and other great Vinnie songs. The boys moved to LA, put together 8-9 tunes, did a demo for CBS and were about to get signed when Gene and Paul snagged Vinnie for the KISS gig. Hirsh recalled that the KISS mates rehearsed next door at SIR Studios and would come round on occasion. They must have liked what they heard. So did Hirsh and he still has demo tapes of songs that made the Warrior project and on to the ‘Creatures Of The Night’ and ‘Lick It Up’ albums. Not the only demos around as the post-Kiss Vincent and Hirsh later collaborated daily for over six months, on what would eventually become the Vinnie Vincent Invasion” (Dirtywater). Other notable songs from the sessions included “Baby-O,” “It Ain’t Pretty Being Easy,” and “I Need Love,” which along with “Gypsy,” “Back On The Streets,” and “Boyz Are Gonna Rock” circulate in excellent sound quality for the avid traders to track down. Instrumentals of “Betrayed” and a tune called “Hot Nights” were also recorded by the band. For the recording of the demos Vinnie, who had always been able to sing, would handle the lead vocals since the band hadn’t specifically found a lead singer.
Adam Mitchell, who was at the time co-writing with KISS and was a friend of Vinnie’s, suggested that he get in touch with Gene. When the two finally did start working together some of the earliest material they wrote included “Killer” and “I Love It Loud.” Vinnie became the new “Sean Delaney” and did writing sessions with Paul. The two collaborated on “I Still Love You” and “Betrayed” (unrelated to the track recorded in 1989). This indicates that the Warrior version of “Betrayed” may have gotten a bit further than the instrumental that circulates. The song was recorded for the “Creatures Of The Night” album and was initially intended for release on it, but cut at the last moment from the lineup along with the excellent “Back On The Streets.”
It’s not clear whether the song was fully completed by KISS at the time. The important issue surrounding the recording of the album was that KISS had found a strong songwriter and guitarist in the form of Vinnie Cusano. At the time the sessions for the album commenced KISS were rehearsing with and auditioning numerous guitar players to fill Ace’s boots. Other guitarists would simply be called in to help record specific tracks on the album with no prospect (or interest) for joining the band. One of the lesser known guitarists who rehearsed with the band was Doug Aldrich, who later worked on a number of Gene Simmons related projects.
While auditions and the search for a permanent replacement for Ace were underway Vinnie had to transform himself from being seen as just a talented musician, working under the band’s nose, to prospective candidate who could fit the position available within the band. This caused no end of problems for Vinnie, who saw the band auditioning prospective candidates to replace Ace Frehley but not really being in consideration for the position, even though he was working with the band, writing and recording. It was a very strange situation for the band and him! Even later Vinnie had to threaten the band with his leaving New York, where rehearsals and recording were taking place, before they would commit to him.
Later Gene simply called him, while he was in the bath, and let him know that he had become the new guitarist in KISS, having beaten out the likes of Bruce Kulick and other better known musicians. Naturally Vinnie freaked out, but it had taken the band a long time to come to the realization that he was the was the right choice to take the band forward. Like Eric Carr before him, his relative obscurity was beneficial to maintaining the mystique of the members of the band.
By July KISS were at the Record Plant studios continuing recording work for the follow-up to “The Elder.” In a large empty concrete rehearsal hall at Record One Studio, next to the studio, the band setup Eric Carr’s drums for him to rerecord the drums tracks on the songs “Nowhere To Run” and “Partners In Crime.” Initially the plan was to beef these tracks up and bring them in line with the sound and style that the band wanted to present on the “Creatures” album. With the amount of material available at the early stages of the recording sessions it is possible that the recycling of these tunes may have been in consideration due to the lack of other material for use on the album.
That Vinnie had not yet entered the scene and jump started the song-writing process may also have played a part. Without a doubt the amount of material for the new record seems to have been very limited. Eric was certainly happy with the fix up work being done on the two tracks, commenting, “Oh, the drums are in a different league now” (Kerrang #21), which they certainly were. The songs would have the bombastic consistency with the production of the sound on the album which the band would attempt to replicate for years, never quite (re)hitting the mark. It was a matter of taking some sandpaper to the smooth production of the original recordings and bringing out the energy with which Eric could attack his instrument. John Bonham would have been proud!
The band recorded one of Vinnie’s songs, “Back On The Streets” with Paul on lead vocals. It is possible that there was a conflict in including two strong ballads on the album, especially when only one of them had a Paul co-write. This in part was due to the changing financial structure of the band which made such credits more and more important to both Gene and Paul in particular. Regardless, the song was ultimately dropped due to unspecified legal reasons (KISS Alive Forever).
The lack of material coming directly from Gene and Paul is also of interest. While the external co-writers were brought in to help with their songwriting perspective, there wasn’t a lot on the album directly attributed to either Gene or Paul. This suggests that while they wanted to create a “hard” album, they didn’t have enough of their own material that had reached an acceptable level of refinement to record a worthy album.
The whole album was a total mess in terms of who played on what. Never before in the history of KISS had there been an album so musically disjointed, yet the situation dictated the strange instrument juggling that would be the main feature of the album. It is just as well that the band never credited the musical performances individually, for the would not have been enough room on the album’s packaging for such detail, nor in many cases would the band be able to remember who played what, and which parts particular contributors were used on each track! For some songs there is some clarity about the instrumentation: Both Paul and Eric play bass on the album, the former on “Creatures Of The Night” and the latter on “I Still Love You.”
Adam Mitchell recalled some of his participation outside of song-writing: “On the first record, the guitars were all played by different people... ‘Creatures Of The Night,’ yeah. I played on the actual song ‘Creatures Of The Night.’ I played in the middle and the end. All kinds of different guitar players played on that. Ace, however, was not one of them even though his face is on the cover” (Angela Monger). The lead guitarist on that track was Steve Farris. Steve was very nearly picked as Ace’s replacement though he was a session guitarist working with Eddie Money at the time. He would go on to be a member of Mr. Mister who had a hit with their “Welcome To The Real World” album in 1985. Breaking from the norm with the band’s declared return to basics, due to the heavy tone of the album, Gene would took the lion’s share of the vocal duties with the album being stylistically most inline with his character’s persona.
Another song demoed/recorded for the album was a rare, by this point, Stanley/Simmons collaboration called “It’s My Life.” This track dated from early in the “Elder” sessions with Paul having written at least the chorus at that time. Later he would give the song to Gene who wrote the rest of it, creating what could have been the band’s rock ‘n roll anthem for the 1980s. While the track was ultimately excluded from the album, the recording was later over-dubbed with Wendy O. William’s vocals and included on her Gene Simmons’ produced WOW album in 1984.
Another track from Wendy’s album seems to have been born during the “Creatures” sessions. “Legends Never Die” was originally written by Micki Free, Adam Mitchell and Gene was tried out by KISS during the 1982 sessions, though Paul was apparently not too keen on the song. Gene later suggested that he took the incomplete KISS instrumental track and added Wendy’s vocals to the song (he’ also contradicted this stating that the song was written specifically for Wendy). It seems logical to assume that if Gene was willing to do that with one “Creatures” era track then he would certainly not hesitate on using another.
Eric Carr was also trying to get involved with the song-writing during this period. He co-wrote “Don’t Leave Me Lonely” with Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance and record the song during the sessions. He recalled, “We got a complete master of that song. I did the drums, it’s got the same ‘Creatures’ drum sound. I played bass. I played all the rhythm guitars on it. I did the lead vocal and all background vocals! The only thing not put on it was a lead guitar! I think I even did some percussion and stuff too. We were really trying to make it work. Two things: My voice didn’t sound right for that song. It didn’t have the attitude that Bryan’s does. And... it just wasn’t right for ‘Creatures’” (Neon Glow, Spring ‘92). Bryan Adams recorded the song for his “Cuts Like A Knife” (1983) album. He also finished up some of the lyrical work on the song.
“Rock And Roll Hell” was a cover of a song that had originally appeared on the 1979 Bachman-Turner Overdrive “Rock And Roll Nights.” The producer of that album had been Jim Vallance. At the time the angst ridden ponderous song was solely attributed to Jim Vallance. During April 1982 Michael James Jackson approached Bryan and Jim to see if they had any material that might work on the new KISS album. They reworked the song giving it a new lyric and a heavier overall feel. They submitted it, along with “War Machine,” to Jackson in July 1982 for consideration for KISS to record. Gene was responsive to the two new songs though he wanted to add an extra verse to the song.
While the song was considered complete prior to submission to Michael, Gene’s contribution allowed him to get a song-writing credit on the piece, and thus change the appearance of the source of the song. That was probably more important than the minor royalty split he received. He didn’t sit down with Jim Vallance and Bryan Adams to write it and whatever additions were simply the result of politics, though perhaps Gene really did feel that the verse he added was “that” important. Throughout the song’s transition, only the verse would retain any similarity with the original song recorded by BTO in 1979.
Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance were also partially responsible for another of the album’s tracks, amusingly, another song that could be considered one of Gene’s signature pieces. Long thought to be the result of the primary input of Gene Simmons due to its subject matter this song’s creation is confused with much lost in the mists of the minds of those involved. According to the Bryan Adams official website, “War Machine” started out as a song written by him and song-writing partner Jim Vallance which was first recorded by the band The Investigators. However, this seems to be an error on Bryan’s part since a band called The Instigators covered the song on the KISS Tribute album “Hard To Believe” in 1990. No reference to the band The Investigators covering the song has ever been uncovered, and while not impossible, it seems that it is from there that confusion has arisen.
KISS’ recording was the first of the song since it was written in July 1982 by Bryan and Jim. Gene has suggested: “War Machine started off, strangely enough, on a cheap, miniature synthesizer. I had been recording demos at home on a small four-track recording facility and wanted to do some different kinds of things. I had bought the cheap synthesizer just to add a layer of sound in back of something, in back of a guitar. But while fiddling with it, I fell on the ‘War Machine’ riff. The original ‘War Machine’ was a song almost purely based around the riff. The riff never stopped and the vocals continued over the guitar figure. Michael James Jackson suggested bringing in a co-writer, who would help with the lyrics. He suggested a brand new writer, who was an up-and-coming recording artist himself, named Bryan Adams, and his writing partner Jim Vallance... Adams and Vallance added some chordal passages and the basic lyrical content including the title ‘War Machine’” (KISS Box Set Liners).
Gene also played rhythm guitar on the recording, joining the long list of guitarists on the album. What changes were made to the song by Gene for use on the “Creatures Of The Night” album are unclear, though from statements he has made, he turned what was mostly a cyclic-riff based song into one with more structure and can essentially be considered to have re-worked the original demo version for use on the album. Gene did make substantial contributions to the song since the three writers have equal royalties shares. Those interested in a possible source of inspiration for the “War Machine” riff should take a listen to “The Minnesota Strip” by the Dictators!
How did “War Machine” and “Rock And Roll Hell” end up in the KISS camp. During 1982 Michael James Jackson would approach Jim Vallance to see if he and Bryan Adams would be willing to write material for KISS. They were, since at that point the Adams/Vallance song-writing partnership did not have the exposure that the KISS name did. When Gene eventually heard the songs that Vallance and Adams had written, he loved them, but had to make changes to them to bring some of his own style into the material, apart from appearing on the credits. This use of external material raises the interesting question of just how short of material and inspiration the band were prior to the recording sessions.
Without external writers for both “Killers” and “Creatures Of The Night” sessions there was little from either Paul and Gene to record. It is difficult to separate the lead guitar work on the album by who did what. The most likely candidates for the majority of the guitar work on the album, apart from the guitar solos by Farris and Robben Ford, are the usual suspects: Vinnie Vincent and Bob Kulick. It should be remembered that the “Creatures Of The Night” recording sessions were a direct follow-on from the “Killers” sessions. Bob Kulick comments, “‘Creatures Of The Night’ was done at the same time – we were in the studio in LA, doing the Killers record and the we went on to ‘Creatures’” (KISS Crazy #11).
While Vinnie was co-writing with the band, and hanging around the studio, is not necessarily indicative of his playing all of the lead guitars on the songs he contributed to. Robben Ford playing the solo on “I Still Love You” is proof of that. However, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t guitar work by either or both Kulick and Vincent on many of the tracks either. There have also been suggestions that Bruce Kulick was a ghost player on some tracks, probably during the “Killers” part of the sessions, in addition to others. Paul certainly had the skill to cover lead whenever he wanted.
Robben Ford also played the guitar solo on “Rock And Roll Hell.” He had recorded material for four songs, but his work would only be used on two. Jimmy Haslip, who had played with Bruce Kulick in Blackjack, played bass on “Danger,” “Rock And Roll Hell,” and other songs. Bob Kulick plays lead on the former of these tracks (Sharp, Ken – Behind The Mask). Gene was also absent from bass duties on another song, possibly “Creatures Of The Night,” with Mike Porcaro playing on at least one track on the album. It is likely that there are other un-credited performances on bass and guitar on the album since the band were probably less interested than fans have become at keeping track of this sort of detail – they were the ones trying to record an album!
“Keep Me Comin’” was one of the last songs written for the album. It was, according to Adam, one of Eric’s favorite tracks on the album because of the massive drum sound. Adam recalled, “For me, my favorite parts of ‘Keep Me Comin’ were two things. The other songs for Creatures we had pretty much written and recorded in L.A. This one we wrote at Paul’s apartment in New York, and we recorded it there (N.Y.). I also remember the drum sound was so great; Eric was just wailing away on those parts. All of the drum sounds on Creatures were great, and Eric was totally into it” (Ron Albanese, KISS Thought Vault #9). Eric’s drumming on the album is strongly etched in Adam’s mind: A “great memory I have of Eric is when we were cutting ‘Keep Me Comin’’ I think it was. Anyway Eric had his drums set up in what was really just a big storage room off the studio. The echo in there was incredible and I remember him sitting there just wailing away and how good it sounded. Eric was the real deal, for sure” (Lynn I. Swanger).
When “Creatures Of The Night” was released on October 26 the public’s reaction to it was hardly over-powering in the United States. There was no instant return to the popularity levels the band had last enjoyed in 1978. Instead, response was quiet if not mostly non-existent as if the band had simply become a non-entity. For Paul Stanley it was enough that the album was completely opposite to everything that the band had done on “The Elder.” It was an act of freeing themselves from the baggage of the previous years and trying to get back to their roots. The album was in that essence everything that the band had desired it to be, unfortunately the fans had gone, and there was equally heavy music already in mass circulation.
Take Iron Maiden’s “Killers” and Judas Priest’s “Screaming For Vengeance” as two contemporary albums which demonstrate the sort of competition that KISS had – and these were two bands who KISS had taken out on tour with them. KISS’ album only charted for 19 weeks and hit a high position of #45 in January 1983 (1/29/83). While this was no doubt an improvement from the performance of “The Elder” it was not the quick fix that the band were hoping for. Even when the band resorted to in-store appearances to promote the album sales remained sluggish, though for the fans who remained such events would have been exciting – KISS in name were still bigger than many acts even though they had fallen a long way. Legends are stronger forces than reality.
During October and November 1982 the band embarked on short promotional tour of several European countries, including Germany, Holland, Italy, and the UK, with Ace Frehley in tow. He was actively promoted at that time as still being with the band. Even at this time the band was not hiding the fact that Ace had not actively performed on the album, though they did give the topic plenty of spin. Ace suggested, “What happened was the band came back to New York and I did some overdubs and some solos, but that was it. Most of the guitar work was put on by Paul and he came through with flying colors” (Kerrang #32).
Paul would also add to the illusion commenting, when asked whether Bob Kulick had helped out, “Bob did come out, yes, but he doesn’t play on the album. When I couldn’t handle things – and I don’t consider myself the ultimate lead player – another friend of ours came in and gave a little help... nobody you’d know” (Kerrang #32). Sounds like an allusion to Vinnie. During the promo tour the band appeared on several TV shows lip-synching performances of songs such as “Creatures Of The Night” and “I Love It Loud.” To say that Ace Frehley looked uncomfortable with the material would be an understatement as made little effort to mask his lack of imitating the music for the songs, not that any such mimed performances are ever perfect. Cameramen and producers are apparently also warned not to focus to closely on the Spaceman who seems to simply be playing out a role assigned to him.
One of the most interesting appearances the band would make was on the Italian show Discoring, where the members hammed it up on their introductions to the crowd before kicking into a performance of “I Love It Loud.” The great camera work on that appearance and set provided for the band make clear the possibilities of what have could have been had Ace stayed in the band. Back in America critical response to the album was generally positive: “The back cover may resemble Dire Straits’ current album jacket but any similarities between the ends there. KISS, still not revealing identities, comes back with a hard-hitting dose of very heavy metal. Whereas the last few Kiss albums made concessions to pop and progressive rock audiences, this album takes the foursome back to its roots – simple but effective heavy metal - which made the band so successful in the first place. Prime cuts are ‘Creatures of the Night,’ ‘I Love It Loud,’ ‘Killer’ and ‘Saint and Sinner’” (Billboard, 11/20/82). While that was undoubtedly more kind than the usual tone of review that the band was used to, it did not light up sales the album would not attain Gold certification from the RIAA until May 1994 – This emphasizes just how stagnant the band’s sales had become.
After returning to the United States in late November, Ace officially left KISS. At the time it was reported that this only a temporary move and that Ace would (re)join the rest of the band on tour at some point. The official legalese concerning Ace’s departure from the band required negotiations that would last through June 1983. It would be a somewhat depressed Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley who prepared for their North American Tour in the December of 1982. Initially the tour had been planned to encompass more than 100 dates, though it was reduced in scale by nearly half. Even before the tour began there were problems outside of KISS that would have a negative impact on the tour, especially one with KISS’ cost and scale.
While KISS hadn’t properly toured the United States in over three years, the music industry was in recession with lower record sales, smaller audiences for many touring acts, and a generally poor economic climate nationally. In an interview with Joel Denver, Gene didn’t seem particularly bothered by the national situation: “You go for broke is the whole point. Through bad times, through good times, through disco, KISS has weathered the storm. And that’s what it’s all about” (Earth News Network). Paul echoed this almost desperate sentiment, commenting, “We don’t really think too much about what the climate or the atmosphere is out on the road. What we try and do, and we’re doing now, is putting all our energy into making it happen. You don’t distract yourself with ‘what if,’ or ‘this could happen or that could happen.’ What we do is we say ‘KISS is going out. KISS is the ultimate. KISS is the best. And that’s what we have to deliver. Because our fans expect it. When you talk about the KISS show ‘the’ is always in capital letters because it is THE KISS show. So that’s what we have to go do. We don’t concern ourselves with the possibilities of mess-ups or anything like that” (Earth News Network). As had been the case in 1979, 1980, and 1981, KISS believed themselves impervious to external factors that would affect them.
Other problems for the band were more internal. After suing their record label the case finally went to court in December 1982. The band had hoped to win $6 million for the label’s alleged mismanagement of royalties, damages caused by the over-pressing of records, and the unlimited return policy (for more on the business side of the dispute, see Chapter 14 of CK Lendt’s KISS & Sell). At the end of the case the band was awarded just over $500,000 which was barely enough to cover the legal fees the case had incurred. For the price of an attempt to dig themselves out of their growing financial problems the band had risked alienating their record label and bet the bank. They lost.
KISS’ position with the record label was at risk. After renegotiating their contract with Phonogram following the Casablanca merger they had not been successful on an international scale. “Unmasked” did well enough outside of America, but even the tours were losing money. “The Elder” had been a utter failure. Now KISS had bitten the had that fed them. With further changes on the horizon, Phonogram was in a position of strength against the band. As a business they were more than ready to exact their revenge on one of the bands that had been a poster-child for the excesses at the “money pit” Casablanca.
During mid-December the band convened in Dallas to rehearse for the tour that was due to begin towards the end of the month. Vinnie Vincent was on hand to fulfill the lead guitarist position. Like Eric Carr before him, Vinnie was given a new makeup design and character which had been designed by Paul. Unfortunately, promoters were bailing out on the band and they were unable to book many venues. KISS could no longer guarantee sales for, in the existing economic climate coupled with their own decline in popularity. “KISS refused to play any buildings that weren’t arenas or big auditoriums,” (Lendt, C.K., KISS & Sell) and as a result the tour took on a strange schedule with plenty of gaps. To pay the bills the band had to play wherever they could, but the time off between shows essentially ate money. For an anniversary tour the band did not get much of a present, nor was there much to celebrate.
The “Creatures Of The Night” / 10th Anniversary Tour kicked off at the Civic Center in Bismarck, North Dakota, on December 29, 1982. It was the band’s first tour of the US since December 1979. The tour had been scheduled to start in Rapid City, South Dakota, two days earlier, but that date had to be postponed due to bad weather resulting in the band’s equipment being stranded elsewhere. Rumors persist that the band played their first show wearing combination costumes dating back to the “Love Gun” era that had to scrounged up and flow in due to the equipment problem. No photographic evidence of this has yet surfaced.
Of interest of the early shows was the material added to the set. “Keep Me Comin’” managed a couple of performances before it was cut from the set. “Rock And Roll Hell” survived for three shows with the final live performance occurring at Rockford’s Metro Center in North Dakota on New Year’s Eve. The song could almost have been dedicated to the missing in action Ace Frehley. Absent from the set was any material from “Unmasked” or “The Elder.” The band had taken the message from the fans, and the lighter material would not have sat well in the sort of set the band presented. There is no shortage of irony with the inclusion of “Rock And Roll Hell” in the set – it was something of a sad statement of the situation that the band had allowed itself to fall into.
With the tour being the first in several years, plus Peter and Ace having departed, the set list was markedly different from earlier tours. “I Love It Loud,” “I Still Love You,” “War Machine,” and “Creatures Of The Night” were the solid representatives from the new album. “Strutter” returned to an American set for the first time since 1976. “I Want You” hadn’t been played since the “Alive II” tour. However, the core of the set remained: “Black Diamond,” “Calling Dr. Love,” “Cold Gin,” “Detroit Rock City,” “Firehouse,” “God Of Thunder,” “Love Gun,” “Shout It Out Loud,” and “Rock And Roll All Nite.”
The decline in KISS’ popularity was very noticeable and the band transformed from kings of popular culture to confused dinosaurs. As an example, one show review commented: When “They first appeared in Rupp Arena in March 1977, the 16,700 people who saw the show made up the largest Rupp concert audience until that time. Then when the band came back to an iced-over Lexington the following January about 10,500 KISS army troops braved the cold (Andy Mead, Herald). By the time KISS returned to Rupp Arena, with Night Ranger in support, for their January 6, 1983 show, a low point had been reached. While the arena had been set up in a “half-house” format, with a maximum of 9-10,000 of the arena’s seats available, the promoter had expected to only sell around half of those seats. Unfortunately, right up until the show “good seats” were still available, and only around 2,500 tickets were sold. This was something of a shock to the promoter, who would on that night lose out and fail to cover costs.
Local music critic Glenn White reviewed the show and suggested, “Maybe this would be a good time for KISS to call it quits. The heavy metal rock theatre group brought its act back into Rupp Arena last night to a less than spirited reception from about 2,500 survivors of the KISS Army” (Herald, 1/7/83). This sort of performance on the hard money side of the business had a damaging effect two-fold: 1) The band were not making any money from ticket sales or possible merchandise sales, the main sources of financial lubrication in the classic era, and; 2) Promoters were not making any money and were in some cases incurring losses. Not the sort of thing that would make them willing to promote the band in the future or offer favorable terms with which to book the band. Promoters are self-interested and not philanthropic, and so look to see how others are doing with particular acts...
There is also the point that dismal attendance resulted in poor reviews, which was hardly positive advertising. By far the band seemed trapped in a vicious downward spiral. The one positive that could perhaps come out of any of the negative attendances or reviews was that KISS thrived on being written off, and had done so since the earliest days. It was another challenge to survive, and if anything come back and thumb their noses at the critics. By far the lowest point of the tour occurred on March 18 at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi, when only 1,500 tickets for the concert were sold. That was out of a maximum capacity of around 15,000 seats available at the venue. 10% ticket sales won’t sustain a band. Much the same was true for other venues as the tour wound its way across the country. In most cases less than half capacity was a good showing.
The tour struggled to a conclusion at San Francisco’s Civic Auditorium on April 3. It must have been an interesting sight for up and coming opening act Mötley Crüe who were brought in for the last five dates of the tour. There has long been the suggestion that the Crüe were kicked off the tour after those five dates. Nikki commented” “We had played a few dates with KISS after ‘Too Fast For Love,’ and not only were they excruciatingly boring but Gene Simmons had kicked us off the tour for bad behavior” (The Dirt). That comment is in direct contrast to something Nikki said in 1986: “They’re the greatest! We had a blast on tour! They taught us the importance of treating an opening act with respect and consideration” (Faces Metal Muscle No. 1).
The truth of the matter is that the Crüe couldn’t get kicked off a tour that was ending (even if further dates had been planned). Regardless, the Crüe played KISS’ final US shows in make-up until 1996. The accusation that KISS’ shows were boring cannot be substantiated, though with Ace Frehley and Peter Criss departed from the band by 1982 there was a lack of toxic craziness from the band with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley being notorious straight-arrows, unless women were counted. Regardless, KISS would provide the Crüe with their first major national tour exposure.
The years of experimentation, while harder-edged bands had taken up the metal mantel, had taken its toll on KISS’ fan base who had disappeared even though the band had finally delivered a metal album they’d been promising since 1980! KISS’ business decisions, notably the decision to sue their record label would return to haunt the band as the label had decided that it was interested in vengeance, especially since the band was seemingly no longer viable. Paul had once suggested that had “The Elder” been successful then they would probably have done an ‘Elder II: War Of The Gods,’ which would “have gone hard anyway... it would have been the conflict” (Kerrang, #21) of the flaky story line of the Elder saga. Without the pretensions of the concept, “Creatures Of The Night” was that conflict album. It was hard and heavy, took no prisoners, made no pretensions, but in essence it was too late.
In terms of collectibility from the Japanese version of “Creatures Of The Night” (PolyStar 28S-138) comes with one of the best picture center-rings used on any nation’s vinyl releases ever making it one of the most desirable pieces of vinyl just in terms of coolness. Using the Elder-era picture used on some countries “A World Without Heroes” (notably Holland) singles, the center-ring is split much like the style of the Dynasty label. A multi-color KISS logo is used overlaid on the picture with the details of the songs on each side appearing on the bottom half of the label. This excellent picture label was listed on the obi as one of the premiums included with the album with the other two being a pocket binder which was likely given to the purchaser at time of purchase and yet another sticker. The album also came with the usual Japanese language biography and album lyric insert booklet.
As for the United States versions of the album the first pressings came with a metallic-logo effect on the center-ring which had a black background for enhanced emphasis. This would be replaced with the standard Casablanca ring soon afterwards, probably after the initial pressings had been sold. Copies include a printed inner-dust sleeve with the song lyrics and production details.
The US also saw a single released from the album with only the second picture sleeve being included (the first being for the “Flaming Youth” single in 1976), in the form of “I Love It Loud” b/w “Danger” (Casablanca NB-2365). This picture sleeve was a cropped version of the album sleeve and was also used in Canada, Sweden, Germany, and Holland (and probably other countries also). The rear of the cover used the posed photo shot that was used on many of the promotional posters for the album. One of the oddest items issued from the album was a promotional picture disc from the album which had a picture of the album cover under the words “The Loudest Band In The World” (Casablanca/PolyGram GAS-01). What is not clear is whether this image was on both sides of the album or whether there was any music or such on the album or whether the item was simply album shaped or made of vinyl. Regardless, as a promotional hanging piece it is interesting at a time when PolyGram was very unlikely willing to throw much money at the band.
Most other countries released at least one single from the album, usually “Killer” or “I Love It Loud.” A notable exception to this is the UK which released “Creatures Of The Night” with a purple effect cover using the album’s artwork. The biggest gimmick release ever issued was the European “Killer” which came with a moving tongue picture sleeve – at least Phonogram was still trying to promote the band in Europe, even though that had never been their strongest market. Japan, strangely, released just one single from the album.
he actually had more chart success than Kiss at the time...
