If you follow the site, you know I’m a huge Billy Idol fan and anytime I can find a rare piece that I don’t have in the collection, I jump on it. This time around, I found a bootleg. And I do love my bootlegs. This is my fourth Idol bootleg and this one is from way back in 1990. It was recorded at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, California on October 27, 1990. That means this would’ve been in support of his latest album at the time, ‘Charmed Life’ and we get a few from that album in the set list. Be warned, this is not a full show. This is a best of that was broadcast on radio at the time. But still, 10 songs of Billy is better than nothing am I right? Yeah…I am.
The version I have is a European release and was released recently back in 2023. I found it down in Tamp Florida at a store called D&J Records. I like to hit up local record stores when I am on vacation so this one was found back in June earlier this year. And I was thrilled to grab hold. Sadly, you will notice in the band credits, that there is no Steve Stevens on guitar as he and Billy were still on the outs at this time and for many years still to come. Does it impact the show? We will find out shortly.
If there is one thing I love to find and that is Kiss Bootlegs. Whether it is on CD or vinyl, I don’t really care. I do prefer vinyl, but I’ll take it on CD as well so I can play it anywhere once I load it up to the cloud. This time around it is a CD bootleg. And not any CD bootleg, but a whole collection of radio broadcast from over the years. In fact, there are 8 shows spread over 10 CDs and includes 119 tracks. A good coverage of years from as early as 1974 all the way up to 1994. I guess there aren’t too many broadcast after the 90’s as you can see from below…
I love that it covers the make-up era and the non make-up era all the way up to prior to the big Reunion Tour. And it even includes one Non-Kiss Show with a Frehley’s Comet one. The are radio broadcast so the quality is good, but realize these are bootlegs and not pure soundboard recordings released by the band with the sound cleaned up. The set comes in a small cardboard box with each individual disc in a fake vinyl-like sleeve. Nothing fancy, but they cram a lot of music in to a small package.
These are raw and rough and that is why I like them. I really enjoy bootlegs and getting all the shows that I can have from throughout their career. The band started releasing their own “bootleg” type albums with the ‘Off the Soundboard’ Series, but after five releases, that has been put on hold currently. I do hope they get back to it soon. For now, let’s go through this set of albums.
Disc 1:
WMMS, Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio, 1st April 1974 / King Biscuit Flour Hour, The Music Hall, Cleveland, Ohio, 21st June 1975
If you are thinking, “John, you’ve reviewed this show before”. You would be right. I reviewed it about a 1 1/2 years ago. But this one is different…it has a different cover and from a different manufacturer. In my quest to get as many Kiss Bootleg’s I can, I found this one in a local record show, new and sealed. And cheap. This is actually an easy one to get if you are collecting Kiss Bootlegs. I think I paid $20 for it. When I saw it, I knew I had this show, but I really liked the cover and this one has clear vinyl. Otherwise, there is nothing really special about this one, no inserts, no picture sleeves and no surprised in the package like I have received in a lot of my bootlegs. This one is rather generic. For historical reasons though, it is pretty cool. The recording is an FM Broadcast from April 18, 1974 in Memphis, TN at the Lafayette Music Room and is one of the earliest recordings of the band.
Soundwise…well…let’s just say there is sound. This is a recording off a radio broadcast on to a tape. That tape was then copied, which was then copied, which was then copied, which was then copied and keep going for another dozen copies. There is a massive tape drag at several points during the show which slows the song down and it is quite noticeable. That proves that the source material was from an old tape that had been copied many times. Yes, the sound sucks at times and might be on the low end of some of my bootlegs, but I am still okay with it and because I collect them I will buy regardless.
If you look at the setlist, you will notice a few things stand out. One is they basically played the entire debut album with a few minor exceptions. Two, they play the song “She” which won’t come out until 2 albums later on ‘Dressed to Kill’. And Three, they play a song called “Acrobat” which is actually the basis for the song “Love Theme From Kiss” from the first album. This is two months after the debut album release, so it is strange they played the “Acrobat” version and not the album version.
SIDE A:
The album and set opens with “Deuce” and boy can you hear the tape drag on this one, pretty drastic. But you can still make out the song and hear Gene just fine as it is in the instruments where you have the issues. Nothing is real clear except the vocals. Towards the end of the song, it clears up and gets a little louder and that cowbell comes in nicely. “Strutter” is up next after a slight pause and you get more wobbly instruments and even a little on the vocals this time around. Paul sounds like he is singing the song so much slower. Again, you are buying this strictly for the historical value…that is what I keep telling myself anyway.
“Firehouse” sounds great and I happy with that version. It is an untouched, live version warts and all and it is quite enjoyable. Ace’s solo sounds good and you get a glimpse of the band doing what they do best with no real hiccups. The cool song on here is “She” as I said it hadn’t even been released yet on an album. The guitar opening on it sounds a little slower and I am guessing that is the tape drag as there is a lot of wobble. But vocally again, sounds good. Gene is menacing as ever and Paul on background duties. The coolest part is the instrumental break/guitar solo as it isn’t what we get later. This the reason to buy this release if you need one. And last up for Side 1 is the badass song “Nothin’ to Lose”. And by this time you are used to the wobble and so it starts sounding pretty decent (okay, decent enough). I love this song as you get both Gene and Peter on vocals (and Paul is heard pretty good on backing vocals). I love Peter’s gritty and raspy old school singing on this one. Always fun.
SIDE 2:
Side 2 kicks off with the Ace Frehley penned song “Cold Gin” (after the radio DJ does a station break), but with Gene on vocals as Ace wasn’t singing this early on in the band. Now, I did get to see Ace do this one this past Summer when he opened for Alice Cooper but that is another story. I really love this song but I will say this version seemed a little flat and not sure if that was the band or the recording itself. After a little tuning, we get Gene’s bass and some thumps until they become “100,000 Years”. Paul sounds fresh and youthful and can do some great ooh-yeahs back then.
Another favorite of mine to hear live is “Black Diamond” even with a DJ interrupting the opening notes for a station break. The tape is wobbly again as it sounds a little funky and messed up, but it is still “Black Diamond”. I love the slow opening and then the bombastic explosion for the rest of the song. Plus, the instrumental break and solo are always great. An all around fantastic song every time I hear it. The song ends the broadcast. Then the show announcer comes back and the band is tuning their instruments a little they go in to what is labeled as “Acrobat” but it cuts out the “Love Theme From Kiss” parts off and is just the band jamming. Peter has a little drum solo piece then the band kicks in and they jam out, all instrumentally and then they start singing only a little. There are very few lyrics and they sing “You’re much too young” a couple times and then they go back to jamming and we get a killer guitar solo piece as well. Then Paul says “Good Night” and it is all over. Fun track.
Despite the tape drag and the wobbly sound in out at times throughout, I still find this an enjoyable most especially for an early version of “She” and for the encore with “Acrobat”. It is also a cool historical piece to have anything live and uncut from 1974 with them really just getting going. All-in-all, it turned out to be an okay show as you get used to the sound issues and you enjoy it for what it is. I can’t give it too high of a score, but I will give it at least a 2.5 out of 5.0 Stars (but it should get more for the two songs I mentioned – maybe a 3.0 to 3.5…but that might be too generous).
I can’t believe we are on our 20th Review in the Kiss Bootleg Series. Nuts to think I’ve picked up that many. This one is called ‘The Ritz on Fire’ which is from August 12, 1988, The Ritz, New York City. A radio broadcast, from the Crazy Nights tour. This one is not the full show, but sort of a Best Of Compilation of that show. There are a bunch of different ones out there, some with full shows and some like this. I do have a show from the Crazy Nights Tour that was recorded on April 18, 1988 in Osaka, Japan, so I figured I’d grab this one as well as why not, you can never have enough Kiss Bootlegs…obviously or we wouldn’t be on #20.
I have found that this version is one of the few bootlegs that get all the packaging correct. They have the right band members in the pictures (Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Eric Carr and Bruce Kulick) and the right song titles and I don’t see any mistakes which is rare in the Bootleg world.
This is Kiss live much in the same vein as their current “Off the Soundboard” series in that there are no touchups, it is as you heard it when it happened and in this case as it was on the radio broadcast. The first 9 songs on this 10 song set are in order of the original setlist and it isn’t until the 10th song that it jumps ahead a number songs and plays one more. Basically, it is the first half of the show.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 