What are the Kiss characters?
Maybe it’s because my mother is a musician, but it always used to baffle me when artists talked about “discovering” how “normal people” could be musicians, too. The shock of finding out, via punk or grime or indie that their favourite artists weren’t creatures from another dimension, put on this earth to be adored by peasants like them. That they were human beings, ones who applied themselves to a vocation and, by that token, they could do the same. Maybe the other reason why I never thought rock stars were from a different planet was because I never had a Kiss phase.
I mean, if you’re a young music fan, as pure as undriven snow, what else could you think? These grotesque, amazing creatures look like they should be fighting The Fantastic Four, but that’s them on Top Of The Pops next to Noel Edmonds? No offence to the man who invented the House Party, but they can’t be the same species, let alone in the same industry. Then you see them live, and The Demon is spitting blood, The Space Ace is shooting sparks from his guitar, and the Catman is… there, too, I guess.
It’s music the same way WWE is a competitive sport. The music is there, and it’s fine until you realise Cheap Trick basically did everything they did but better, but the pageantry and showmanship make it art. When The Undertaker and Kane squared off at Wrestlemania 20, as an 11-year-old, I couldn’t care less that the wrestling itself had all the spark and finesse of month-old milk. The spectacle wasn’t just enough; it was the draw. So, with that in mind, what are the characters that made the greatest branding exercise in rock history so popular?
So, what are the Kiss characters?
First up, we have Gene Simmons, a man who is infinitely more palatable on stage and in character as bass-playing monster The Demon. He of the (allegedly) seven-inch-long tongue fancies himself the creative driving force of the band and can be found these days spreading his bat-like wings and flying across the stage. Nice work if you can get it!
His co-pilot is The Starchild Paul Stanley. Whereas Simmons put serious work and inspiration behind his character, Stanley was always more about the music. Since he always wanted to be the star of the show, his character, ‘The Starchild’, was chosen to reflect that. Hence, his spot as the band’s lead singer, the star that covers his right eye, and his behind-the-scenes reputation as something of a hopeless romantic.
Drummer Peter Criss was The Catman because… he just really liked cats. I wish I was kidding, but that was seriously the extent of it. He was of the Paul Stanley attitude where he was more into the music and if he had to create a brand to go with it, then it was no skin off his whiskered nose. He must have had some connection to the idea, though, as when the band replaced Criss with Eric Singer but kept the Catman character for him, Criss threw a spectacular wobbly over it.
Finally, the only other member than Simmons who gave anything resembling a damn about the band’s character side is Ace Frehley. His persona, The Spaceman (or Space Ace if ya nasty), came from two inspirations. First, the man was a legit guitar savant whose skills were often called ‘out of this world’. More importantly, Frehley was also a massive sci-fi fan with a particular interest in space travel. So, the alien character of The Spaceman came naturally to him.
There have been a few other additions to the band over the years. However, there’s a reason Kiss has stuck with the classic characters from their Destroyer and Kiss Alive! heyday rather than, say, Eric Carr’s short-lived ‘The Fox’ persona from the early 1980s. Sure, you could argue that they’re more cartoon than band—and you wouldn’t be wrong—but it’s hard to deny that rock ‘n’ roll is a far more fascinating place with outlandish characters like Kiss in it. They truly feel like they could have come from another world.
