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[LennonStarrFan]

Friday, April 9, 2010 - 8:42 PM

By Jade Wright

Gene Simmons of KISS talks Liverpool, The Beatles and why modern bands look like pizza delivery boys


ON a leather sofa in the library of his hotel room sits Gene Simmonds, the blood-spitting, fire-breathing, tongue-wagging frontman of KISS.

It's the morning after the band's fanclub show at the Islington Academy, and he's sipping a cup of tea. It's so dark I can barely see him, but he repeatedly calls on room service to dim the lights, to the point where I can just make out his features, minus that famous make-up.

"That's better," he sighs. "Come and sit here, next to me."

The show in the 1,000 capacity Academy was like seeing a quart squeezed into a pint pot. The KISS show fits an arena, and Gene, 60, has more than enough charisma for 10,000 fans to share. So sitting two feet away from him is like watching a film with my nose pressed against the cinema screen.

Next month Gene and the band - "Starchild" Paul Stanley, guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer - take to the ECHO arena stage.

"It's the first time we've been to Liverpool, ever I think," says Gene in that big husky voice that I've heard on all the Rock School replays, and belting out on Guitar Hero. "Which is strange because it's somewhere I've always wanted to play. I've been fascinated by the place ever since I heard The Beatles.

"There is no way I'd be doing what I do now if it wasn't for The Beatles. I was watching the Ed Sullivan show and I saw them. Those skinny little boys, kind of androgynous, with long hair like girls. It blew me away that these four boys in the middle of nowhere could make that music.

"Then they spoke and I thought 'What are they talking like?'. We had never heard the Liverpool accent before. I thought that all British people spoke like the Queen. The only time you heard a British accent was when they played the Nazi in war films.”

Suddenly he switches into a surprisingly good Scouse accent.

"Overnight I became an Anglophile," he chuckles. "I read up on The Beatles, who they were, where they were from. I learnt about Liverpool, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, Ringo's band, and The Quarrymen and all that.

"I read up everything they did in the news. I followed their failures and their successes.

"The Beatles were a band, of course, and I loved their music. But they were also a cultural force that made it OK to be different.

"They didn't look like everyone else, and they still made the girls scream."


Source: http://www.planet-kiss.com/2010/04/gene-simmons-talks-liverpool-beatles.html

[Jai Guru Deva.]

I thought that all British people spoke like the Queen.

This is still the case nowadays!  I've got an American internet friend who was shocked when I said something about The Beatles' accents.  She said "I thought there was just one accent in England?  So different areas have different accents?  That's so weird!".  I seriously couldn't believe she'd never even heard of the most well-known ones, especially Scousers and Geordies.  I was baffled!  I can't believe some Americans still believe that.  Thank god she's never heard me talk...  she probably wouldn't even be able to understand me!  I've got the broadest Lancashire accent EVER.  All my friends from the same area pick me up on it cos my accent is so much stronger than theirs...  I'm sure Americans would be astounded that I was even talking English. 
Thanks for the article!  That's cool that someone of that genre of music appreciates The Beatles.  It made me laugh when he said they looked like girls.  NOT TRUE!   

xxx