| 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977-78 | 1979-80 | 1981 | 1982-83 | 1989 |
GENE'S COSTUMES
Love
Gun/Alive II tours 1977/78 & |
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Genes
Love Gun outfit became one of the most beloved outfits, among fans. A black leotard was as
usual the basis, open at the chest and with air holes on the thighs. Over that Gene wore a
leather-outfit with quadrangular, golden studs all the way down the front, and on the
codpiece. Chains were hanging over his bare chest, and attached to the collar around his
neck. As usual bat wings under the arms, and cuffs with the same golden studs as on the
rest of the costume.
On picture A we can see the original boots. They had pyramid-shaped studs all the way down
in front, and ended in the monster boots from the previous costume. Actually I thought
that these boots were only part of the prototype version of the outfit. But on picture B
it is quite clear that he also performed in them.
The usual boots (with the same golden studs as the rest of the costume) is seen in a
close-up on picture C.
Picture D is one of the original sketches of this costume (there were more... take a look
in KISStory!). Pay especially attention to the boots in the drawing (enlarged on the
right). It is pretty obvious here, that Paul's boots were originally designed for Gene.
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Picture E is very interesting. Gene is wearing a set of
black shoulder pads (circled in), very much like the shoulder pads he wore in 1974. These
were rarely seen, except for a few photos. I thought they were never used for anything
else but a few photo shoots, but video footage appearing in the "Land of Hype and
Glory" TV-special from 1977, filmed at the LA Forum shows (where Alive II was
recorded), clearly shows Gene wearing the shoulder pads at that occasion.
Picture F shows a variation of the
costume. Note that the studs (circled in) follows the edge when rounding at the bottom...
compare this to the version shown on picture H, where the studs go straight down!
Another variation was the bat wings... check pictures A, B and H, and you can see that one
version of the costume had studded shoulder pads (clearest seen in picture A), and the bat
wings under the arms, attached to the back of the costume! But there were also another
version, as seen in pictures F and G, where the wings are attached over the shoulders
(with no shoulder pads!). As you can clearly see in picture G where Gene lifts his right
arm, the wings appears both in front and behind the arm! As far as I'm able to tell, this
version (without the shoulder pads) was the most used. The version with shoulder pads,
only appears in early photos, but strangely enough it was this earlier version that was
copied for the Reunion tour in 1996.
 Let's
talk wings for a while! They changed a bit over the two years the costume were in use...
Picture A is from a photo session and shows a couple of large, ugly and almost deformed
wings. They only appear on this one photo (as far as I can tell!).Picture J shows the more common version of the wings. They have the same deep cut as the other version, but are seemingly stiffer, and keeps the shape better... they aren't as large as the one in picture I, either! Picture K shows the last version, which are smaller, and doesn't have as deep a cut-out as the one in picture I and J. |
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For a photo session Gene wore the black/red Dracula cape seen in
picture L. Note the two skulls holding the cape together at Gene's neck (close-up in
picture M)... the cape was only used for the photo session, and never in concert!In picture n you can see the Reunion tour version of the outfit. There were a few minor changes, mainly that Gene's by now protruding stomach was more or less hidden by a larger leotard. Circled in on picture N is a set of pyramid-shaped studs in a V-shape, which was added to the outfit during the tour.
Another difference is the larger shoulder pads. These are hiding a harness for Gene's flying stunt (which he didn't do in 1977/78). The harness is seen on picture O, which was taken on the Psycho Circus tour in 1998, but the harness was the same.
A few more things from the Reunion tour, or actually from
before the real tour: Picture P shows Gene with a red cape, that he only used for this one
photo shoot. Very much like the red cape used for a similar photo shoot in 1978.Picture Q shows Gene at the warm-up show in Los Angeles on June 15, 1996 (a little under two weeks before the tour started). Here is a rare chance to see the costume without the wings. They simply started to fall off as Gene did the bass solo, and Gene had them both removed (he can't reach that far back, and has to have an assistant to help him).
return
to KISS costumes main page
Many thanks to Jan Laursen for
letting us use these pages.
Here is the link to his website:
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