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GENE'S COSTUMES
Creatures of the night tour 1982/83 |
The Creatures of the Night tour were also the bands 10th anniversary, which was basically also the theme for the outfits. At least for the only two members left from the original line-up. Ace were touring with the band on a promotion tour through Europe in November 1982, but by the time the Creatures-tour started, just days before New Year, Ace was no longer in the band. He had been substituted by session-player Vincent Cusano, now known as Vinnie Vincent. |
Gene's new outfit also progressed directly
from his The Elder costume. The very first version of the costume is seen here on
photos A to D. The leather upper-body part (photo B) - with the leather cross belt and the
large steel ring was from his The Elder outfit, along with the codpiece. Note that
this version of the costume even had the same cup - later versions wouldn't.The armor plate shoulder pads, and "sleeves" (photos C and D) came from the Destroyer costume. Underneath the Destroyer shoulder pads, were also the shoulder pads from his The Elder costume (most noticeable in photo C).
Another difference between this version of the costume and the later revisions, are the Destroyer shoulder pads. On the later versions of the costume, the shoulder pads had padded edges, which this version hasn't. Also note that there's no spikes on the left shoulder pad (photo C). Also note the piece of chain hanging from the same shoulder pad.
Like on the Destroyer costume Gene had spikes on the back of his hand (seen in both photo C and D). These also quickly disappeared. The boots were the boots from the Love Gun outfit at this point, but that wouldn't change to begin with.
Photos E to H shows the second version of the costume. Note that the
shoulder pads now has padded edges, and that the codpiece now has a different cup...
seemingly attached on top of the original. The new armored "sleeves" are very
similar to the first version, but there are some small differences. Note that the spike on
the back of Gene's hands has now been moved to the cuffs, which has also gained a row of
pyramid shaped studs in the bargain!While both photo E and F shows the second version of the costume, picture F shows a revised version. The main difference is a piece of chain mail hanging under the left shoulder pad (circled in)! The version seen in photo E was only seen at the Creatures Of The Night press conference (ca. October 1982).
The big chain hanging across Gene's chest in picture E, is not a piece of the costume, but a special guitar strap used for the "I Love It Loud" promo video, and several TV appearances during the promotional tour of Europe in November 1982. The strap is also visible on picture G!
As said the boots used with the first and second version of the costume was the Love Gun boots (picture G, detail in picture H).
Picture I shows you the
backside of the second Creatures costume. It's a little difficult to see, but it
gives some idea what it looked like from that angle!
The costume still had the chain mail made from large steel rings (photo J), underneath each arm, like on
his The Elder outfit. It's purpose was probably to be some sort of
"air-conditioning".
Picture K shows another detail: Gene's skull necklace. This was used a great deal during
this period, and were actually also used by Gene in private. It had actually been in
Gene's possession for a great deal of years, and had been seen earlier. Gene wore the
necklace for a photo shoot in early 1977, with the Rock And Roll Over outfit, done by
Barry Levine (as you can see in his book The KISS Years).
During the Creatures of the Night
tour (or 10th Anniversary Tour as it was billed) Gene changed into a different
version of the costume (pictures L to O). Photo L shows the basis of the second version of
the outfit. This one had a body suit with sleeves, and chain mail at the elbow joints,
under the armor parts.
Picture M shows the full costume. Note that the loose chain hanging from the left shoulder
pad, is now attached to the large steel ring, in the cross belt across Gene's chest. And
gone were the piece of chain mail also hanging from the left shoulder pad. Also new to the
costume were rows of flat, and pyramid shaped studs, down along the opening for the chest
(detail in photo O). Note that this pattern also appeared on Gene's guitar strap (seen in
photo B above). A few flat studs had also been attached to the cross belt.
Gene also wore a new pair of boots (picture M, detail in picture N). These were still the
monster boots, but with a new spiked leather cover.
The last thing worth mentioning is the necklace seen in photo A and O, which was a steel
chain, just like the one Paul was seen wearing during the same period!! Gene alternated
between this one and the one seen in photo K.
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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