GENE'S COSTUMES
New were the spikes that protruded from Gene's shoulders and arms, and also new was the studded codpiece. The codpiece, of course, brought a lot of attention to Gene's crotch, but that was probably the whole idea! An early version of the codpiece had a skull-and-crossbones design (as seen on picture B). The skull-and-crossbones had been a returning part of Gene's outfit since 1973, but this was the last time it appeared. There were also studs down the inner thigh (see picture B, again), which were later dropped. This early version of the costume also had black spikes (see picture C). There were an alternative version of the codpiece with the skull-and-crossbones, as seen in picture D. This one had fewer studs, and it would also seem that the cup were detachable... probably great for toilet visits, and such!! The boots for this early version were the ones from the 1974 outfit (picture E), and can be seen on the cover of Alive!. The boots originally had spikes just like the rest of the costume (as seen in picture F below here), but these were for some reason dropped later on! Picture
G shows the better known version of this costume. This had silver spikes, and a studded
codpiece without the skull-and-crossbones design. Picture
K shows a rare variation, where the sides of the costumes is tied together, across the
chest (circled in)! This only appears in a very few pictures. This particular picture is
from the European tour in May 1976 (backstage at the show in Copenhagen, Denmark on May
29th 1976 to be specific!!), but it didn't look like this during the entire tour. Almost
all other pictures taken during the tour shows Gene in the normal, untied version! Later the spikes on the gloves became much thicker (picture O), and appeared stuffed. Note that Gene now had a large spike each shoulder (which now appears padded). Also note that Gene is wearing a studded bracelet on his right wrist (in the middle of the picture). This only appeared in a few photos. Pictures
P - U shows various pieces of neckwear from the period! Picture P shows Gene wearing a necklace with a snake/dragon
pedant. This only appeared in photos from a couple of early photo sessions. return
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