From: Andrew Treadwell; February 2002
When Bruce first hinted to me in October last year, he was coming to Australia, I immediately couldn't wait. He didn't let me know very much, only that "It would be very exciting". Within a few weeks he let me know that he'd be coming down to do solo shows. I knew straight away how special and unique this would be so I made up a few real basic promo posters and started emailing around everyone I knew, to spread the word. I was originally planning to go to both of the shows in Sydney and Melbourne, but having a family doesn't lend it self to taking off to do stuff like that, besides, my wife would have just plain killed me. So I decided to concentrate all of my efforts on helping to make Sydney a success.
I got in touch with Tour Manager/Promoter/Guitarist Extrodonaire Paul to see what I could do to help, and to arrange an interview. Paul gave the OK for my Interview very quickly and let me know what needed to be done to help. With the Interview I decided to enlist the help of a very good friend of mine Rod Strachan.
I have had the honor of interviewing Bruce previously and I thought as Rod is pretty much the biggest BK fan I know, that he'd get a big thrill out of doing the interview with me. Then the challenge began, What questions do you ask? Bruce has done so many interviews and is always asked the same questions, so we set a challenge to ourselves to come up with some great questions (thanks to all that helped with submitting questions as well). We ended up with 60 questions, we knew we wouldn't be able to ask all of them so we organized them so we could ask the best ones first due to whatever time limit we may have to do the interview.
The Christmas/New Year period seemed like a never-ending stream of emails between Bruce, Paul, Myself, and Stephen (Drummer from Stand). By the end of January Rod and Myself got flyers into record shops in Sydney, had the interview time and place tied down, and had gotten everything organized to Video tape the show for Bruce. Needless to say we were both pumped.
Feb 2nd
Bruce was doing an instore at "The Home Of Heavy Metal" - Utopia (www.utopia.com.au) at 4pm. Rod and myself headed in a bit early to check out what was going down. We were just hangin outside, then out of a cab pops Bruce and friends. He greeted us and said he'd be in shortly. We went downstairs and caught up with old friends Don & Judi (married at the 95 Brisbane Kiss Con) and made new friends, Donna & Brett from Radioactive Fanzine (great zine guys).
The line at this point was growing in size and Utopia started playing Audiodog over the in-house system. Bruce walked in happy and relaxed, and signed anything people wanted. He signed for close to 2 hours I think, answered people's questions, even the ridiculous ones. Like the guy who asked Bruce "Are you sure your gig is tomorrow night", even though Bruce answered yes the guy wasn't happy till Bruce showed him the tour poster with the date on it, Bruce turned to me and looked puzzled until we broke out laughing in unison.
Rod has always surprised Bruce with something Rare to sign and this time was no different, as he gets up to Bruce he whips out a Good Rats LP, complete with a photo of BK on the back with moustache. The look on Bruce's face was priceless "Oh my god, I didn't think I'd ever see that again," he said to Rod as they both shared a laugh about it. When all was done we said see ya, and Bruce went back to his hotel for much needed rest, especially seeing he didn't get back from the show in Melbourne until 3am.
Feb 3rd
Our interview with Bruce was scheduled for 2pm so Rod and I left early to find the Hotel and Parking. This is where we hit our one and only snag. We get to the hotel and ask the front desk to page the Tour Manager, but we are told he is not staying there. We franticly drive around Sydney checking all the other outlets this hotel has, - nothing! Finally I decide to call the First hotel again incase the Front desk dude was Bullshitting us thinking we were just fans hunting an autograph - Jackpot! We drive back and the dude apologised for screwing us around (we should have kicked his ass). We had a little time to prepare as Bruce was not finished with his last interview (*With a guitar magazine - so Bruce would have had heaps of fun - that interview was only scheduled for 15min but went over an hour!).
Bruce had been doing press all morning and by the time it was our turn he was tired & hungry. So we decided to half our interview time so he can get a bit more rest, which he appreciated greatly. The interview went well and you can hear here on KULICK.net (coming soon).
We said we would see Bruce and the guys at soundcheck so we drove back in the city again and got ourselves a late lunch and headed up to the venue to watch soundcheck. This is the first time I have been to Bar Broadway, and although I prefer the Metro as a Venue (Larger Capacity and Larger raised stage), this venue came highly recommended to the promoters and it was nice. We went in and caught up with old friend Nico Ciccarone from Kiss Army International - www.nicostrike.com - check it out. Nico has a great range of old and new merchandise at extremely reasonable prices.
When Bruce arrived he and Stand set up to run through the soundcheck. From the top of my head they did "Master and Slave", "Crazy Crazy Nights", "Strange To Me", "Tough Love" and "Pair of Dice". At one point Bruce gave me a weird look like something was wrong...and there was - I couldn't hear his solos. Although the sound guy was a pro he said Bruce was not loud enough. When I motioned Bruce to let him know I couldn't hear him, he cranked it up (ah it sounded great), and finished the song. He then goes up to the mike and says to the sound guy "See even Andrew couldn't hear me", I don't think the sound guy was happy with me. After soundcheck I thought I should apologize to Bruce for saying something but he was glad I did so they could sort out those problems before the show. Stand ran through a quick soundcheck of their material before the curtains were closed and the doors were opened.
Nico had his stalls set up to sell his merchandise so the fans could make purchases before the show. It was basically like a Mini Expo with Kiss Karaoke, Kiss Quizzes, and Video's on the screens. Bruce also had a small Merchandise table set up where you could buy Audiodog, Autographed Photos as well as Stand CD's that were available.
Stand came on and played a short but really tight and entertaining set. They played material from their latest CD, "Encircled", as well as their previous albums "Day to Day" and "Closed Doors". Stand is a really awesome band and if you are into fresh and innovative rock music I urge you all to check them out. I have two of their albums & I will have the third shortly (Thanks Paul) and since I bought them they have not left my stereo. You can find them at www.stand.net.au - Tell them I sent Ya!
ShowTime
The curtains opened to the beat of drums and the band ripped straight into it. The vocalist Vince was absolutely awesome. He really handled the KISS material well and was faithful to Paul Stanley's vocals. But the material from Revenge and Carnival of Souls was really taken to another level live. Bruce wailed on guitar and was supported so well by Stand; Paul on Rhythm Guitar and Vocals; Matt on Bass Guitar and Vocals (great lead vox on "Domino" and "Shout It Out Loud" too!); Stephen on Drums, and Vince on Vocals on the songs Bruce did not sing.
Bruce was "ON" the whole night and this is the most relaxed I have ever seen him perform, he joked around a lot with the band, the crowd, everyone around him. He was even doing his best Dance Moves (yes dance moves), during "Master and Slave" (yes Bruce I got in on Film LOL), which replicated a certain old band mate of his well! He looked to be having so much fun out there, I wish he played another gig the next night so I could take it all in again.
The Set was as Follows.
1. Crazy, Crazy Nights
2. Lick It Up
3. Strange To Me
4. Jungle
5. Hide Your Heart
6. Domino
7. Need Me
8. Tough Love
9. Tears Are Falling
10. Pair Of Dice
11. I Still Love You
12. Change Is Coming
13. Master And Slave
14. Heaven's On Fire
Encores
15. I Walk Alone
16. Shout It Out Loud
Bruce then asked the crowd to be patient while he cooled off and changed, and the he would come out and sign anything they liked. Bruce waited till the last person and at around 2am he was done. So we went and said our good-byes to all our friends, new and old, and said goodbye to Bruce and told him to enjoy his days off in Sydney before going home.
Myself and Rod would like to thank Bruce for providing us with a great weekend, full of laughs and fun and the best show ever. Also thanks to Paul for all of his help and advice (lets do it again Paul LOL) and to the boys in Stand; Stephen, Vince and Matt you guys Rule.
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