The outstanding question of the day is not whether there will be a live performance of the original lineup of Kiss.. they're not performing by the way, but will the band of old sods actually sit at the same table without breaking out into a Kissy fit of hand-bagging.
The last few weeks have seen the row between the old original members descend from pussy scratching arguments of who should be part of a live performance, to in recent days, all out abuse amounting to.. and how's this for unpleasantness, accusations of antisemitism!
The latest row (see post for the initial flame war) comes by way of recent remarks made by original and still existing member of the band Paul Stanley whinging on about his two ex colleagues Ace Frehley, (1973–1982, 1996–2002)] and Peter Criss, (1973–1982, 1996–2002] in his recently published memoir, saying -
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they "felt powerless and impotent when faced with the tireless focus, drive and ambition of me and Gene. As a result, the two of them tried to sabotage the band – which, as they saw it, was unfairly manipulated by money-grubbing Jews."
all quoted text via Hennemusic
Not pulling any claws there then. Naturally Frehley and Criss went on the counter saying -
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"I mean, Jesus Christ! ("doh!" - ED) My fiancée is Jewish. How can I be anti-Semitic? Is he out of his mind? 40 years in the music business! I've worked alongside Jewish people my whole life. And I'm anti-Semitic? It's ridiculous. I think he's trying to sell his book, and it's a pretty sad commentary if he has to resort to verbal slurs and innuendo. It's ridiculous."
Stanley responded in turn -
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"Unfortunately, I can't say it's taken out of context. It's very clear that there are a lot of people who are anti-Semites. There are a lot of people who, underneath the surface, have a resentment towards the resiliency or the determination of Jews. If you wanna hang your inadequacies or your failures on somebody, it seems that, 'Hey, it's his fault.' So, no, I stand behind what I said and I have no agenda and I'm not saying anything to be vindictive, I'm not saying anything to be malicious. I'm just stating the facts."
Sensibly other members of the band have kept their painted gobs shut over the matter. But as you can imagine tonight's little Rock And Roll Bun Fight could well be just that. In fact it would turn the whole event into something approaching rock and roll credibility if the presentations were interrupted by the Kiss table breaking out into a good old late night punch up. Shame Sid Viscous wasn't still with us it would have been right up his street. But this is 2014 and Kiss are near pensioners now so the closest they'll come to a punch up is who can grab the nearest seat to the litter tray.
The more likely scenario will be them all sitting tight lipped on proper adult behavior or with faux bonhomie they cheerily grin themselves through the night extracting every last compliment they can from a room mainly full of sycophants.
On a brighter note Joan Jett will fill in for one missing notable and join all the guys from Nirvana before the band is also inducted.
No doubt we'll see all the results of the evenings goings on tomorrow. If anything fun happens, and that's reasonably unlikely, we'll post it then.
