Harris, Murray and Sampson spent the summer and autumn of 1978 rehearsing while they searched for a singer to complete the band’s new line-up. A chance meeting at the Red Lion, a pub in Leytonstone , in November 1978 evolved into a successful audition for vocalist Paul Di’Anno . Steve…
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The final product, Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park , debuted on NBC on October 28, 1978.
The band spent five months at Sounds Interchange Studios in Toronto , Ontario, Canada, writing and recording what would become Never Say Die! . “It took quite a long time”, Iommi said. “We were getting really drugged out, doing a lot of dope. We’d go down to the sessions, and…
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The solo albums were released on September 18, 1978. Casablanca spent $2.5 million on the marketing campaign for the albums, and announced they were shipping five million copies, guaranteeing Platinum status. Despite the large shipments, none of the albums sold particularly well and were later sold as cut-outs . Of…
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Despite having problems with manager Paul Ahern, being caught in the middle of a fight between Ahern and his business partner Charles McKenzie, and doing most of the recording work alone, Scholz completed the second Boston album two years after the debut album’s release. The second album, Don’t Look Back…
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In July 1978, the band returned to the management of Douglas Smith, who secured a one-off singles deal with Gerry Bron ‘s Bronze Records . The resulting ” Louie Louie ” single (a cover version of Richard Berry and The Kingsmen standard) was issued in September peaking at number 68…
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The band filmed a performance at the Hammersmith Odeon in June 1978, which was later released on DVD as Never Say Die .
Touring in support of Never Say Die! began in May 1978 with openers Van Halen .
The first Kiss compilation album, Double Platinum , was issued on April 2, 1978. This double album included many remixed versions of the band’s hits, as well as “Strutter ’78”, a re-recorded version of a song from the group’s first album. At Bogart’s request, this version of the song featured…
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In August, Tony Secunda took over the management of the band, and their cohesiveness became so unstable that by March 1978, Clarke and Taylor had formed and were performing as the Muggers with Speedy Keen and Billy Rath of American punk band The Heartbreakers .