KISS recently announced a New Year’s Eve concert at the Atlantis resort in Dubai. Landmarks Live Presents will produce the show live from The Royal Beach at Atlantis Dubai. The producers claim the event, which will apparently attempt to set the world’s record for largest pyro, will be filmed with more than 50 cameras and 360-degree views. It will be seen via livestream, with a ticket purchase on any computer, mobile device, or Apple TV.
In a new interview with Kyle Meredith, Stanley spoke about how the idea for the New Year’s Eve pay-per-view came about. “My whole philosophy of life has always been not ‘why’ but ‘why not,'” he said (see video below).
“Look, we’ve all come through 2020, and nobody has been unscathed. Some people have been inconvenienced, and other people have been devastated. What this has done to the economy, to people’s health, to loved ones, to basically all walks of life has been just excruciating. So, here we are at the end of 2020, and we can celebrate that we’ve made it through, although not unscathed, and we are looking forward to some light at the end of the tunnel. We see a vaccine coming. I wanna caution everybody that it is not here yet, so we still have to remain prudent. But I think more than ever, it’s a great time to celebrate where we are. It’s not a crime to be jubilant and have a great time in the midst of this because God knows we need it.
“What we’re doing on New Year’s Eve is the largest KISS show — if you can believe that — we’ve ever done, a worldwide pay-per-view from Dubai,” he continued. “And we will be breaking Guinness world records for all kinds of things. First of all, most importantly, we’re gonna play all the songs that everybody loves. And the band is in great, great shape and anticipating this more than pretty much anything we’ve done in recent past. To that end, we’ll have a million dollars’ worth of pyro, which is even a lot for us, by the way. And if you don’t do the pay-per-view, you’ll probably hear the pyro anyway. That being said, again, this will be a night for people to remember.
“Look, if you go see any band, if you go to see any superstar act, you’re basically seeing a KISS show, because KISS DNA is in every show that’s out there,” Stanley added. “But nobody does it better than us. And in the midst of this worldwide ‘End Of The Road’ tour, we said, ‘Let’s kick it up some notches,’ and we’ve been able to do that safely. And that’s most important, because with everything that’s going on, it’s important not to lose sight that safety comes first, and taking COVID really seriously up until the time that we have a vaccine, and beyond that, because people need to realize that with COVID, you don’t know what you’re getting. One person gets the sniffles and somebody else, unfortunately, dies. So, we are taking all that very seriously, and we have given that task to Dan [producer/director Daniel E Catullo III]. And he knows that the most important thing to us was to make sure that people involved — 500 workers putting this thing together, 3,000 people attending at a safe distance, and yours truly — we wanna be safe, and that was paramount to us.”
KISS launched its farewell trek in January 2019 but was forced to put it on hold earlier this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“End Of The Road” was originally scheduled to conclude on July 17, 2021 in New York City but is now expected to last well into 2022.
KISS‘s current lineup consists of original members Stanley and Gene Simmons (bass, vocals), alongside later band additions, guitarist Tommy Thayer (since 2002) and drummer Eric Singer (on and off since 1991).
Formed in 1973 by Stanley, Simmons, Peter Criss (drums) and Ace Frehley (guitar), KISS staged its first “farewell” tour in 2000, the last to feature the group’s original lineup.
In its 46-year career, KISS has accumulated 23 gold and platinum albums — more than any other U.S. band.
Concert image courtesy of DeadMike.com
