Rating: 
Summary: Detailed but intense read! Kept me wanting to read more.
Review: C.K. Lendt has written one of the better KISS books. A lot of fans may complain it was a hard read because of all the details, but that is what I loved about it - It is not just bubblegum writing about how great KISS is like most of the books out there. My favorite chapter is Chapter 8 - Cracks on the Surface! The book also has a lot of great pictures of the author and the band. The end is pretty good too - the Epilogue area which tells you what happened to the "characters" in the story. Great job Mr. Lendt! The author was kind enough to also sign a copy for me...he seems like a really cool person as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Accurate but bleak financial bio of KISS, 1976-1996
Review: Chris Lendt was KISS's financial advisor and on-the-road label rep for Polygram from 1976 to 1995. Through accounts of board meetings and road stories, Lendt paints a rather colorless picture of the band's monetary and concert-producing history. The facts are here but Lendt seems to be lamenting the loss of his position as KISS's official best friend, and thus the book comes off as a very depressing read. Dale Sherman's Black Diamond and Barry Levine's KISS Years are *much* more into fan interest.
Rating:
Summary: Why Did Lendt Really Get Fired?
Review: Every side has two stories. I'd love to hear Gene's and Paul's side of this one. Though my loyalty to KISS is undying, you can already see them making the same mistakes in their latest incarnation. Too much, too fast with nowhere to go but down. The author saw it coming the first time, but they didn't listen to him. Who will see it this time, and will they listen?
Rating:
Summary: KISS' Financial Roller Coaster Exposed At Last
Review: I have read the book, KISS and Sell and I found it to be an accurate, and well written tome on how, not only KISS, but how the music industry is run. We see how KISS allowed their egos to get the best of them. I do wish though, that the author had cut out the Isley brothers. Some people I spoke to about this book, say it is a hard read. For me, it is not because , I have a degree in Accounting, so it is absolutely fascinating. I am also a Titanic fan. There is the part in the book where the band and their manager, Bill Aucoin, at the time, had a meeting during the Dynasty Tour and WERE TOLD THAT the tour was too expensive, etc and got several suggestions, one of which was to do a "B" tour, which would take them to smaller cities, with out the special effects. The band said, "NO". This reminded me of whenCaptain Smith on the Titanic getting 6 ice warnings the day the ship hit the iceberg. Well, the Dynasty tour was a finacial debacle.Another drawback to the book is that the author drops the ball on the stories on the groupies. (Sweet Connie , for example) It is minor, however, all in all, I recommend the book.
Rating:
Summary: An insider's view of The Hottest Band In The World
Review: I loved this book! It was so interesting to read about the behind the scenes workings of a super-group. It was always a mystery to me how the band managed to survive the early eighties when they didn't do much of anything in the United States. It's all in here. If you are a fan of the band, then you should read this book. Chris was part of the inner sanctum for the band's peak. He was there for it all.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Insight to the business of being Kiss
Review: I thought this was an excellent book, I could not put it down. After reading it, I wish there was the same insight to the reunion tour up till now in the Farewell tour. I really explains a lot as to why these guys got back together again, they needed cash flow. Kiss was an over the budget band always, and it really says what they lost finacially in order to please the fans. This made me respect them that much more. The author does an excellent job of the telling about the rises and falls of Kiss. I highly recommend this to any Kiss fan, Heres hoping the author has more stories tucked away somewhere for another book.
Rating:
Summary: You Wanted the Scoop, You Got the Scoop!
Review: I was inspired to look up this book after hearing a radio interview with Gene Simmons, who was hawking his recently published book, "Kiss and Makeup." Upon reading the customer reviews for that book, however, I learned that this book was much more highly regarded by readers. So I chose to read "Kiss and Sell" instead. Now that I have completed this book, I heartily recommend it to Kiss fans who seek a look behind the Kiss phenomenon. While the emphasis is on the business side of the group's experience, the book also chronicles Kiss' tours and excesses in the 70's and how their indulgences led to near financial ruin in the 1980's. The book ends in 1988 when the author and the management firm he worked for were fired by Kiss in an attempt to get a fresh start and earn some of their money back. Therefore, Kiss' resurgence in the mid-1990's is only briefly mentioned, and no details are offered about that period. One is left to assume that, basically, they repackaged and remarketed themselves in the same way that had 20 years earlier, to a "new" young audience who had never seen them before. In any event, I did enjoy the detailed descriptions of the bands' antics, individual personalities, and reactions to rock stardom. There are probably other viewpoints on this story (as is always true), but this is a great place to start if you are interested in Kiss, and the book is well written to boot.
Rating:
Summary: You Wanted the Scoop, You Got the Scoop!
Review: I was inspired to look up this book after hearing a radio interview with Gene Simmons, who was hawking his recently published book, "Kiss and Makeup." Upon reading the customer reviews for that book, however, I learned that this book was much more highly regarded by readers. So I chose to read "Kiss and Sell" instead. Now that I have completed this book, I heartily recommend it to Kiss fans who seek a look behind the Kiss phenomenon. While the emphasis is on the business side of the group's experience, the book also chronicles Kiss' tours and excesses in the 70's and how their indulgences led to near financial ruin in the 1980's. The book ends in 1988 when the author and the management firm he worked for were fired by Kiss in an attempt to get a fresh start and earn some of their money back. Therefore, Kiss' resurgence in the mid-1990's is only briefly mentioned, and no details are offered about that period. One is left to assume that, basically, they repackaged and remarketed themselves in the same way that had 20 years earlier, to a "new" young audience who had never seen them before. In any event, I did enjoy the detailed descriptions of the bands' antics, individual personalities, and reactions to rock stardom. There are probably other viewpoints on this story (as is always true), but this is a great place to start if you are interested in Kiss, and the book is well written to boot.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent! Professional job!
Review: I was very impressed with this book overall. This was a very professional product and the writing was excellent.
Rating:
Summary: Not War and Peace, but well worth reading...
Review: I won't deny that I was a little disappointed at this book for being what it was--an ex-business manager's story of his time with the band, but it turns out that the book is a lot better than that, even though Black Diamond is a much better devotional tale to the band.Lendt's vocabulary isn't as highbrow as some people might think, and it's a great textbook(!) regarding economics in the music industry, from the standpoint of the top of the ladder. I'd go so far as to say it was definitive, but considering Lendt's involvement with the band stops in 1988, and I have not yet read KISSTORY, it probably isn't. But for all it's flaws, it's still an even-handed book, and it's tastefully done. Considering it's lacking a lot of inside support from the band itself, that is a big achievement.
|
