Kiss debuts the new costumes in support of “(Music from) The Elder”

On 25. September 1981, Kiss debuted the new costumes in support of their new album “(Music from) The Elder” in Mexico City, Mexico. At 1PM they held the press conference at a disco hall from the Camino Real hotel, located on an upper level of the main lobby. This press conference was pretty bad. The questions were terrible and it was clear no one was prepared, except for a guy who worked for the Conecte-magazine, but he was constantly blocked by the other “reporters”.

At 2PM they are awarded their Mexican gold records for “Dynasty”.

From 2:30 to 3:30PM they have their first “The Elder” photo session.

At 5:15PM they start to take off their makeup.

Several media outlets were mad that the management did not allow them to have some more time with the band. Imevision was the only TV station to have Kiss to do a personal interview and performance, leaving the biggest TV company in Mexico (Televisa) out of this.

Jeff Suhs and Curt Gooch
As summer passed into fall, a promotional trip to Mexico was arranged on which the band would premiere their new short-haired look for the 1980s. Dynasty had been very successful in Mexico, and the band was scheduled to make several appearances, including one at an orphan- age and one on Mexican television station Azteca 13, where they would lip-synch to “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” and “Charisma.” The September 25 taping of the show went smoothly, but the band’s arrival in Mexico did not. Ric Aliberte elaborates: “I flew in early and squared it with the airport authorities to get the band in and out in a very different route than would be normal, by walking through steam-pipe hallways and the like. We came in through some basement antechamber and then through Customs. When we emerged from the Customs area, right in front of us were about 40 kids, and just beyond them were the doors to where the limousines were. To our left, because some idiot let the word out, were about 4,000 fans.
“We came out of the doorway and I heard ‘Keeeessss! Keeesssss!’ And literally thousands of kids were coming at us in a dead run. I remember thinking, “This is exactly what we wanted to avoid. Someone is going to get hurt.’ I yelled to the band “This way!’ and took off running. I plowed through the small group of 40 kids, threw the guys into the car and off they went. As soon as the large group of kids saw that KISS was gone, they stopped running and started milling about.
“Then, this Mexican police sergeant came up to me and said, ‘You gringo bastard! You knocked down our little Mexican kids!’ I was looking at the guy and thinking how great it was that we had averted a major catastrophe when he took out his gun and pistol-whipped me. Then, his captain, who was the guy I’d squared things with and bribed-in the first place, came up to me. I told him what happened, as did his own men and the kids that were there. They then took this guy into a room and beat him within an inch of his life for pistol-whipping me.”
– “Kiss Alive Forever” by Jeff Suhs and Curt Gooch.