On 13. May, 1976, Granada Television filmed Kiss during the band’s first-ever European concert at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall for Tony Wilson’s groundbreaking music program “So It Goes”. The footage included backstage scenes, interviews with the band, conversations with their special effects coordinator, and live concert clips, and was first broadcast on 21. August, 1976, during Episode 8 of the show’s first season. Granada Television was a regional television company based in Manchester, England.
The Manchester concert itself was historic because it marked the first time Kiss had performed outside North America. After arriving in England on May 10, the band initially stayed at London’s Embassy Hotel before traveling north for the opening night of their short UK tour. Gene Simmons later described England as “Holy Ground” because of its connection to The Beatles, though he also remembered the country as “drizzly and grey” from the moment the group landed.
Financially, the UK tour was surprisingly modest. The band reportedly earned only around $16,000 from the four British performances because they received low guarantees and no percentage of ticket sales. Ticket prices ranged from just £1 to £2.50, far below what Kiss could command in the United States by 1976. Despite that, the Manchester show was advertised as sold out, proving that curiosity about the band already existed in Britain before their mainstream breakthrough.
The timing and location of the Granada filming would later give the footage additional historical importance. Only weeks after Kiss performed there, Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall — a smaller room within the same venue complex — hosted the legendary Sex Pistols concerts that helped inspire future members of Joy Division, Buzzcocks, The Smiths, and many other influential Manchester artists. Tony Wilson himself would soon become one of the defining figures in British independent music through Factory Records and the city’s post-punk movement.
Gene Simmons:
“On the way over to our first English tour, I was struck by the notion that this was the Land Of The Beatles. To me, the English Kings and Queens never meant anything. I have always looked at it as an archaic and rather silly posturing about past glories. But as cultural oddities, I suppose it had its own innocence. Still, I was nervous to set foot on Holy Ground. We got off the jet in full makeup and the fotogs were waiting for us. We came through customs and jumped on street cars at the airport for photo ops. I was aware it was drizzly and grey. I was hoping that would change in the next few days to sunshine. It didn’t.”
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On 13. May, 1976, Granada Television filmed Kiss during the band’s first-ever European concert at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall for Tony Wilson’s groundbreaking music program “So It Goes”. The footage included backstage scenes, interviews with the band, conversations with their special effects coordinator, and live concert clips, and was first broadcast on 21. August, 1976, during Episode 8 of the show’s first season. Granada Television was a regional television company based in Manchester, England.
The Manchester concert itself was historic because it marked the first time Kiss had performed outside North America. After arriving in England on May 10, the band initially stayed at London’s Embassy Hotel before traveling north for the opening night of their short UK tour. Gene Simmons later described England as “Holy Ground” because of its connection to The Beatles, though he also remembered the country as “drizzly and grey” from the moment the group landed.
Financially, the UK tour was surprisingly modest. The band reportedly earned only around $16,000 from the four British performances because they received low guarantees and no percentage of ticket sales. Ticket prices ranged from just £1 to £2.50, far below what Kiss could command in the United States by 1976. Despite that, the Manchester show was advertised as sold out, proving that curiosity about the band already existed in Britain before their mainstream breakthrough.
The timing and location of the Granada filming would later give the footage additional historical importance. Only weeks after Kiss performed there, Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall — a smaller room within the same venue complex — hosted the legendary Sex Pistols concerts that helped inspire future members of Joy Division, Buzzcocks, The Smiths, and many other influential Manchester artists. Tony Wilson himself would soon become one of the defining figures in British independent music through Factory Records and the city’s post-punk movement.
Gene Simmons:
“On the way over to our first English tour, I was struck by the notion that this was the Land Of The Beatles. To me, the English Kings and Queens never meant anything. I have always looked at it as an archaic and rather silly posturing about past glories. But as cultural oddities, I suppose it had its own innocence. Still, I was nervous to set foot on Holy Ground. We got off the jet in full makeup and the fotogs were waiting for us. We came through customs and jumped on street cars at the airport for photo ops. I was aware it was drizzly and grey. I was hoping that would change in the next few days to sunshine. It didn’t.”