Stafford Bingley Hall!

[BC Witch]

I just wanted to start a thread where (hopefully) my fellow Faq'ers can recall memories of seeing the Hottest Band In The World at this bizarre UK venue, which was basically a big, unseated, un-sectioned cattle shed (or 'exhibition centre').

I saw KISS there first on the Lick It Up tour on October 22nd 1983 and I was amazed that with a general admission ticket I could worm my way to within feet of the stage where I got pretty much squashed in between other sweaty, denim and leather clad KISS fans for the next three hours. The show was incredible and blew my teenage mind. My next show was the Octover 12th 1984 for the Animalize tour (with Bon Jovi opening, pushing their first album!) which was also amazing if not quite as thrilling at the previous show.

The reception the band got there was totally OTT and you see they were loving it. Apparently Paul Stanley once said that he would play Stafford Bingley Hall even if he had to walk onstage with a banjo.

A few random memories from both times I saw KISS there (it's hard to remember which was which as they were so close together) - when I got there two of the guys from Wrathchild were stood by the merch stand getting a lot of attention. They were in full stage gear and had obviously planted themselves in a very visible position.

On the LIU tour the openers were Heavy Pettin' who were quite good and went down really well and they were followed by Helix who were great but went down really badly as by that point everyone just wanted to see KISS and the chants of 'we want KISS!' continued pretty much throughout their entire set.

At one of the shows I was wearing a scarf around my wrist and threw it at Paul Stanley and it landed on his arm and just hung there for a while. That was pretty awesome to my 13 year old self and impressed the people around me too!

Any good/bad/bizarre memories? Or just praise for that crazy venue (which also hosted ABBA, Bowie and hundreds of other acts over the years). Let us know!

[rwgriffith]

What a beautiful story!

Once i wake up...i will share some positive memories!!

[mrmajester]

I was there in '83 and recorded the show on audio cassette, which was hard as my bag got searched on entry to the venue, I'd seen them the night before in Leeds but didn't enjoy the show, I really missed the make up as I'd seen them at Wembley in 1980. Stafford was a different ball game, they were on fire and I soon forgot about the make up.

Amazing audience as well, and they played Strutter, which was a bonus,, I have no idea where the audio cassette has gone as I've moved so many times over the years it's just disappeared, it was quite good too, for an audience recording. After leaving the show we made our way back to the town centre to get a 2 AM coach back to London and got followed by these 2 loons, we high tailed it to the cop shop as there were apparently skinheads going around the town looking to fight KISS fans.

We even got a lift from the police back to the town centre and the sight of that coach coming round the bend was nothing short of exhilarating, good memories, Wembley was next and that was good and on the Monday my buddy and I hung around outside the London Hilton and waited to see the band, Paul was first up and I said to him that London was great, his response was this: 'Not as good as Stafford though'.

[Glasgow Kiss]

I remember it being a fixture on tour schedules around the turn of the 80s...it seemed an odd choice because Stafford's not exactly a huge town. I always assumed it served the Midlands in general prior to the NEC in Brum being available in much the same way as Ingliston did the central belt of Scotland before the likes of the SECC was built...Ingliston was a huge barn on the outskirts of Edinburgh near the airport which was built for agricultural shows and always vaguely smelled of cowshit.

I may be misremembering, but I think they switched the bill in Glasgow so Heavy Pettin' could go on in the middle because it was a hometown show for them...it was great to see guys I knew on the Apollo stage...one of their guitar players (wee Punky) was a HUGE Kiss fan.

[mrmajester]

Punky Meadows that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Remember him getting booed at Leeds during his guitar solo when he played the fives notes from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, which we all know Ace did on the Dynasty tour during his solo. The audience took it as some kind of sacrilege!

[Glasgow Kiss]

Punky Meadows that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Remember him getting booed at Leeds during his guitar solo when he played the fives notes from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, which we all know Ace did on the Dynasty tour during his solo. The audience took it as some kind of sacrilege!

Punky Meadows was the Angel guy...I think the suspiciously-similar named Punky Mendoza might have taken some inspiration from that when thinking up a stage name. At any rate it sounded more rock'n'roll than his real name!

[mrmajester]

Sorry Mendoza, of course, all frizzy hair, I liked Heavy Pettin', wasn't their debut album produced by Brian May? Helix were good as well.

[Glasgow Kiss]

Sorry Mendoza, of course, all frizzy hair, I liked Heavy Pettin', wasn't their debut album produced by Brian May? Helix were good as well.

Yeah, Brian May and Mack did the first album...it was odd with them, as for about a year they seemed like they were going to be a real success and then it just didn't happen. The final nail in the coffin was that godawful song they entered Eurovision with. They're back together, but as is often the case with 80s bands there's only two original members involved - last I heard, Punky was a teacher (!) and Brian the bass player is a successful artist - he's done a lot of SF book covers.

[Jasper]

I live about 15 mins away from Stafford Bingley Hall. It hasn't changed a bit since I first saw Kiss on the LIU tour.

That was back in the day when my parents insisted on collecting me and my mates from gigs - though in fairness Bingley really was in the middle of nowhere !

Remember getting into the car and my late Mum saying something along the lines of 'God knows what state your ears are in, it was loud enough out here, do they really have to be THAT loud?'

Yes mum, they did !

That first time it was madness in there - big crowd and just a see of people. Paul definitely mentioned that night that Stafford had been the best gig on the Unmasked tour. I also recall them mentioning in interviews afterwards about the rabid reaction they'd got at Stafford.

We ended up quite close to front and just by where the fight broke out that Paul stopped from the stage.

Biggest disappointment about that show is that of the 3 or 4 versions of the bootleg I've got of it they're all pretty crap - very boomy and echoey - which I put down to poor acoustics in the hall and the band's sheer volume which was brutal on that tour.

Saw Animalize tour there 12 months later as well

These days it's used for antiques fairs, model railway shows and of course agricultural shows - it is after all a huge cow shed !

[BC Witch]

I live about 15 mins away from Stafford Bingley Hall. It hasn't changed a bit since I first saw Kiss on the LIU tour.

That was back in the day when my parents insisted on collecting me and my mates from gigs - though in fairness Bingley really was in the middle of nowhere !

Remember getting into the car and my late Mum saying something along the lines of 'God knows what state your ears are in, it was loud enough out here, do they really have to be THAT loud?'

Yes mum, they did !

That first time it was madness in there - big crowd and just a see of people. Paul definitely mentioned that night that Stafford had been the best gig on the Unmasked tour. I also recall them mentioning in interviews afterwards about the rabid reaction they'd got at Stafford.

We ended up quite close to front and just by where the fight broke out that Paul stopped from the stage.

Biggest disappointment about that show is that of the 3 or 4 versions of the bootleg I've got of it they're all pretty crap - very boomy and echoey - which I put down to poor acoustics in the hall and the band's sheer volume which was brutal on that tour.

Saw Animalize tour there 12 months later as well

These days it's used for antiques fairs, model railway shows and of course agricultural shows - it is after all a huge cow shed !

Oh man! I remember that fight! That was crazy. I remember being a bit freaked out that Paul didn't say 'stop fighting', he said something like 'don't fight in here, if you want to fight go outside' or something similar. I may be remembering that wrong.

It's so great that your Mum picked you up. My late Dad took my brother and his mate to see AC/DC at the NEC on the For Those About To Rock tour and sat in his car in the car park for the duration before driving them home to Wales after. I got a coach from Cardiff where the local record store Spillers did these all in deals and you got your gig ticket and the coach at the same time. It's amazing that my parents let me go as I was only 13 or 14. I was with some mates though.

I've just remembered a crazy thing that happened at the LIU show - one of my friends caught one of Vinnie's branded picks (I think Paul actually threw it) and after the show he just gave it to me because I played guitar. Those picks are pretty rare now.

[BC Witch]

I was there in '83 and recorded the show on audio cassette, which was hard as my bag got searched on entry to the venue, I'd seen them the night before in Leeds but didn't enjoy the show, I really missed the make up as I'd seen them at Wembley in 1980. Stafford was a different ball game, they were on fire and I soon forgot about the make up.

Amazing audience as well, and they played Strutter, which was a bonus,, I have no idea where the audio cassette has gone as I've moved so many times over the years it's just disappeared, it was quite good too, for an audience recording. After leaving the show we made our way back to the town centre to get a 2 AM coach back to London and got followed by these 2 loons, we high tailed it to the cop shop as there were apparently skinheads going around the town looking to fight KISS fans.

We even got a lift from the police back to the town centre and the sight of that coach coming round the bend was nothing short of exhilarating, good memories, Wembley was next and that was good and on the Monday my buddy and I hung around outside the London Hilton and waited to see the band, Paul was first up and I said to him that London was great, his response was this: 'Not as good as Stafford though'.

Being chased by skinheads was such an 80s thing! Pretty fkn scary too!

[Doose]

The LIU Tour was the last KISS tour that I remember thinking THESE are REAL KISS fans.

[Jasper]

I live about 15 mins away from Stafford Bingley Hall. It hasn't changed a bit since I first saw Kiss on the LIU tour.

That was back in the day when my parents insisted on collecting me and my mates from gigs - though in fairness Bingley really was in the middle of nowhere !

Remember getting into the car and my late Mum saying something along the lines of 'God knows what state your ears are in, it was loud enough out here, do they really have to be THAT loud?'

Yes mum, they did !

That first time it was madness in there - big crowd and just a see of people. Paul definitely mentioned that night that Stafford had been the best gig on the Unmasked tour. I also recall them mentioning in interviews afterwards about the rabid reaction they'd got at Stafford.

We ended up quite close to front and just by where the fight broke out that Paul stopped from the stage.

Biggest disappointment about that show is that of the 3 or 4 versions of the bootleg I've got of it they're all pretty crap - very boomy and echoey - which I put down to poor acoustics in the hall and the band's sheer volume which was brutal on that tour.

Saw Animalize tour there 12 months later as well

These days it's used for antiques fairs, model railway shows and of course agricultural shows - it is after all a huge cow shed !

Oh man! I remember that fight! That was crazy. I remember being a bit freaked out that Paul didn't say 'stop fighting', he said something like 'don't fight in here, if you want to fight go outside' or something similar. I may be remembering that wrong.

It's so great that your Mum picked you up. My late Dad took my brother and his mate to see AC/DC at the NEC on the For Those About To Rock tour and sat in his car in the car park for the duration before driving them home to Wales after. I got a coach from Cardiff where the local record store Spillers did these all in deals and you got your gig ticket and the coach at the same time. It's amazing that my parents let me go as I was only 13 or 14. I was with some mates though.

I've just remembered a crazy thing that happened at the LIU show - one of my friends caught one of Vinnie's branded picks (I think Paul actually threw it) and after the show he just gave it to me because I played guitar. Those picks are pretty rare now.

Yes you're right he said something like 'those two people fighting over you got no business doing that in here, it's bullshit, you wanna kill yourselves go do it some place else, don't do it in here, we're here to have a good time'

We were petrified because it was so packed you couldn't get away from it ! We were only kids at the time this the reason for the parental pick up !

Fair play to your dad for the journey up to Brum to sit and wait. I went to the first night I think of three that AC/DC did there on that tour and was blown away that they actually opened with Live Wire rather than Hell's Bells. Think it only got played once more on that tour as an encore in Glasgow

Good times !

[Jasper]

I was there in '83 and recorded the show on audio cassette, which was hard as my bag got searched on entry to the venue, I'd seen them the night before in Leeds but didn't enjoy the show, I really missed the make up as I'd seen them at Wembley in 1980. Stafford was a different ball game, they were on fire and I soon forgot about the make up.

Amazing audience as well, and they played Strutter, which was a bonus,, I have no idea where the audio cassette has gone as I've moved so many times over the years it's just disappeared, it was quite good too, for an audience recording. After leaving the show we made our way back to the town centre to get a 2 AM coach back to London and got followed by these 2 loons, we high tailed it to the cop shop as there were apparently skinheads going around the town looking to fight KISS fans.

We even got a lift from the police back to the town centre and the sight of that coach coming round the bend was nothing short of exhilarating, good memories, Wembley was next and that was good and on the Monday my buddy and I hung around outside the London Hilton and waited to see the band, Paul was first up and I said to him that London was great, his response was this: 'Not as good as Stafford though'.

Being chased by skinheads was such an 80s thing! Pretty fkn scary too!

We used to get chased by the local Mods who were generally a year or two older than us. Then one day we stopped running turned round and ran back at them - they shat themselves and couldn't get away quickly enough

They never chased us again !

Best thing was it happened in front of all their girlfriends who just stood there laughing at them.

[Jasper]

On the LIU tour the openers were Heavy Pettin' who were quite good and went down really well and they were followed by Helix who were great but went down really badly as by that point everyone just wanted to see KISS and the chants of 'we want KISS!' continued pretty much throughout their entire set.

Crowds were always really partisan at Bingley Hall

I saw Sabbath there on the Mob Rules tour and the support was a band called 720 - no I've never heard them since either.

Crowd was just chanting for Sabbath through the first couple of songs and you could barely hear them because. They got a bit cocky with the crowd and it then began raining all manner of shit onto the stage and crowd got even louder.

They gave up and I'm sure they cut it short and walked off !

Sabbath then had the dry ice machine blow up during the song Black Sabbath and to go off for while because it had apparently burnt Vinnie Appice !

[mike115]

I managed to get to all of shows at Bingley Hall. On the LIU tour, hitching from the train station I got a lift from a driver who was taking some of the lighting rig to the show because he needed directions. Also remember on a number of road signs to the Hall someone had added the Kiss logo so he didn't need my directions after all.
Whenever I went there I think the crowd was so rabid because it was an out of the way barn and you had to want to see the band. Not a venue for casuals.
I remember in 1980 Girl (the support band) got such a hostile reaction they wouldn't do the Wembley dates that followed!
Phil Collen did eventually get to go on stage with Kiss many years later though.

[Glasgow Kiss]

I was there in '83 and recorded the show on audio cassette, which was hard as my bag got searched on entry to the venue, I'd seen them the night before in Leeds but didn't enjoy the show, I really missed the make up as I'd seen them at Wembley in 1980. Stafford was a different ball game, they were on fire and I soon forgot about the make up.

Amazing audience as well, and they played Strutter, which was a bonus,, I have no idea where the audio cassette has gone as I've moved so many times over the years it's just disappeared, it was quite good too, for an audience recording. After leaving the show we made our way back to the town centre to get a 2 AM coach back to London and got followed by these 2 loons, we high tailed it to the cop shop as there were apparently skinheads going around the town looking to fight KISS fans.

We even got a lift from the police back to the town centre and the sight of that coach coming round the bend was nothing short of exhilarating, good memories, Wembley was next and that was good and on the Monday my buddy and I hung around outside the London Hilton and waited to see the band, Paul was first up and I said to him that London was great, his response was this: 'Not as good as Stafford though'.

Being chased by skinheads was such an 80s thing! Pretty fkn scary too!

We used to get chased by the local Mods who were generally a year or two older than us. Then one day we stopped running turned round and ran back at them - they shat themselves and couldn't get away quickly enough

They never chased us again !

Best thing was it happened in front of all their girlfriends who just stood there laughing at them.

Mods were almost invariably little bottom-feeders that would fancy the odds if it was ten or fifteen on one, but were notoriously shy of anything like a fair fight. I remember getting a proper kicking off a dozen or so from my school...the ringleader was actually a bit of a nutcase, but once he got thrown out of school for something else the rest of them were fair game. I spent a productive next few months catching up with them...the funny thing was quite a few of the teachers knew exactly what I was up to and were fairly openly down with it.

"Oh, if you're still wanting a (air quotation marks) word with X, I saw him going into the second floor toilets...see you in class in ten minutes?"

"It'll only take five."

I think when it came down to it they found the metal kids a bit more intelligent, creative and likeable than the lumpen slightly thick mod ones, and on top of that I guess most of the teachers would have been of an age where they would have been rock fans in their youth. Strange times.

[BC Witch]

The LIU Tour was the last KISS tour that I remember thinking THESE are REAL KISS fans.

That's interesting. I thought the Animalize show was full of proper KISS fans (at least where I was stood) but the next show I got to was Crazy Nights at Wembley and there were starting to be folks who didn't know some of the songs. Mind you the sound was so bad at that show even I didn't recognize half of what they were playing.

[BC Witch]

I managed to get to all of shows at Bingley Hall. On the LIU tour, hitching from the train station I got a lift from a driver who was taking some of the lighting rig to the show because he needed directions. Also remember on a number of road signs to the Hall someone had added the Kiss logo so he didn't need my directions after all.
Whenever I went there I think the crowd was so rabid because it was an out of the way barn and you had to want to see the band. Not a venue for casuals.
I remember in 1980 Girl (the support band) got such a hostile reaction they wouldn't do the Wembley dates that followed!
Phil Collen did eventually get to go on stage with Kiss many years later though.

I really wanted to go to the Unmasked tour but I was a bit too young and my folks just didn't want to make the drive to any of the shows which were at least all a hundred miles away from where we lived. Would have loved to have seen Girl. I think they supported Ozzy on the Diary of a Madman tour didn't they?

[Glasgow Kiss]

I managed to get to all of shows at Bingley Hall. On the LIU tour, hitching from the train station I got a lift from a driver who was taking some of the lighting rig to the show because he needed directions. Also remember on a number of road signs to the Hall someone had added the Kiss logo so he didn't need my directions after all.
Whenever I went there I think the crowd was so rabid because it was an out of the way barn and you had to want to see the band. Not a venue for casuals.
I remember in 1980 Girl (the support band) got such a hostile reaction they wouldn't do the Wembley dates that followed!
Phil Collen did eventually get to go on stage with Kiss many years later though.

I really wanted to go to the Unmasked tour but I was a bit too young and my folks just didn't want to make the drive to any of the shows which were at least all a hundred miles away from where we lived. Would have loved to have seen Girl. I think they supported Ozzy on the Diary of a Madman tour didn't they?

It was Budgie opened for Ozzy in both 1980 and 1982. For some reason, Girl did the same with UFO...both 1980 and 1982 on the No Place To Run and The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent tours. They also supported Pat Travers in 1980 which was an odd bill.

I was too young to catch the 1980 dates as well...a couple of guys I got to know later went down to Wembley that year by basically running away from home to see Kiss. Each of them told their folks they were staying over with the other that night, bunked off school and got the bus to London, caught the show and got the overnight bus back after it. They could only afford one tour programme between them so - horror of horrors - they split it down the middle and kept half each...

[starchilduk]

Oh the memories of Kiss at Bingley Hall. I certainly remember Wratchild in the crowd watching on.

I have pictures somewhere that i took at the 84 gig. They are not great but I will have to scan them one day and share.

[BC Witch]

I managed to get to all of shows at Bingley Hall. On the LIU tour, hitching from the train station I got a lift from a driver who was taking some of the lighting rig to the show because he needed directions. Also remember on a number of road signs to the Hall someone had added the Kiss logo so he didn't need my directions after all.
Whenever I went there I think the crowd was so rabid because it was an out of the way barn and you had to want to see the band. Not a venue for casuals.
I remember in 1980 Girl (the support band) got such a hostile reaction they wouldn't do the Wembley dates that followed!
Phil Collen did eventually get to go on stage with Kiss many years later though.

I really wanted to go to the Unmasked tour but I was a bit too young and my folks just didn't want to make the drive to any of the shows which were at least all a hundred miles away from where we lived. Would have loved to have seen Girl. I think they supported Ozzy on the Diary of a Madman tour didn't they?

It was Budgie opened for Ozzy in both 1980 and 1982. For some reason, Girl did the same with UFO...both 1980 and 1982 on the No Place To Run and The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent tours. They also supported Pat Travers in 1980 which was an odd bill.

I was too young to catch the 1980 dates as well...a couple of guys I got to know later went down to Wembley that year by basically running away from home to see Kiss. Each of them told their folks they were staying over with the other that night, bunked off school and got the bus to London, caught the show and got the overnight bus back after it. They could only afford one tour programme between them so - horror of horrors - they split it down the middle and kept half each...

Wow! That's an amazing story. Half a tour programme each! That's friendship. I don't know where I got that Girl idea from. I'm sure one of my friends saw them open for someone and and I thought it was Ozzy... Oh wait I just Googled it and Girl opened for Ozzy in Cardiff at Sophia Gardens on November 30th 1981. Maybe it was an isolated date for them?

[Glasgow Kiss]

I managed to get to all of shows at Bingley Hall. On the LIU tour, hitching from the train station I got a lift from a driver who was taking some of the lighting rig to the show because he needed directions. Also remember on a number of road signs to the Hall someone had added the Kiss logo so he didn't need my directions after all.
Whenever I went there I think the crowd was so rabid because it was an out of the way barn and you had to want to see the band. Not a venue for casuals.
I remember in 1980 Girl (the support band) got such a hostile reaction they wouldn't do the Wembley dates that followed!
Phil Collen did eventually get to go on stage with Kiss many years later though.

I really wanted to go to the Unmasked tour but I was a bit too young and my folks just didn't want to make the drive to any of the shows which were at least all a hundred miles away from where we lived. Would have loved to have seen Girl. I think they supported Ozzy on the Diary of a Madman tour didn't they?

It was Budgie opened for Ozzy in both 1980 and 1982. For some reason, Girl did the same with UFO...both 1980 and 1982 on the No Place To Run and The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent tours. They also supported Pat Travers in 1980 which was an odd bill.

I was too young to catch the 1980 dates as well...a couple of guys I got to know later went down to Wembley that year by basically running away from home to see Kiss. Each of them told their folks they were staying over with the other that night, bunked off school and got the bus to London, caught the show and got the overnight bus back after it. They could only afford one tour programme between them so - horror of horrors - they split it down the middle and kept half each...

Wow! That's an amazing story. Half a tour programme each! That's friendship. I don't know where I got that Girl idea from. I'm sure one of my friends saw them open for someone and and I thought it was Ozzy... Oh wait I just Googled it and Girl opened for Ozzy in Cardiff at Sophia Gardens on November 30th 1981. Maybe it was an isolated date for them?

Might have been a make-up date for a previously cancelled show? It would seem odd for Budgie not to have played that one being Welsh and all! I found the 1982 dates:

[highvoltage1969]

Ross Halfin's from 1980 (obvs).

[highvoltage1969]

@bob_robertnash

[Ted Maul's Paradise]

I live about 15 mins away from Stafford Bingley Hall. It hasn't changed a bit since I first saw Kiss on the LIU tour.

That was back in the day when my parents insisted on collecting me and my mates from gigs - though in fairness Bingley really was in the middle of nowhere !

Remember getting into the car and my late Mum saying something along the lines of 'God knows what state your ears are in, it was loud enough out here, do they really have to be THAT loud?'

Yes mum, they did !

That first time it was madness in there - big crowd and just a see of people. Paul definitely mentioned that night that Stafford had been the best gig on the Unmasked tour. I also recall them mentioning in interviews afterwards about the rabid reaction they'd got at Stafford.

We ended up quite close to front and just by where the fight broke out that Paul stopped from the stage.

Biggest disappointment about that show is that of the 3 or 4 versions of the bootleg I've got of it they're all pretty crap - very boomy and echoey - which I put down to poor acoustics in the hall and the band's sheer volume which was brutal on that tour.

Saw Animalize tour there 12 months later as well

These days it's used for antiques fairs, model railway shows and of course agricultural shows - it is after all a huge cow shed !

Oh man! I remember that fight! That was crazy. I remember being a bit freaked out that Paul didn't say 'stop fighting', he said something like 'don't fight in here, if you want to fight go outside' or something similar. I may be remembering that wrong.

...The irony being that the 'fight' was over Paul's Firehouse firehat he threw out and it continued on. Mentioned it here more than once (sorry folks ), but someone told me year's later supposedly 'what - happened - next'.

Paul berated those fighting, meanwhile - security waded in to break it up. They dragged 4 or more out who were involved and a big argument continued re; the ownership of the firehat. The St. John's Ambulance guys who were in attendance that night were so pissed off with them all, they got a hacksaw and cut it into pieces - then gave each a 'share'. A bit like birthday cake. LOL. Did it happen? Sounds like 'you couldn't make it up'.....and I've yet to see a piece of it surface, but stranger things have happened.

[acesmiddlefinger]

The LIU Tour was the last KISS tour that I remember thinking THESE are REAL KISS fans.

In the words of my dear departed dad 'you can blow that right out of your arse!!

There are a lot of REAL UK Kiss fans still out there, still proud to be fans of the band.

What a complete t##t of a statement, you Sir are a cockwomble!!

[ACESTATION]

Being chased by skinheads was such an 80s thing! Pretty fkn scary too!

A lot these skinheads were also soccer hooligans who would even sleep in the belly of a dead riot cop bobbie's horse to stay warm for the next days soccer match.

[BC Witch]

I live about 15 mins away from Stafford Bingley Hall. It hasn't changed a bit since I first saw Kiss on the LIU tour.

That was back in the day when my parents insisted on collecting me and my mates from gigs - though in fairness Bingley really was in the middle of nowhere !

Remember getting into the car and my late Mum saying something along the lines of 'God knows what state your ears are in, it was loud enough out here, do they really have to be THAT loud?'

Yes mum, they did !

That first time it was madness in there - big crowd and just a see of people. Paul definitely mentioned that night that Stafford had been the best gig on the Unmasked tour. I also recall them mentioning in interviews afterwards about the rabid reaction they'd got at Stafford.

We ended up quite close to front and just by where the fight broke out that Paul stopped from the stage.

Biggest disappointment about that show is that of the 3 or 4 versions of the bootleg I've got of it they're all pretty crap - very boomy and echoey - which I put down to poor acoustics in the hall and the band's sheer volume which was brutal on that tour.

Saw Animalize tour there 12 months later as well

These days it's used for antiques fairs, model railway shows and of course agricultural shows - it is after all a huge cow shed !

Oh man! I remember that fight! That was crazy. I remember being a bit freaked out that Paul didn't say 'stop fighting', he said something like 'don't fight in here, if you want to fight go outside' or something similar. I may be remembering that wrong.

...The irony being that the 'fight' was over Paul's Firehouse firehat he threw out and it continued on. Mentioned it here more than once (sorry folks ), but someone told me year's later supposedly 'what - happened - next'.

Paul berated those fighting, meanwhile - security waded in to break it up. They dragged 4 or more out who were involved and a big argument continued re; the ownership of the firehat. The St. John's Ambulance guys who were in attendance that night were so pissed off with them all, they got a hacksaw and cut it into pieces - then gave each a 'share'. A bit like birthday cake. LOL. Did it happen? Sounds like 'you couldn't make it up'.....and I've yet to see a piece of it surface, but stranger things have happened.

Yes, I recall you mentioning the fight before. If the story about the splitting of the fire helmet is true then it's possibly the best KISS story of all time. Amazing!

Also amazing to know that a load of us Faqers were stood probably within a hundred feet of each other at that gig!

[UltraCynic]

The LIU Tour was the last KISS tour that I remember thinking THESE are REAL KISS fans.

In the words of my dear departed dad 'you can blow that right out of your arse!!

There are a lot of REAL UK Kiss fans still out there, still proud to be fans of the band.

What a complete t##t of a statement, you Sir are a cockwomble!!

I agree with Doose. I guess you had to be there. There was an unhinged, rabid affection at Bingley for that LIU show that wasn’t on display on any of the subsequent KISS shows I attended.

[acesmiddlefinger]

The LIU Tour was the last KISS tour that I remember thinking THESE are REAL KISS fans.

In the words of my dear departed dad 'you can blow that right out of your arse!!

There are a lot of REAL UK Kiss fans still out there, still proud to be fans of the band.

What a complete t##t of a statement, you Sir are a cockwomble!!

I agree with Doose. I guess you had to be there. There was an unhinged, rabid affection at Bingley for that LIU show that wasn’t on display on any of the subsequent KISS shows I attended.

I was there, no doubting the crowd being up for it but to say KISS have never played to a such a rabid crowd of real KISS fans since is comical.

[UltraCynic]

The LIU Tour was the last KISS tour that I remember thinking THESE are REAL KISS fans.

In the words of my dear departed dad 'you can blow that right out of your arse!!

There are a lot of REAL UK Kiss fans still out there, still proud to be fans of the band.

What a complete t##t of a statement, you Sir are a cockwomble!!

I agree with Doose. I guess you had to be there. There was an unhinged, rabid affection at Bingley for that LIU show that wasn’t on display on any of the subsequent KISS shows I attended.

I was there, no doubting the crowd being up for it but to say KISS have never played to a such a rabid crowd of real KISS fans since is comical.

Is that what he said, or are you deliberately misunderstanding for comic effect?