Seventeen-year-old Luke Wardle from Leicestershire had his rock dream come true on Sunday 28th May when he was invited backstage to meet his heroes KISS in Birmingham. Luke, who has cerebral palsy, is a massive KISS fan and has even played drums dressed as his favourite member Eric Singer at previous charity events.

Earlier in the year Luke got in touch with Paul Finn, who runs the fan-based KISSin' UK website, excited that he had tickets to his first KISS concert. Paul then contacted the band to try and surprise Luke, and at 7:30PM before the show Luke was given the green light to meet them!

Photo: Martin & Luke with Gene Simmons, Eric Singer, Paul & Tommy

Luke and his father Martin met Paul at the Barclaycard Arena where they were all taken downstairs by KISS' road crew and stood close to the bands dressing room. The band then appeared in full make-up and platform boots and allowed Luke to pose with them for a photo. Luke was very excited as his heroes towered over him in full costume and in the words of his father Martin, he was "one very happy young man!"

After heightened security due to the tragic events in Manchester it was thought that plans would need to be cancelled, however the band have a long history of putting their fans first and in doing so made one boy's first KISS concert a Crazy Crazy Night to remember.

Big thank you to Keith Leroux for all his help!

There are more amazing O2 photos like these over on our Facebook page. Big thank you to Nige Adie for letting us use them!
https://www.facebook.com/kissinuk/posts/1282562411863897

Here's another couple of Birmingham photos from a fellow KISS fan & colleague of mine Eric Gibbon. Eric has a long history of attending KISS shows starting with Bingley Hall in 1980!

Last night was another Crazy Crazy Night in Birmingham, this the 2nd show on the UK leg of the KISSWORLD tour. The Dives were the openers (featuring Paul's son Evan), and while they were playing I was busy with a great surprise for a young fan but more on that later. It's great to see Deuce is back as the opener, in my opinion there is no better song to open a KISS show (sorry DRC..). Another highlight for me was hearing Flaming Youth live for the first time ever, featuring a nice round-up of photos from the 70's and early 80's.

There's a great (positive!) review over on the Birmingham Mail site along with a video of some short fan interviews.

There's some photos below (first 3 from me and the great close-ups from Rik Byatt) and also a copy of the setlist.

Set list:
Deuce
Shout It Out Loud
Lick It Up
I Love It Loud
Firehouse
Shock Me
Flaming Youth
God of Thunder
Crazy Crazy Nights
War Machine
Say Yeah
Psycho Circus
Black Diamond
Rock and Roll All Nite
I Was Made for Lovin’ You
Detroit Rock City

Photo by Rik Byatt

Photo by Rik Byatt

Photo by Rik Byatt

Photo by Rik Byatt

Photo by Rik Byatt

From Manchester Arena:

Tommy Thayer has cancelled his Glasgow GuitarGuitar appearance on Friday 26th due to a change in travel plans. The London appearance is still going ahead.

Full article can be read here.

Lots of respect for this picture from the Frankfurt show tonight. If anyone knows who took it please let me know so I can credit them (possibly by Jens Maier).

Ralph Stranger on Twitter has also posted the following video:

Silence!
We stand with #Manchester#Kiss #Frankfurt #Festhalle pic.twitter.com/yvEmUSiJND

— Ralph Stanger (@RalphStanger) May 23, 2017

Hard Rock Café in Glasgow are having a free warm up party on the 27th May, you can get your tickets over on their website!

There's a new greatest hits compilation coming our way on June 2nd - KISSWorld The Best Of KISS.

1. Crazy Crazy Nights
2. Rock And Roll All Nite
3. I Was Made For Lovin' You
4. God Gave Rock 'N' Roll To You II
5. Detroit Rock City
6. Beth
7. Lick It Up
8. Heaven's On Fire
9. Tears Are Falling
10. Unholy
11. Hard Luck Woman
12. Psycho Circus
13. Shout It Out Loud
14. Calling Dr. Love
15. Christine Sixteen
16. Love Gun
17. Shandi
18. I'm A Legend Tonight
19. Modern Day Delilah
20. Hell Or Hallelujah