Ace Frehley Tour Re-Scheduled

Ace Frehley’s creatively named It’s Ace Downunder tour is now scheduled for February 2010.

The East Coast venues remain the same and all tickets bought for the October tour are valid for the rescheduled February shows. Additional  dates have also been added in Adelaide and Perth. If you had tickets for the October shows and are unable to make the new dates you can obtain a refund from ticketing agency.

VIP Meet And Greet packages are available in all states.

This is the first ever solo tour to Australia by the former Kiss Spaceman.

The press release offers “Ace Frehley is one of the most influential guitarists in rock history and his trademark KISS black-white-and-silver face paint is one of the most recognisable images in rock history.”

That’s a lot of use of the phrase “rock history”.

You gotta love Ace Frehley. He’s a kooky Kiss member, the one who always seemed a bit out of place in the Kiss money making machine. He’s fought a few demons along the way and has somehow come out the other end with his spirit intact.

He may not have a celebrity/reality show like Gene Simmons but he probably should!

And lets not forget that Ace  designed the KISS iconic logo.

On September 15th Ace Frehley released Anomaly, an album that’s set to become his most successful solo release to date.  It’s his first solo album  in nearly 20 years.

Lets not forget that Ace Frehley’s first solo album was his 1978 self-titled classic, the most successful of the four KISS members’ solo albums and the only one to spawn a hit single  New York Groove.

As for the lengthy delay between solo albums, “I don’t know why it’s taken so long,” he confesses. “I had to put the record on the back burner when I reunited with KISS. But I knew it would be important, so I kept listening to my old records to try to capture what the fans like.”

To commemorate Ace Frehley’s latest solo release, Gibson has created their second Ace Frehley signature Les Paul guitar – the first one (in 1997) was one of the best-selling signature models of all time.

Perth : Monday February 1st, Metropolis Fremantle.
Adelaide : Thursday February 4th, HQ.
Melbourne : Friday February 5th, Palace (formerly Metro)
Sydney : Sunday February 7th, Enmore Theatre
Brisbane : Monday February 8th, The Tivoli

Guitar and Recording Great Les Paul Dies

It’s not often that one man can rightly claim to have changed the course of an entire  industry but the famed Les Paul can stake that claim. Les Paul is this week being acclaimed by musicians and recording artists and engineers around the world after news broke that he had has died of pneumonia in hospital in White Plains, New York.

Les Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss on June 9, 1915.

He is best known as the creator of the Gibson guitar that bore his name but he also was the inventor of overdubbing, tape delay and the use of multitrack recording.

Les Paul built his first electric guitar ‘The Log’ in 1939. Around the same time Leo Fender and Adolph Rickenbacker were also working on their guitars.

In the 50s, Gibson contacted Les Paul to design a range and the Les Paul guitar was born.

Eric Clapton adopted the Les Paul guitar in the 60s. Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, Peter Frampton, Ace Ferehley, Slash and Keith Richards all became Les Paul players.

In fact in was the Stones’ Keith who once said, “we must all own up that without Les Paul, generations of flash little punks like us would be in jail or cleaning toilets.”

Les Paul was the Godfather of guitarist Steve Miller. Miller’s father was best man at Les Paul’s wedding.

“The world has lost a truly innovative and exceptional human being today,” said Henry Juszkiewicz, the head of Gibson Guitar today. “I cannot imagine life without Les Paul. He would walk into a room and put a smile on anyone’s face. His musical charm was extraordinary and his techniques unmatched anywhere in the world.”

 

“He actually taught himself to play guitar in order to demonstrate his electronic theories,” said Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards. “All of us owe an unimaginable debt to his work and his talent.”

 

“The name Les Paul is iconic and is known by aspiring and virtuoso guitar players worldwide,” said Kiss front man Paul Stanley. “That guitar is the cornerstone of a lot of great music that has been made in the last 50 years.”

 

“He was a futurist, and unlike some futurists who write about it and predict things, he was a guy who actually did things,” said Juskiewicz.

 

Les Paul continued to perform weekly gigs at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City until a couple of months ago and these gigs became a regular star spotting event as musicians sat in to pay homage to the great man.

 

A musician since childhood, Paul experimented with guitar amplification for years before coming up in 1941 with what he called “The Log,” a 4-by-4 piece of wood strung with steel strings. He later put the wooden wings onto the body to give it a traditional guitar shape.

 

Les Paul began his career as a musician, under the stage name Red Hot Red or Rhubarb Red. He toured with the popular Chicago band Rube Tronson and His Texas Cowboys and led the house band on WJJD radio in Chicago.

 

In the mid-1930s he joined Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians and soon moved to New York to form the Les Paul Trio, with Jim Atkins and bassist Ernie Newton.

 

His first records were released in 1944 on Decca Records. Later, with Mary Ford, his wife from 1949 to 1962, he earned 36 gold records for hits including “Vaya Con Dios” and “How High the Moon,” which both hit No. 1.

 

He had met Ford, then known as Colleen Summers, in the 1940s while working as a studio musician in Los Angeles. For seven years in the 1950s, Paul and Ford broadcast a TV show from their home in Mahwah, N.J. (Ford died in 1977, 15 years after they divorced).

 

Paul had made his first attempt at audio amplification at age 13. Unhappy with the amount of volume produced by his acoustic guitar, he tried placing a telephone receiver under the strings. Although this worked to some extent, only two strings were amplified and the volume level was still too low.

 

By placing a phonograph needle in the guitar, all six strings were amplified, which proved to be much louder. Paul was playing a working prototype of the electric guitar in 1929.

 

His work on recording techniques began in the years after World War II, when Bing Crosby gave him a tape recorder. Drawing on his earlier experimentation with his homemade recording machine, Paul added an additional playback head to the recorder. The result was a delayed effect that became known as tape echo.

 

Tape echo gave the recording a more “live” feel and enabled the user to simulate different playing environments.

 

Paul’s next idea was to stack together eight mono tape machines and send their outputs to one piece of tape, stacking the recording heads on top of one another. The resulting machine served as the forerunner to today’s multitrack recorders. Many of his songs with Ford used overdubbing techniques that Paul had helped develop.

Paul’s use of multitrack recording was unique. Before he did it, most recordings were made on a single tape. By recording each element separately, from the vocals to instrumentation on different tracks, they could be mixed and layered, adding to the richness in sound.

 

In 2005, he released the Grammy-winning “Les Paul & Friends: American Made, World Played,” his first album of new material since those 1970s recordings and his first official rock CD. Among those playing with him: Peter Frampton, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and Richie Sambora.

 

“They’re not only my friends, but they’re great players,” Paul told The Associated Press. “I never stop being amazed by all the different ways of playing the guitar and making it deliver a message.”

 

Paul was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005.

 

Many stars have already made tributes to Les Paul. Here are a few that have appeared on-line already:

“My friend & mentor Les Paul died today at 94, he was one of the most stellar human beings I’ve ever known, rest in peace Les.” — Slash

“Remembering Les Paul today. Just happened to have his namesake Gibson around my shoulder the last few days. Pictures of Les Paul all over the studio today. Very special day in here. You should wiki his life. Pretty amazing.” — John Mayer

“RIP Les Paul-thankyou for the instruments that changed the course of music. If u have ever “rocked” or “been rocked” u can thank Les Paul.” — Tom Morello

“The music industry has lost a giant! I’m very saddened by the news of Les Paul’s passing. I was lucky enough to have known Les as a friend, and admired him as a musician and innovator. He forever changed the way we listen to music.” — Ace Frehley

“Les Paul set a standard for musicianship and innovation that remains unsurpassed. He was the original guitar hero, and the kindest of souls. Last October I joined him onstage at The Iridium club in NYC, and he was still shredding. He was and still is an inspiration to us all.” — Joe Satriani

“There are very few human beings in history who touched so many people the way Les Paul did. Not only musicians. But anyone that loved music. He shared his gifts with all of us and brought people together with his brilliance and devotion to music and the art of sound. It was a privilege to have met him. He will be incredibly missed. But our blessing is to know that his spirit and soul will live for eternity in music everywhere.” — The Hold Steady’s Tad Kubler

Another Kiss Box Set

There’s only so many ways to re-package a catalogue but Kiss keep coming up with new ones.

The latest is a a four-CD collectors’ package called Ikons which  showcases the iconic contribution of each Kiss member to the greater good. The packaging for Ikons features a 24-page booklet filled with classic Kiss photos. The actual Kiss icons and the IKONS logo on the box cover are printed in silver foil.

Track Listing

Gene Simmons

1. God Of Thunder
2. Almost Human
3. Calling Dr. Love
4. Ladies Room
5. Christine Sixteen
6. Deuce
7. Rock And Roll All Nite
8. Cold Gin
9. Parasite
10. Larger Than Life
11. Love ‘em And Leave ‘Em
12. Plaster Caster
13. Radioactive
14. Charisma

It’s fair to say that Gene’s songs seem to specialise in the theme of sexual conquest – always a winner in rock n’ roll.

Paul Stanley

1. Detroit Rock City
2. Love Gun
3. Take Me
4. Strutter
5. C’mon And Love Me
6. Hotter Than Hell
7. 100,000 Years
8. Rock Bottom
9. Do You Love Me?
10. All American Man
11. Mr. Speed
12. I Stole Your Love
13. Wouldn’t You Like To Know Me
14. I Was Made For Lovin’ You

Paul clearly had a knack for pop melodies in rock songs and was the more commercial writer. There’s a couple of other songs of his like Hold Your Heart that probably should have been included.

Ace Frehley

1. New York Groove
2. Shock Me
3. 2,000 Man
4. Rocket Ride
5. Snow Blind
6. Speedin’ Back To My Baby
7. Talk To Me
8. What’s On Your Mind
9. Rip It Out
10. Save Your Love
11. Hard Times
12. Two Sides Of The Coin
13. Dark Light
14. Into The Void

As expected Ace’s contributions vary the most in quality – but there’s no denying that the best of them are great songs.

Peter Criss

1. Hard Luck Woman
2. Baby Driver
3. Hooligan
4. Beth
5. I Can’t Stop The Rain
6. Black Diamond
7. Mainline
8. Don’t You Let Me Down
9. Dirty Livin’
10. Getaway
11. Strange Ways
12. That’s The Kind Of Sugar Papa Likes
13. Easy Thing
14. I Finally Found My Way

Peter’s ballads Hard Luck Woman and Beth are important songs in the Kiss catalogue and Black Diamond is of course one of their greatest songs. Admittedly the quality drops of fairly quickly after that.

Ikons is available now.