"Kiss"

After the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, Kiss have the most gold records of any band. With their wild costumes, lavish make-up and pyrotechnic live shows, for three decades they have been a rock and roll institution, consistently among the most successful concert, recording and merchandising artists in popular music. Since their triumphant reunion in 1996 they have released a big CD box set, continued as one of the top-grossing live acts worldwide, and spent 2003 touring with Aerosmith. Kiss: Behind the Mask is the compendious authorised biography, from their musical beginnings in the seventies to their present-day rock legend status. The authors have had unprecedented access to the band, and reveal such little-known facts as that frontman Gene Simmons was once a primary school teacher, and that Kiss's drummer once took lessons from the great jazz drummer Gene Krupa. Kiss fans are keen: hugely loyal and committed band followers, who want to see the gig, buy the CD and get the T-shirt - and there are a lot of them. They will undoubtedly want this encyclopaedic, outrageous and definitive book.