"Seven years after they captivated audiences up and down the UK with their visual reproduction of rock legend's KISS, PARASITE are to reform for a series of special one off shows.
Gone is the make up, costumes and stack heels. The norm as per every other KISS tribute act. Replacing the obvious with a fresh approach, PARASITE have opted for the power, magnitude and full on, in your face attitude of the Revenge/Alive III era.
Encompassing the huge back catalogue of KISS material with songs from the non make up 80's and early 90's.
Those songs you wanted to hear..."
The PARASITE story begins in Oct 1996 with Carl Gibbett & Darran Mann being offered an opening slot in a Hallowe'en showcase of local rock bands. With the recent success of KISS reforming for their WorldWide/Alive tour, they hit upon the idea of creating a KISS tribute act for the show and began their search for suitable band members.
Mark Phillips was recruited on bass guitar and Chris Hall stepped up to claim the vacant lead guitarist position.
And so, PARASITE was born!!
The show was a success and word had spread locally about this 'new' band who had stolen the show, however, Chris' tenure in the band was to be short lived. He was replACEd in Feb 1997 by Danny James, and PARASITE, with the line up that would stay the same from then onwards, began hitting the stages around the UK.
People nationally were now hearing about this band and none more so than the organisers of the 1998 KISS EXPO, who invited PARASITE to close the show at that year's event at Dudley JB's.
Never afraid to go against the grain, PARASITE were upto that point the ONLY KISS tribute to incorporate the Eric Carr persona into their act. They upped the ante by becoming the FIRST tribute to add the persona of Vinnie Vincent into shows when they chose to.
As things hotted up for the band,they chose Hallowe'en 1998 (their birthday) to launch the 'new look' PARASITE, tying in nicely with the debut show on the KISS PSYCHO CIRCUS tour.
Carl, Darran & Danny were once again invited to play at a KISS EXPO. They treated the crowd to a handfull of carefully chosen acoustic numbers before headliners' Dressed To Kill brought the day to an end.
This gave PARASITE an idea...
On January 19th / 20th / 21st 1999, PARASITE became the ONLY tribute to KISS to ever perform a series of unmasked shows, replicating the legendary KISS UNPLUGGED show. Adding in such gems as Forever, Whats On Your Mind & Easy As It Seems to the packed houses on all three nights.
The remainder of 1999 was taken on hiatus as Darran battled serious illness. However, he was able to perform with the band at certain shows around the UK.
PARASITE once more closed the show at a KISS EXPO and took the attendance record at the now closed Berlins in Nottingham.
2000 came in with PARASITE on top form, and with Darran back to full stength the band looked foward to adding shows in mainland Europe to their list of conquests. Unfortunately, Darran once more had to fight the illness which he had bravely overcome the previous year.
The final shows for PARASITE came in Lincoln, Grimsby & Bradford. With Gary Banton of Dressed To Kill stepping admirably in at the very last moment to save the day at the KISS EXPO at Badford Rio's when Mark missed his flight back to the UK.
As a special 'suprise' Rich Sawyer & Ash Brookes from Dressed To Kill jumped on stage to much aplom, joining PARASITE in playing Love Gun, Beth, Everytime I Look At You and Detroit Rock City. A rousing finale indeed.
The intrim years saw some band members start families. Carl and Danny kept busy forming Ozzmosis, and then Sonic Brew.
Darran returned to his other musical pursuits and continued to ply his trade around the clubs.
In 2003, Danny joined forces with Dressed To Kill and for almost three years was their resident SpaceMan, parting with them only after planning to emigrate to Australia to be with his then fiancee.(He is still an active part of DTK,helping them whenever he is needed.)
During this period, Danny, Carl and Mark had teamed up with Ash to create the orginal version of Being Paul Stanley to great acclaim.
So we come full circle. PARASITE reformed in May 2006. A truley different aspect to the typical KISS tribute band image has again been hit upon. This time PARASITE have opted for an era 'lost' on KISS fans of the re-union years and since.
The look, feel, and attitude of the Revenge/Alive III era has once again been brought to life for KISS fans. Fans of the band's greatest asset..... THE MUSIC !!!