PICTURE GALLERY: New York City Metal & Punk Tour - Day 1, Manhattan

KISS fans will be interested in this one. You can start your walking tour around here, East 23rd Street. I walked south along Park Avenue and then turned west into East 23rd Street. This walk-up building #20 East 23rd Street is where Gene, Peter, and Paul rehearsed in the early years of KISS (1973-74). Ace joined the band here. The guys would arrive via the subway entrance at Fifth Avenue, around 25 metres to the right of the building.

#20 East 23rd Street (the building directly to the right of the yellow building). It is easy to imagine Paul, Gene, Ace, and Peter hurrying out of the subway entrance (near where the second tree is) and rushing to rehearsals.

Now you can turn south again into Fifth Avenue and head down to East 10th Street. Here we can see the original drum kit of Marky Ramone in a drumshop window. This is only a short distance from the famous CBGBs punk club, one of our next stops.

Walk west along West 10th Street then turn left into Sixth Avenue then head south. Turn east again at West 4th Street. This is the famous Bleecker Bob's Records in Greenwich Village. Sadly in the digital download age sales have fallen and the shop may need to close.

Then turn south at Thompson Street. Next stop is the mighty Generation Records, at 210 Thompson Street between West 3rd Street and Bleecker. Generation Records is home to rare vinyl and CD metal, punk, and hardcore. Second-hand stock and T-shirts are in the basement.

Jack Frost with vinyl 12s by Nihilist and Obituary

Go south until you reach Bleecker Street then turn right into Bleecker. Village Music World at 197 Bleecker Street is one of the last remaining record shops in Greenwich Village. I was happy to pick up a Slade CD from the 1980s.

 Lunch at an English pub in Greenwich Village - fish and chips, pint of Guinness, and The Business' Saturday's Heroes (South London street punk)

Now there is a long walk east on Bleecker until you reach The Bowery. This picture shows punks and Misfits hanging out opposite CBGB's punk venue on The Bowery.

This is a punk chick I talked to opposite CBGB's. She said her mother was a punk in the 1970s and that in that era it was dangerous to go further south down past 10th Street.

This is the famous picture of The Ramones standing on The Bowery, at the corner of Bleecker Street, looking north with CBGBs behind them.

This is the exact same spot today May 2012. CBGBs is replaced by a high-end men's fashion shop (the second black awning directly opposite the end of the white car).

Corner of The Bowery and Bleecker, around 15 metres south of CBGB's

CBGB's punk club at 315 The Bowery in the 1970s

The location of CBGB's today (May 2012) where it is John Varvatos Menswear

Now go back west on Bleecker and then turn left on Mott Street. Keep walking south into Chinatown until you reach corner of Canal and Mott Streets. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley rehearsed in 1972 with their pre-KISS band Wicked Lester in a walk-up building on corner of Canal and Mott Street. I actually couldn't identify the exact building. It could be this one on Canal Street or the building in either of the next two pictures.

On Canal Street, Chinatown

On east side of Mott Street, Chinatown, just north of junction with Canal Street

Corner of Mott and Canal Streets, Chinatown, Lower Manhattan