The Kinks (to play together for the first time since 1996)

The Kinks to play together for the first time since 1996

Dave Davies once claimed that when his brother Ray stamped on his 50th birthday cake, it ended any chance of the Kinks reforming for ever. He has called his older brother toxic, and an arsehole. Ray snarled of his younger brother: "I don't know what his problem is, apart from pride." Dave said: "I don't want to see the legacy of the Kinks soured by two miserable old men doing it for the money." Ray said: "Some people say he's a jumped-up upstart, but I say: take him as you find him." The next move is obvious: reform the Kinks.

"I met Dave only last week to talk about getting back together again," Ray told the Sunday Times. Even their meeting was historic: for years the brothers have communicated almost entirely by email.

The band, formed in 1964, released a string of some of the best-loved hits in British musical history, including Waterloo Sunset, Sunny Afternoon, Lola, Dead End Street and You Really Got Me, and last played together in 1996. Long before then their rows, reputedly including punchups in the back of the tour bus, were legendary. The arc of the band towards what appeared to be a crash landing in a dead end was recently traced in Sunny Day, a Hampstead Theatre musical now set for a West End transfer: Ray was involved with both script and the music, but Dave apparently saw and liked it.


Among the hurled insults, both brothers have recognised that their musical partnership produced something extraordinary. In an Observer interview in 2011, Ray said: "When we were together, it was aggressive, violent, powerful, but we triggered off each other. We don't see each other much, but this morning I found two songs we recorded together at my house on my computer. It's unforgettable, his sound."

Fans will rejoice at the news that the sound may soon be heard again.

 

I guess we should believe it when we see it. If it happens, it's going to be a landmark moment. The needle between Ray & Dave makes the Noel/Liam spat look like nothing.

Oddly, I know I've seen a couple of great docs, but obviously not in the last 3 years. Though I expect they'll be repeated in the backwash of this happening...

Heyday TV: The Kinks - Life on the Road
An entertaining anecdote-fest with Dave Davies and several other actual Kinks band-members (not Ray, though, obviously).

I'm still awaiting those other repeats, though...

I remember as a child my father would play The Kinks and Pink Floyd faithfully in the mid to late 70's. Have Lola stuck in my head now lol. Guess I was a bit too young to fully appreciate The Kinks, though know they were awesome. In the states, the only two songs that I got to grow up on by them were Come Dancing and Don't Forget To Dance. Adored them both and basically adore the entire music era that they were in.

Yeah, it's hard to credit that they were still, to all intents and purposes, slogging away making albums throughout the 70s & beyond, because really after Lola in, what 1971, they were all but a minor interest in the UK, save the novelty success of 'Come Dancing', which pushed enough of the right buttons to get airplay and become a hit.

The Kinks - In Their Own Words
This reminded me so much of the "Life on the Road" doc already mentioned it was bizarre. However this time Dave was only present in sound only, from audio interviews.

I still wonder at the OP, but maybe there will be something special at a festival this summer. Last year was their 50th anniversary of their biggest hit singles, though Ray always seems like someone proudest of his albums.

The Kinks - Live in Performance
A bit of a change, effectively re-telling their story by showing what live footage they have, regardless of whether it was a hit or not. So very little from the 1960s' and then quite a bit from the late 1970s. Handily, they signed with Clive Davis and appeared on SNL which seems like The Word to have been a sly repository for music masquerading as something else entirely. At least I learned they had a song called "Life on the Road" which explains one of the previous docs of theirs I'd seen. Lola remains their most discussed song, which says a lot about gender politics really, even now.

The Kinks - The Live Broadcasts
In tandem with the above show, this was a half-hour with the lads on assorted crap shows, mainly in the 1970s, delivering tracks which history has largely forgotten, including the superbly ironic "No More Looking Back".

The Story of: The Kinks
From 1985, narrated by Tommy Vance, and with contributions from Ray Davies and former managers Robert Wace and Larry Page. Since Davies apparently sued Page, and then later re-hired him as a manager, it's not an average story. Thankfully, the music more than makes up for it. Since 'Come Dancing' was fairly fresh at the time this was made, it probably didn't seem quite as surprising as it would now. Though I still don't buy this idea that the band were still remotely relevant in the bulk of the 1970s.

Beat Beat Beat: The Kinks
This brief 60s series has, in this edition, our heroes at the HR-Studios in Frankfurt, Jan 7, 1966, to whizz through Well Respected Man, Till The End of the Day, I'm A Lover Not A Fighter and You Really Got Me. Notably, Ray shares the singing duties with Dave for once.

Echoes of a World - The Story of The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society
Entertaining new doc marking the 50th anniversary of this classic Kinks album, with Ray & Dave and Mick Avory discussing it, together with celebrity fans like Suggs, Paul Weller, Graham Coxon and Noel Gallagher. They discussed many of the tracks, and how Days was put out first as a single (and then the album had no hits on it). There was some good archive (especially some studio show from the 90s with Ray & Dave).

Music Icons: The Kinks
The familiar story of the two siblings at the core of a London band. They had big hit records, but fell foul of errors like having too many managers, and annoying the USA. And making too many concept albums. Though they did invest money into Konk Studios, they did have line-up and health issues. They joined the R&R HoF in 1990, and packed it in a few years later when Dave turned 50.

The Old Grey Whistle Test - The Kinks
They played Mar 28, 1977, to push their Sleepwalker album. Ray bantered and did band intros in a desultory way. Apart from a brief bit of Muswell Hillbillies, it seemed to be all from the new album, and no old stuff. Even as an ongoing concern, that seemed a bit hard-headed. But then the songs were worth hearing.

The Old Grey Whistle Test - The Kinks Christmas Concert
Perhaps off the back of the above, Ray and the gang returned for Christmas 1977 which entailed a few songs off that recent album, and a few more oldies this time, as well as a good few that probably weren't called for, but were still worth hearing for a change. There was even some dressing up towards the end for their song Father Christmas, which seems to have been forgotten.

John Gosling, who played keyboards with them through most of the 1970s, has died at the age of 75. Both Ray and Dave have paid tributes. RIP 

The Kinks at the Rainbow
From 1972, around the time of the Muswell Hillbillies album, this was part performance, but also some chat from Ray, a former agent in Arthur Howes, and an admiring fan in Ned Sherrin. 

I'm Not Like Everybody Else - The World of Ray Davies and the Kinks
From 1995, a profile of Ray and his band, his troubles with publishing rights, and American issues. Ned Sherrin turned up again, but then so did Tom Robinson and even Shel Talmy, and a couple of ex-managers, and the reliable brother Dave. Ray was never one to let good subject matter go begging, hence the whimsical Money-Go-Round which featured here and in the above.