Well respected men

In Act II of our story on The Kinks, archivist Andrew Sandoval talks to band founder Dave Davies, drummer Mick Avory, and long-time bassist John Dalton. These exclusive interviews explore the creative and often mysterious back story on how this band of misfits made so many klassics

Dave Davies formed the earliest incarnations of what would become The Kinks with bassist Pete Quaife and the occasional involvement of his older brother, Ray. When Ray fully committed to the band (known variously as The Boll-Weevils, The Ravens and eventually The Kinks), they won iconic status via Dave’s remarkable guitar playing and Ray’s incomparable songwriting. However, what few realise is that some of the band’s earliest pre-Pye original material came from the pen of Dave Davies.

Throughout The Kinks’ career he remained the creative lightning rod that brought their songs to the public and despite recent health issues has remained active writing and recording (he is preparing a solo album for 2013, I Will Be Me). Here, he reveals much about The Kinks’ formative influences.

RC: What are your thoughts on the just-released The Kinks At The BBC box set? The sessions sound quite different to the studio recordings you made at Pye.

Dave Davies: Well, it was totally different. More open stage and no [baffle] screens. Studios in those days were like a loony bin: a padded cell – they dampened everything. The BBC was more like a regular stage set-up. They had soundproof screens, but just to cut down the ambience, rather than deadening the sound too much. It was more like …

by Andrew Sandoval
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