Classics like Waterloo Sunset & Lola introduced character studies into pop music
Classics like Waterloo Sunset, Lola and Dedicated Follower Of Fashion introduced character studies into pop music, paving the way for later chroniclers of everyday British life like The Jam, Madness and Blur. Alongside Ray, younger brother Daveâs incendiary guitar riffs influenced generations of musicians, with peers including Pete Townshend and even the great Jimi Hendrix wowed by his exhilarating playing.
Daveâs classic riff on The Kinksâ first hit, You Really Got Me, in 1964 is generally credited as inventing distortion in rock music, paving the way for heavy metal.
The Davies brothersâ feuds, which lasted until The Kinks split in 1996, were legendary. Forget Liam and Noel Gallagher, Ray and Dave were rockâs first brawling brothers â and they continued to scrap, with Ray Âinfamously stamping on Daveâs 50th birthday cake in 1997.
But the brothers have mellowed towards each other in recent years.
Don’t miss… Kinksâ Dave Davies lays bare his feud: ‘My brother Rayâs a vampire’
And now they want to remind the world of The Kinksâ greatness by reuniting on stage.
âWe spoke the other day and weâre meeting up in a couple of weeks,â Dave tells the Daily Express. âWeâll try to get back on stage. I wonât tell you what it is until itâs ready, but I want us to talk about doing something based on our lives.â
Itâs news Kinks fans have been longing for, with the Davies brothersâ only previous reunion coming when Ray joined Dave onstage at the guitaristâs solo concert at Âintimate London club Islington Assembly Hall in 2015 to perform You Really Got Me.
Dave speaks fondly of his brother these days, admitting itâs only in later in life that heâs come to fully appreciate the magic of their work together.
He smiles: âI look forward to it whenever I see Ray and we talk about stuff, because Ray has got such a way with words.â
That brotherly love is a far cry from The Kinksâ heyday, as Dave, 76, admits: âI hated it a lot of times when I was working with Ray, because Iâd think, âOh, f***, how do I get away from this madness?â And it was madness, being in The Kinks.â
Now, nearly 60 years after helping Âto revolutionise music, Dave is proud of the part The Kinks played in mixing his incendiary guitars with Rayâs incisive lyrics.
âWe didnât know what we were doing,â believes Dave, three years Rayâs junior.
âThe Kinks was a constant state of screaming and shouting at each other and loving each other too. Because we didnât know what we were doing, our quest was always, âWhat are we going to do now?â Thatâs the path we followed, reviewing Âeverything we did along the way. We were rough kids who were learning how to express ourselves.â
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The youngest two of eight siblings, Ray and Dave had six older sisters.
Along with their mum Annie, Dave credits the Davies family women for inspiring the brothers into creating music. He recalls: âMy sisters were such strong characters. In those days, women were barely allowed to go to the toilet without permission. But if my sisters wanted to do something, theyâd do it. They knew all about expressing themselves, which is a crucial part of music.
âIt was mum who taught me how to Âmanifest my creativity. I was an angry kid, who had so much rage. Mum taught me all about my feelings, which I expressed through music. If I hadnât done that, Iâd have ended up in a straitjacket â or worse.â
That rage played a vital part in changing rock history.
Aged just 16, Dave created the sound of You Really Got Me by taking a razorblade to his guitar amp after a row Âwith his girlfriend. He explains: âAfter this terrible row, I thought I was going to slash my wrists with the razorblade. I was being very Âtheatrical. Instead, I looked at the amp and thought, âIâm going to take it all out on this.â
Now, the Davies brothers want to remind the world of The Kinksâ greatness by reuniting on stage.
âI started slashing at Âthe amp, not knowing what ÂI was doing. I was really shocked afterwards that it still worked. The raggedy sound it now made was fantastic.â
Ray agreed, as did bassist Pete Quaife, who died in 2010, and drummer Mick Avory. Unaware that it was exactly what young music fans were desperate to hear, The Kinksâ studio engineers refused to record the ampâs raw noise. âIt went against everything they were taught about recording,â laughs Dave. âThey hated that sound, and our record company wasnât keen either. But we told them, if they didnât record it the way we wanted then the band would split up.â
You Really Got Me promptly became ÂÂthe first of the bandâs three No 1 singles, Âfollowed by Tired Of Waiting For You and Sunny Afternoon. Dave enthuses: âYoung people wanted that rough sound. I was 16, I couldnât articulate how I felt about my girlfriend. I wanted to both hug her Âand scream at her, and thatâs Âhow You Really Got Me sounds. We were a very primordial band, in a way.â
That primitive nature was part of the bandâs arguments. Daveâs fights with Mick Avory were often even more severe than his scraps with Ray.
âThe Kinksâ fights have been blown up out of proportion over the years,â Dave insists. âMe and Mick wanted to kill each other â but I love him too. Ray and I were so different. We still are. When you look back, you see how those differences complemented each other.
âYou sometimes need things to go wrong before they go right. It didnât always work, but when it did? Boom, we had something.â
The Kinks were prolific, releasing 24 albums over the course of their career.
Itâs ironic that The Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur, which failed to chart on their release in the late 1960s, are now generally regarded as the bandâs finest albums. âWe were always experimenting,â says Dave. âNot all of those experiments worked or were understood. Village Green was an important album.
âIt could have been our last album, and it felt like the end when we were making it. But it became a beginning. I love it when something new grows out of what you think is the end. Thatâs like nature.â
The guitarist chuckles at sounding like a hippy, but the kid who was full of rage has matured into a gentle soul. He happily shows off pictures on his phone of his black-and-white rescue cat, Jolene, noting: âCertain animals know whatâs going on a lot more than people. Cats are healers.â
In a lilac paisley-patterned scarf, with Âhis shoulder-length silver hair mostly Âhidden under a purple beanie, Dave Âlooks bohemian.
He travels a lot with his girlfriend of 11 years, singer/photographer Rebecca G Wilson. The father-of-eight also emphasises how his children âconstantly teach Âme, reminding me of love and that kindness is so importantâ.
But Dave is equally still thrilled at the impact of The Kinksâ early wild days, Âgrinning: âWhen I saw girls dancing to our music and screaming at us, I thought, âWe must be alright.â Those fans were learning how to express themselves, like we were in the band. It was wonderful to be a part of a generational experiment that worked.â
The Davies brothersâ feuds, which lasted until The Kinks split in 1996, were legendary.
Dave is quick to praise the part his older brotherâs lyrics played in The Kinksâ success, stating: âRay was able to take anything Âpeople said â even me telling him, âShut the hell up!â â and write it down in a way Âthat made you think, âWow, thatâs clever.â Â
Ray shaped cultural advances through Âour music.â
Being banned from the US for four years between 1965-69 â mostly due to cutting shows short in a financial row with promoters â meant The Kinks didnât achieve the global success of their contemporaries.
A glut of cheap compilations in their later years also tarnished their legacy.
Thankfully, successful West End musical Sunny Afternoon, which ran from 2014 for two years, and new two-part Best Of compilation The Journey have reminded a new generation of fans of The Kinksâ magic.
It opens the way for that potential 60th-anniversary reunion.
âInside, I still feel 15,â adds Dave. âI still donât really know what Iâm doing. But music has taught me more about the world than Iâd ever thought possible.â
- The Kinksâ new compilation, The Journey Part 2, is out now on BMG. The Journey Part 1 is also available