• 1963-

  Ray DaviesVocals, guitar1963-

  Dave DaviesGuitar1963-

  Peter QuaifeBass1963-1969

  Mick AvoryDrums1963-1984

  John DaltonBass1971-1978

  John GoslingKeyboards1971-1978

  Andy PyleBass1976-1978

  Jim RodfordBass, vocals1978-2018

  Gordon EdwardsKeyboards1978

  Ian GibbonsKeyboards1979-1988

  Bob HenritDrums1984-

  Mark HaleyKeyboards1989-
• The Kinks were formed by the Davies brothers, who generally do not get along. Their family structure may have something to do with it: Ray and Dave Davies were the seventh and eighth children in their family. The first six were girls.
• Ray Davies and Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders were a couple in the early '80s. They had a daughter, Natalie, in 1983 but never married.
• Early names were The Ravens and The Bo Weevils. The Kinks is based on the word "Kinky," which they heard on the TV show The Avengers.
• In 1965 they embarked on their first American tour. It was a disaster, with erratic bookings and a great deal of conflict within the band. Along the way, they incurred the wrath of the musician's union, which refused to work with the band, effectively keeping them out of America until December, 1969. This tanked their sales in that country and kept them from performing at Woodstock.
• Ray Davies was shot in 2004. While visiting New Orleans with his wife, a mugger stole her bag. Davies gave chase and the perpetrator shot him in the leg, causing severe injuries.
• Ray Davies' sister Rene died the day he turned 13. She gave him his first guitar that year as a birthday present.
• Ray Davies has dabbled in film throughout his career, primarily in the '80s. In 1986, he was in the movie Absolute Beginners. He also directed the 1984 movie Return to Waterloo.
• Mick Avory almost joined the Rolling Stones. He played with them at a few early live shows.
• In 1969, The Kinks wrote one of the first rock operas: Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire. It was released the same year as the Who's more successful Tommy, so many have forgotten about it.
• Jim Rodford had been a member of Argent and helped refine the messy, booze-infested live shows for which the Kinks had become known during most of the Seventies. Later member Bob Henrit had also been a member of Argent.
• Ray Davies was knighted in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to the arts. He recalled to The London Times: "When I got the notification I thought it was a tax demand. I didn't open it for ages."
• Asked by Mojo magazine what his all-time favorite album is, Ray Davies replied: "Otis Blue by Otis Redding. He had the perfect backing group, and he filled all the gaps between Southern gospel, pop music, The Beatles."
• During The Kinks' 1965 US tour, John Wayne Gacy promoted their Springfield, Illinois show. Gacy was later executed for 33 murders. "He threw us a party and I felt he was a really nice guy. Which shows what a good judge of character I was," Dave Davis recounts in his autobiography Living On A Thin Line.
• The Kinks' 1965 UK tour took a tumultuous turn as tensions within the band began to surface. It all came to a head during their performance at the ABC Cinema in Cardiff, Wales, on June 14, 1965. Seeking revenge for a drunken altercation the previous night at a Taunton hotel, Dave Davies vented his frustration by kicking over Mick Avory's drum kit. In a swift retaliation, Avory struck Dave on the head with the hi-hat stand, causing the guitarist to lose consciousness. The concert was abruptly halted, and the band was forced to exit the stage. As a result, the remaining tour dates in the UK were canceled, and The Kinks had no choice but to return to London, their plans shattered by the internal strife.

Comments: 14

• Ken from Philadelphia, PaJamie in Toronto, both Ray and Dave have always been coy about what exactly caused their ban from playing that states. As near as I can tell, it was a combination of things. First, apparently Ray and Dave’s constant bickering got on the last nerve of their road manager who quit midway through the tour. The band soldiered on with Ray and Dave doing most of the interacting with the local promoters and the union reps. Considering the band was often barely speaking to each other, it is a miracle they even made it to their next gig without a road manager but, they made a go of it for a while.
  
  Unfortunately, there was a great dealt of anti-Brit feeling (specifically within the music business) in this time period. In addition to the quota system (which required promoters in the U.K. to accept an American act for every Brit act that was allowed to tour the U.S.), the musicians’ union members were always happy to let everybody within earshot know what they thought of the latest gang of pasty-faced, cockney-accented pukes they were setting up for. Road managers exist as a thing, then and now, largely to keep “the talent” from dealing with garbage like this. Alas, Ray and Dave, in addition to their own daily fights and in addition to dealing with the minutia of keeping a tour going and in addition to, you know, being the band, they were also listening to these pompous ass union reps tell them exactly what they thought of the Kinks. The only surprising thing is that it took so long but eventually Dave reached his limit and punctuated a particularly brutal critique from of the union guys with a punch in the nose to lead guy.
  
  It would be 3 years before the Kinks played in the states again and their inability to market themselves before American audiences undoubtedly played a major role in the commercial failures of the critically acclaimed “The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society” and “Arthur....”
• Bruce from Grove City, PaThrough email, I became friends with a local dj. Had to send her a copy of Something Else by the Kinks so she could play "Waterloo Sunset." She told me the feedback regarding the song was very positive. Since then, she's played "Waterloo" a couple of times. If you want to hear good music on the radio, you have to be proactive.
• Allen from Bethel, AkHeres a good Kinks resource site...
  http://kinks.it.rit.edu/
  Forget getting Kinks lyircs from that oneworthless site with the bright green background!
• Mleissa from Wasaga Beach, CanadaYes! Im Not the only one out there with a Kinky Boots Shirt Lol
• Allen from Bethel, AkThe Kinks are definitely under-rated. They have WAY more songs then just "You Really Got Me", and "Lola". I feel they're just as good as The Beatles. I was finally able to find an orange "Kinky Boots" shirt on ebay. I love it!
• Jamie from Toronto, CanadaThe Kinks were banned from playing in the U.S. due to problems with the American Federation of Musicians (the U.S. musician's union), not because the brothers fought a lot.
• Chris from Sunnyvale, CaI love the Kinks. They have such a different variety of songs. For example: You Really Got Me, Shangri-La, Lola, Come Dancing, and Destroyer all sound completely different. Without the voices, you couldn't tell it was the same band. Definately underrated.
  
• Noel from Dublin, IrelandWow I've never heard of a Pop/Punk Band but if there was one it'd be the Kinks
  
• Ben from Nyc, MsDave Davies is GOD!! :)
• Matthew from Downers Grove, Il...But The Village Green Preservation Society sounds so happy and peaceful. Songs like All of my Friends Were There and Animal Farm. hmm.
• Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, ScI heard that the davies brothers fought so much at one show, that the Kinks were banned in the States for
  4 years.
• Sam from Philadelphia, Pamost people know how much the two brothers hated each other, but this is crazy. in the late 60's ray and dave davies were eating lunch at cafe place in new york. dave tried to steal one of rays french frys. but ray caught him, get ready for it, stabbed dave in the chest with a damn knife
• Olaf from Occidental, CaRecommended reading for Kinks fiends: "X-Ray, the Unauthorized Autobiography" by Ray Davies (1995). This is a surprising quasi-fictional history of Ray and the Kinks. The book lead to his solo "Storyteller" tour & CD, where Davies combined stories with songs.
  
• Kev from Scunthorpe, EnglandIn 1986 Ray Davis appeared in the film 'Absolute Beginners'.

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