This is actually old news in that my wife and I had a great evening a month ago in Lincoln's New Theatre Royal with what's left (I thought, at least) of The original Kinks band and they call themselves The Kast Off Kinks but their renditions were as good as the big hits of the 1960s and 70s.
Not only are they calling themselves The Kast Off Kinks, but trying to establish, for me, who is who, and what is going on with The Kinks, seems too, to be cast in shadows.
For a start, the very distinctive face of the guy I remembered as the original band's lead singer (of whom I never remembered his name, but research tells me that it is Ray Davies) - I thought as he was not on stage in Lincoln, that maybe he was dead - but it turns out - he isn't. So that creates a mystery for me.
Glastonbury:
So, after, as ever, a bit of Googling around, I find that in 2010 (still with that distinctive face - and looking good, he, Ray Davies was singing the great hit and my personal favourite, "WATERLOO SUNSET" that, I, as a South Londoner, can never hear without being cast into deep emotional, nostalgic and thoughtful wanderings of the mind, reminiscing about my regular 'work walks' across the bridge when I worked just off Fetter Lane, within the diamond industry, on the north bank of The Thames near the legal [Inns of Court] and newspaper [Fleet Street] hearts of London). He was singing (with a good voice still) at Glastonbury with a massive supporting choir. Here it is (below):
At the time of the Glastonbury Festival in 2010 when Ray Davies played Waterloo Sunset, it was shortly after an original band member, Pete Quaife (bassist) had passed away and thus Davies dedicates his song to Pete and below is a poor video recording of Davies appearing at a memorial event for his former band colleague when to be honest he reveals that he sings better than he speaks publicly in my view (I hope that you can successfully comprehend what Davies is saying as I had difficulty myself):
Once you've seen the video above, now let me tell you how the plot thickens. I am speaking as a fan of The Kinks, not an aficionado, meaning I loved 'em but knew not much about them, either then, in the 1960s and 70s, nor now. What seems to be the reason for the feud that I intimated earlier is made a little clearer in a Telegraph article here.
During my roaming around The Net for research etc., I tripped over a young woman busking nearby Waterloo in London - uploaded to YouTube. - Worth hearing her singing Waterloo Sunset - got a good voice (and I love the violin backing and the acoustic guitar). Her name's Charlotte Campbell.
I suppose you should see and hear the band doing Waterloo Sunset live at The BBC in 1968 as a comparison to all the other versions:
I am always an emotional wreck when anything South London comes up as my life was in such turmoil when I grew up there into my adolescence and beyond. Thus, I was interested what gave The Kinks the idea of Waterloo Sunset. Here is the answer and within the exposé is the original soundtrack of their recorded single of Waterloo Sunset - which is far better than the live one.
Update 23-10-18:
If you Google around for The Kinks you'll find a surprising amount of interviews and biographical titbits about the band (as I have). I was tempted to add some of these (mostly YouTube items here as an extra section, but I think that this post is already very long and not every visitor will be a Kinks fan - so to summarise:
If you want more biographical information visit these items (and be aware that one or two marked with an asterisk are quite long time-wise:
- The Kinks (Biography Channel) * (45 mins)
- BBC interview from about three years ago (i.e. 2015).
- ITV brief biographical interview the day before Ray Diavies' knighthood being bestowed. It shows his North London origins.
- USA interview (with Dave Davies and a British interviewer). Painful ... * (28 mins)
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