| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Bean |
Posted - October 06 2005 : 01:13:59 AM
an article about the glory days of early 70's kinks shows in NYC...from a friend of mine & Ray's Lisa Robinson and she again mentions the Alcohol beer wars, paper plates, and general anarchy fueled battles I led the kinks preservation army and troops in to at the shows...
Bean aka Frank Lima krankiekat@aol.com
Raymond Douglas Davies
"Some People Like To Live With Dreams" by Lisa Robinson NY Daily News 1973
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Ray Davies leaned against the wall outside his dressing room at New York's Felt Forum. Even as he took large swigs out of a half-empty gin bottle, he looked elegant - dressed in white trousers, a wildly patterned shirt and the ever-present bow-tie. "Your're looking well," he said with a smile, "which is more than I can say for myself." Not true - Ray always looks divine.
Of course he has had a difficult year, there was the publicized "retirement", when Ray announced at the Rainbow that he was packing it in and wouldn't perform anymore. And the rumored personal problems Ray was having with his wife led to a mysterious disappearance and uncertainty about his future plans. But those who know and love Ray may worry about him, but they'll always be out in full force when he decides he wants to perform again, as he did recently.
"The thing I'm conscious of in America," Ray told me once, "is that people want me to be happy. They know I like to be happy and they don't deter me. In England many fans don't really believe the Kinks will show up for a performance. And always my lifestyle....well, occasionally Mick or Dave or I will have fights with promoters of shows but that doesn't mean it's an excuse for believing that we won't show up. Initially people distrust us. And it's not because we'd be playing in a small hall, or somewhere that only held two thousand people. I think people think I should be standing on a golden stage all the time, with fantastic lighting."
Kinks fans here are unbelievable; at the Felt Forum they received the beer that Ray tossed out to the front rows during "Alcohol", and then proceeded to thoroughly douse him in return. So much so that he had to run for cover to the back of the stage. But then - Kinks concerts really are like celebrations - Ray celebrates every song that he has written and that he sings, and the audience responds by cheering, throwing paper plates and confetti at him, singing along to all the lyrics - and it's really like a big .
There aren't too many rockstars who could come onstage dressed in their bathrobes, sing "If I were a rich man", and "Mr. Wonderful" in between some of the greatest rock and roll songs that have ever been on record. "A Dedicated Follower of Fashion", "Sunny Afternoon", "You Really Got Me", "A Well Respected Man", "Waterloo Sunset", "Lola", "Alcohol", "Celluloid Heroes", and many more are only some of the offerings from Ray Davies when he's onstage. And his records only get grander with the years.
This past year he released "Preservation Act I", and along with "Preservation Act II" which will be out "momentarily" - Ray plans to create a play. "It was written that way," he said, "and I really do want to do them both as a show in the fall, perhaps on Broadway. Maybe one week there, one week somewhere else. I did a version of it on Drury Lane in London last year, it was part of the celebration of England entering the Common Market."
"I really wrote the songs so that they could stand on their own as rock songs, or they could fit quite nicely into a conceptual piece.
Of course Ray Davies would be a natural for a Broadway show. A combination chanteuse, master of ceremonies, stripper and crooner when he's onstage, those who have watched him carefully through the years have always felt that the rock arena was too limited for his talents. In commenting on his scope after the Felt Forum concert promoter Ron Delsener likened him to Dietrich, Piaf, Sinatra and Garland. "There's not another like him."
As far as his own performance is concerned, Ray told me "I don't feel that I'm performing all the time, but I am. There is a difference in what you see onstage and me. What you see onstage is weakness. I'm not unfriendly, I don't come over unfriendly onstage or anytime, really . I can be nasty - but then I'm acting. I have to act - I like it as much as anybody I guess, but I do it for protection."
"As far as carrying on onstage is concerned, I don't know what I'm doing, you see. I'm not necessarily drunk onstage, I drink very little. I'm not a great drinker - that's why I get drunk. I have one drink and then I get tipsy...."
What about the reputation?...."Well, I like publs, but that doesn't mean to say I'm a drinker. I like pubs because of the people who go to them. People go to pubs to unwind, and to forget....They're going from A to B and they stop there to pick up some courage, to do what they have to do. I guess you could say that the stage is my kind of pub."
A few years ago Ray started to bring a brass section onstage with him, and now he's got back-up singers as well. One can easily forsee the day when he'll have a full orchestra and sets...the whole bit. What's he been doing for almost ten years suddenly seems like the framework and the concept for the eventual theatrical production. "Eventually I'd like to tour with an opera singer to do some of our numbers," Ray told me, and it didn't sound at all preposterous. "I'd love to record while performing live, even if it means traveling with 50 musicians. It's the only way I see myself surviving, being kind of true to what I'm doing."
"You know," he continued, "I'm in a business where I think up something in my dream world, I think up something fabulous. And in my little dream world I put it down on paper, or tape, and I play it for people who are outside that world, and they judge it by the world they live in. And the whole thing gets destroyed for me. It means a lot when somebody can come in my world and say that they like it. It's really down to that. One consolation I have though," he smiled, "is that I saw a documentary on Rembrandt, and a guy came up to him and said "Rembrandt, I don't like your pictures, they're not very commercial.' And, as a result - he didn't get any advances, he didn't get any money."
"I like playing, you see - and as soon as the music starts and I know that I'm connected to it, I just have to do it and be it. Because I've lived with it - and well, I made it in the first place. Music - as with painting or books, well - it's really a dream first, and then can become a reality. Some people like to live with dreams...I know that I do, it's the only way we can sort of get by."
What I'd like to know is when the dream of Raymond Douglas Davies' Broadway show becomes a reality, how's he going to play all the parts?
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Lisa Robinson NY Daily News 1973 |
| 5 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Bean |
Posted - October 07 2005 : 03:16:39 AM
I'll leave you with one more Kinks tale from the old days before I jet off to Italy for 2 weeks so rest assure Mailbox site will be safe after today... FranK aka krankiekat@aol.com
I think it was 1971 or 72 at the Felt Forum in NYC
when during the encore of what was an already pretty wild and chaotic show as only someone who ever attended an early 70's kinks shows knows exactly what I mean, anyway Ray was letting Dave take the spot light during one of the encores and I think Dave first did a rip roaring version of Good Golly Miss Molly that tore the roof off the place, and then launced into Susanhhas's Still alive, but some time during these encores Dave got a little a mischevious and decided to take a hat off one of the many security guards up at the stage ( there was a near riot already going on at the front of the stage mind you and of course I was at ground zero in the middle of it as usual...just ask Ray, and of course Dave had to pick some big burley security guard to torment) Anyway after Dave takes the hat off this guard who was really annoyed at the fact, a group of security guards appeared on the stage all pointing at Dave and starting to surround him in a semi circle, making threatning jestures and facial expressions, Dave only made the matters worse when instead of giving the hat back to the guard, he tossed it out several rows in to the chaotic crowd, I swear all hell was breaking loose at this time and I knew serious **** was about to go down, so I coraled several of the die hard kinks fans I knew from years of shows up at the stage and jumped on to the stage to form a human wall of fans between Dave and the guards, Kenny Jones the Kinks long time road managr also came to Dave's rescue, fist started flying and I took and gave a few blows, they seriuosly wanted a piece of Dave that night. THe audience was going totlally bonkers, I swear I've been at Ramones, Nirvanna, Sex Pistols, Clash WHO, Doors, ( and a whole lot more )and some of these the early 70's Kinks shows this one included have been some of the wildest, chaotic, intense shows I have ever been at,If my memory serves me well this was the same show that they actually pulled the power on PA system to end the show because things got so out of hand on and off the stage....then there was the time Ray stopped the show and threatned not to play if the security guards didn't put me down and as they tried to eject me from Fordam Univerities Gym during an early 70's Kinks show (when Aerosmith opened up for the kinks)...I think that date may have been December 6, 1970...and there are more stories...the Alcohol on stage beer wars between my army and Ray, as mentioned and documented in Johnnie Rogan's book, and also in the Daily News Top of the POPs column by the late Kinks loving Lillian Roxon, and the time Dave and John Dalton doused me with beer after my supply ran out..or another time at the Felt Forum Dave smashed his guitar over Goslings Keyboards, causing an already Drunk baptist to join in by toppling over the keyboards, and Avory kicking over the drums in disgust while Ray ran around the stage yelling at them like a school Mom...it was not a pretty backstage after the show that night...I would not even say what happenned.... ( Hatred even then was the only thing that kept them together! ) |
| Bean |
Posted - October 06 2005 : 01:21:24 AM
and even More old Tales of the Kinks from the krypt...
Bean aka Frank Lima email: krankiekat @aol.com
The infamous NYC Philharmonic Hall NYC show March 30th 1971, where I ended up helping drag Ray off the stage by his ankles while on his back, then I got a piggy back ride on John Goslings back...while total chaos broke out on the stage and Dave just stood there with his hands on his hips an next to his toppled stack of Hiwatts, Avory just stomed off the stage and nobby John Daltom stood there in amazement with his mouth wide open...of course this is all I can remember after I woke up from hitting my head during my stage dive off the balcony, oh yeah one last thing I was tripping on some acid that I took with out knowing it...there's a wholelot more to the this story...then of course there's the Everybody's a star night when, March 2nd and 3rd at Carnagie Hall in NYC Dave yanked me up on stage at the March 3rd 1972 show during the recording of the live portion of the Show-Biz album and I sung through Dave's PA with Ray during the Bannana boat song and they used that version on the album....that's my voice you hear singing with Ray...Not Dave's even though people say it sounds like Dave...you can tell I was scared ****less because my voice trails off as I backed away from the microphone Ray says I'd like to thank the and it fades out on the record but he was thanking me for coming up there to sing with him...
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| Bean |
Posted - October 06 2005 : 01:19:46 AM
OK who rememembers this night? It still remains of of my all time favorite shows and days of all time...
Bean aka Frank Lima email: krankiekat@aol.com
from Melody Maker
Kinks mania (would you believe?) in Central Park - August 23, 1972
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Wollman Rink, Central Park, New York:
It brought tears to old eyes. One thing it did do was bless the heart with a a ripe kiss of emotion. When you see 7,000 ravers go stark raving crazy over the good old imperial Kinks, you can only feel damned good and happy.
You know it's a revelation to see how this lovely band is treated over here. If a raver is deemed to be an English lad o' the night, then we had better start thinking again, because the kids at Wollman Rink, last Wednesday, were the most delicious bunch of crazed heads I think I've ever seen.
Kinks mania - there's no question about it, there was nearly a damned riot, ending up with Ray and the lads doing a good half-hour encore to satisfy an audience that looked like uprooting the stage, and eating the cops patrolling the front line.
Talk about encores as well - we got Mr. Davies bringing a lump to the throat with "Auld Lang Syne," and then a rib-kicking "Louie Louie," which gashed into "Hang On Sloopy," and then a ridiculous "Twist and Shout" - they don't come no better than that, you know.
What a fun night it was. There were a couple of kids in front of me tap-dancing to Ray's swooning bubble-lipped version of "Baby Face." And Ray was just ace. The complete and utter Guide to Camping (Volumes One to 100). There's nobody who can put a hand on a hip like Raymond Douglas.
Man, you can forget David Bowie, 'cause Ray's in a field of his own, and he'd been like that for always. When they start planting gold stars in the pavements down Tin Pan Alley, then Ray's going to be the first.
A full moon was beaming through the stage scaffolding when the band fell on to the stage. John Gosling surrounded by a complete wall of chilled beer cans, dear Mick Avory (someone remarked that he was "so cute" after the show) sat poker-faced behind the drums, like he was ready to do a wedding reception dance at the Fox and Lion, Hornsey. And in startling red stood Dalton and Dave Davies, the funkers.
And then, ladies and gentlemen, appeared the star of the show. White telecaster wrapped around his groin, hands tapping his hair to get a bouncy edge to it, feet juggling in a little dance. The place just exploded.
He shilled his way into "Top of the Pops" and that was the start of an hilarious , and wonderfully emotional night of magic. The band raggy, but jangly, and biffy and fine as only the Kinks can be. "Milk Cow Blues," "Acute Schizophrenia" and even "Waterloo Sunset" saw Ray twisting, turning, poncing, and duding it up, in front of the people and the people were sucking every nuance from the man. They wanted him so bad it wasn't true.
Mike Cotton's boozy horns blurted in delightfully for "Alcohol," which sees the complete Ray Davies. Oh did you ever drink so much it hurt. This is showbiz, Hollywood showbiz, dazzle and razzle, and drama, and oooh those satin blues.
He posed there, shaking up a can of beer, and letting it spurt right up his arm, a sprig of roses thrust down the front of his white, tight trousers, and a face drawn with passion and misery. Oh that man really should have been born a brace of decades ago, lowered into Hollywood, and left to be swooned upon. Hands on hips, he wiggled and vamped across the stage.
And then he climbed the scaffolding, a white spotlight following his adventures, which culminated in him tip-toeing his way between the monitor speakers at the front. He shook another beer can, and the froth and booze rushed into the air like a jet from Moby Dick. It was just lovely.
Strapping his guitar back on, sticking his arm in the air, he announced: "This is the Kinks, a new band from England who wear red hunting jackets," and the band banged into "You Really Got Me." The Wollman Rink had just been waiting for this one. They all got up, falling over people in an attempt to make the front, dancing it, and singing it, and clapping it.
That done, Dave Davies swung his arm back, and cranked out the riffing for "All Day and All of the Night"........"God Save the Kinks" bawled the crowd. My golly, you don't know what you are missing in England when you can't get off to this band.
It's fun, it's entertainment. There's nowt heavy, there's nowt cool about this band - and you are crazy if you try to make out there is. The Kinks are everyone's memories, everybody's good times and everybody's bad times, and they are the vehicle to gush out those REAL feelings in the old heart.
And Ray Davies does write THE best songs, you know.
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| Bean |
Posted - October 06 2005 : 01:18:05 AM
Will we ever forget this show Richie???
Bean aka Frank Lima email: krankiekat@aol.com
The Infamous Philharmonic Hall
NYC show 3-30-71
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The Kinks, who as every aging rock'n'roller knows, rank among the Beatles and the Stones in the pantheon of English pop stars, the Kinks who have been so top of it ever since the beginning without ever becoming superstars, the same Kinks who gave us "You Really Got Me", "Tired of Waiting", "Set Me Free", "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", "A Well Respected Man", "All Day and All of the Night," "Plastic Man", "Lola" and more recently "Apeman", those very same Kinks rocked the Philharmonic Hall last week with a one-night stand so pregnant with meaning it should have been filmed or taped for posterity. It was the kind of performance you would expect from Judy Garland , Hank Williams or Brian Jones. Only this time it was Raymond Douglas Davies, the guiding genius behind the Kinks, who showed us how some of us react to the Strum and Drang of contemporary civilization. It was more than a rock performance - more of a psycho-drama and a bit like a coming out .
Ray Davies, who shares lead vocals with his brother Dave, did the coming out, although it looked for a few moments as if he might also come apart in the process. Ray is the group's heavy talent, the man responsible for most of their songs, and the co-author of a memorable television drama (not seen in this country) about a suburbanite named Arthur Morgan, the score of which was written by Ray and performed by the group. It became one of their best albums, "Arthur."
Waving his arms and wiggling his ass, Ray fluttered on stage to the delight of the audience, wearing a velvet suit and bow tie, horn rimmed glasses and pursed lips. He cooed into the microphone and carried on like a music hall performer trying to do Mick Jagger, Oscar Wilde, Ondine, and Ernie Kovacs Percy Dovetonsils all at the same time. It was very campy and it knocked out most of the audience, except for a few people with puzzled grins who didn't quite know how to react. Half-way through the first number it became obvious that Davies was very, very high on something more euphoric than audience feedback. In fact, he was having trouble standing up.
He managed to never miss a note, however, until midway through the third song, "Ape Man", which the audience joined in singing. Ray seemed deeply moved by the audience's response as they sang "I don't feel safe in this world no more / I don't wanna die in a nuclear war / I want to sail away to a distant shore / And make like an Apeman." Then he tottered and began falling backwards.
The audience realized it wasn't a gag when he reeled back, his eyes closed, picking up momentum as he backed up, closer and closer to a 12-foot high bank of speakers and amps. Brother Dave stepped aside, letting him pass, and Ray plunged into the speakers. He and the equipment went down in a great electronic squawk. An instant bummer. Everybody thought it was all over. People have come to expect the worst. Especially at rock concerts.
Ray went down, but not out. People ran from backstage and some of the audience clambered up to help and anguished stares turned to relieved moans as Davie's voice wafted over the PA system, singing "la-la-la la-la I'm an Apeman......" Too much.
"Listen" Ray said after the last chorus, "let's forget what this world did to us and just enjoy ourselves." The audience clapped for that. What else can you do?
Davies stayed on his feet for the remainder of the set, picking and singing through a string of oldies introducing the band and camping around, imitating Johnny Cash and lapsing into a rendering of "You Are My Sunshine." The audience sang along but quit after one chorus. It was up and down like that right to the end, when a medley of blasts from the pasts brought the remainder of the audience to their feet and prompted the stoking of many, many joints. A few people started coming up on stage now to shake hands with the band. Davies told everyone he loved them and the feeling was mutual and then the Kinks went off.
But they came back. For a rock'em, sock'em finale that brought the house down the aisles and up on stage, where they trampled Davie's guitar and milled around acting insane, while speakers thundered and cracked as cords were pulled from guitars and microphones were toppled. Quite a scene. A detachment of New York's finest finally appeared out of nowhere and shooed everyone off stage, and we all staggered home, minds blown again.
I was tempted to go backstage and give Raymond Douglas Davies a pep talk on responsibility, etc., but I shrugged it off. Later on I was told that when he came down Raymond Douglas agreed it was a bum trip and that he had some regrets. I hope so, I mean, there are enough bad trips going down these days. I don't have to go to a rock concert to find one.
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Richard Nusser
The Village Voice - April 8, 1971 |
| Bean |
Posted - October 06 2005 : 01:15:53 AM
I read the news one day ( 33 years ago ) oh boy and we were in it !!!
The below is from the NY Daily News Top of the Pops Column in 1972 ! FranK Strikes Again...to this day Paper plate throwing and the infamous beer wars with The Kinks have become kinks lore all over the world and on accassion still happen at some of their solo shows and was still hapenning at the last known kinks shows in the mid 90's. ( not just in NY but all over ) and to think it all started in Valley Stream by us !
Frank Lima aka bean to us email: krankiekat@aol.com
The Top of The Pops
Glamour, Chaos and The Kinks
Lilian Roxon in New York 1972 ( NY Daily News )
The Divine Bette Midler, of whom you'll hear a LOT more soon, was sitting right next to me and the equally divine Candy Darling (a gorgeously convincing transvestite) smothered in furs, was sitting in front of me. It was a very glamorous night and it was, of course, The Kinks latest New York concert.
I can't say that the Kinks have a wide following here yet, certainly it is not as wide as they deserve and I still can't understand why, but it's a following that's growing by the minute and it's nothing if not totally demented.
There were two concerts this time, two nights in a row, and not only were both completely sold out but they were also pure insanity and chaos. The Valley Stream branch of the Kinks Appreciation Society, headed by the energetic & charming Frank Lima for instance, came to both armed with confetti, paper plates and cans of beer, so that the minute Ray Davies started squiting the front rows with beer, he got as good as he gave. Soon great fountains of it were gushing everywhere.
From start to finish, both nights, the audience was up on it's feet. No one was about to miss any of the fun and Ray Davies really is one of those performers whose every gesture and nuance you just have to see and enjoy. Bette Midler, whose new album has already established her as a superstar to those who have not yet seen her in person, was there taking it all in with an expression of delight on her face. She had never seen the Kinks in action before and I can tell you right now that she's gone off to buy all the records and that her big New Year's Eve concert the Philharmonic will have to include "Lola." By the way, you haven't lived if you haven't seen Candy primly joining in with the chorus of the song that just has to be about her.
I went to two nights in a row because it seemed to me that despite the crowd's ecstasy, Ray was rushing through his songs with unseemly haste. His movements are always so luxuriously lazy, so slow and deliberate and sensual, that I felt a little cheated, even though it was a long show with many songs and lots of action. He was definitley better on the second night (belive me, those fans didn't notice a thing either time) and the band sounded better, too, but there was still this niggling feeling that something is wrong.
No Kinks' performance is ever slick or without flaws, and that's it's charm, but this is something else. I think if you'd never seen them before, and you weren't in the business like Bette, or turned on by the audience, you might just have been disappointed. As it happens, most of the people there were hard-core Kinks fans who left the show shining with happiness. I found one little group singing "Sunny Afternoon" all the way along Eighth Avenue.
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Lilian Roxon , 1972
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