Monday 10 October 2016

The Reality of a Rock band - The Kinks


On Thursday evening October 6th 2016 I went to the Empire Theatre Sunderland to see the musical on the life of the Kinks, Sunny Afternoon, and which proved to be an unexpected experience in two ways. First the maximum amps were turned up for short spells, fortunately only twice, reminding the U2 Tribute band concert at the Customs House a few years back and here I met the band in a van lost on the hill where I live overlooking the mouth of the River Tyne, in search of their B and B. I went down and purchased a ticket just before the concert. It was so loud that some of the audience including younger members left at the interval. The only other memorable instance of intolerable loudness was an Elkie Brooks concert also some years back. Sunny Afternoon was both great as a musical and also provided important insights into the lives of rock musicians and the interactions between band members and their other relationships.

I set off to arrive when I anticipated the theatre would open, parking at the Bridge Shopping Centre Car Park just before 6.15 and where the cost for the evening was only £1 because of the Thursday night late opening session. I had brought the novel The Season Ticket but left it in the car and decided not to not to bother to go back once going out of the shopping Centre towards the theatre having buttoned the coat on a chilly evening. I was early for 7.30 show start as I wanted to get a ticket for the Tommy Steel playing of Glenn miller in the show already seen at the Theatre Royal.  I also had a glass of wine with the ticket and a large glass with a third filled plus a small carton of Pringles original crisps for £2. I took a bar stool seat at a window in the circle bar keeping my coat on as it was evident the heating had only recently been switched on in this area although the main auditorium was fine.

On arrival there was just me entering and half a dozen staff selling programmes and checking tickets at the two entrance and there was a choice of seating in the circle bar so I wondered about the audience response on this first night. By the time of curtain up the stalls were full and look back up so appeared the upper tiers. My aisle seat was closer to the stage as anticipated as there was an extension into the auditorium enabling singers and dancers to perform with the first rows having to look across sideways and the main set a full stage rectangular room filled on three sides with attractively autumn warm coloured loudspeakers which I assume represented the Konk recording studios and which covered over, I thought rather drab, for what became the ill-fated USA tour.

The Musical provides the opportunity to go through the Kinks song book and there is now the statutory ten-minute demand for the audience to stand join in sing and dance as a finale but this is a rare event a musical which also tell the raw and frank truth of the band together with the impact of the fame and fortune but also of every member, their separate lives as well as interactions. Some of the aspects are applicable to most bands of young men, the temptation to party to success with teenage girls, drink and drugs, and to rebel at the nature of the industry with managers and agents taking their percentage although nothing compared to palms to be crossed when performing in the USA. The story, the lyrics were created by the principal singer song writer Ray Davies but he repeatedly makes the point of the collective nature of their success, consistent with the socialism upon which his life is based. What is contentious is the claim that the band should be viewed alongside the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in terms of their artistic and playing abilities. What is clear is that Ray Davies attempted throughout to create music with lyrics which reflected his changing experiences of the changing society around him.

The band was originally created by the youngest brother Dave who became ranked as one of the top 100 guitarists of all time, was a sometime lead vocalist and lyricist lyrics with six older sisters and older brother Ray. The family who lived in Muswell Hill North London were music in the music all tradition was an active part of all their childhoods. A three bedroom two storey terraced House with a large 100-yard garden is selling for £1.35 million the cheapest from one online estate agent rising to £3m with the average property over £2m.  Dave became a larger than life character on and off the stage, expelled from school because of a relationship with an underage girl who became pregnant a where separated by the two families he did not meet with their child until three decades later. He had been twice married and had other relationship, cross dressing at times and bisexual and altogether eight children.  He had stroke in 2004 but continues to make news.

Dave originally formed the band with Peter Quaife who visited the family home and was at school with Ray and remained a key member for the for six years and in the Musical the reason given for his departure was a combination of wanting to lead a more stable life and because of relationship problems between the drummer Mick Avory and Dave, although in fact Peter went on to lead his own band the Mapleoak with two Canadians and members and playing for a time in Denmark. His involvement with the band and the music industry was short lived and spent nearly two decades in Canada and then back in Denmark. Peter suffered renal problems and was dependent on dialysis for ten years dying in 2010. He remained a loyal supporter of the Kinks the appearance if the band at Glastonbury was dedicated to him

The outstanding drummer Mick Avory remained with the band for two decades, a record second only to Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones, mentioned because in fact it is said that back in in 1962 Mick rehearsed at a pub in London with musicians who formed the original Rolling Stones. It is said he played with the Stones at their first gig at the Marquee, a venue where I attended its opening when the John Dankworth band and singers performed. When his playing career with the band ended Mick commenced to manage the Konk recording studios founded by the Davies brothers and which they still use to this day with the recordings of the 29 Musical show numbers created on disc. The feuding between him and Dave was legendry but long since resolved.

Ray Davies is the first to acknowledge the debt he has to his younger brother, Peter and Mick and also their first two managers but his work as a songwriter justifiably led to his induction in the USA Hall of Fame and to C.B.E here in the UK. Like his brother, at times he has had a dramatic personal life married three times and with other significant relationships including with Chrissy Hinds. In the musical he makes reference that his first wife was a school girl of (Lithuanian?) Catholic family background and the political background of her parents was an issue when in the United States as well as his commitment to socialism. The pregnancy of his wife coincided with the USA tour so she was unable to accompany and where she was a backing singer at times with brother Dave and also could play the guitar. It is not clear when Ray was first diagnosed as bipolar but would have been a factor in his admitted suicide attempt following the breakup of his first marriage with whom he has two daughters, another with Chrissy Hinds with a fourth daughter from his marriage to an Irish Ballet dancer.  When in the USA in 2004 he was shot in the leg while chasing thieves who had stolen the bag of his companion in the French Quarter of New Orleans and in 2011 he spent six months recovering from blood clots on the lungs.

He and the band are justifiably famed for a long series of records which achieved  success in the, UK, the USA and worldwide and which are familiar those of my and subsequent generations and to  a new generation who attend  performances of the musical although the majority those in stalls at Sunderland appeared to be aged between 40 and 80:  You Really Got Me, Sunny Afternoon, Lola, All Day and All of the Night, Waterloo Sunset and two of my  favourites Follower of Fashion and Where have all the good times Gone. It is noteworthy that it was Dave, dissatisfied with the sound of the opening chords of You Really Got me who worked out the idea of creating the raw sound by cutting into the amplifier and increasing the volume to the maximum amps. I share those who argue that it is this aspect of the recording together with blues background which catapulted the band from obscurity into transatlantic attention and success and which also had great influence on rock, heavy metal and punk.

What struck me most during the Musical is the contrast between the deafening sound of hard rock and the tender and profound insights of the ballads. Despite a huge list of books to read and review I will add Ray’s biography to the purchase of the CD. A special mention for the cast of this touring production and while that of Ray was impressive I am singling out the young man who played Dave who given my close up position seat I have never before seen someone put so much into an acting and sing role, but every one contributed to giving the audience a great time. The contrast between their energy and commitment the age and evident infirmity of their audience is the best way to end given that I count eight other members of the audience with walking sticks.

I made the mistake of purchasing the ticket online where the premium is unusually high in contrast to going to the Box Office. I do not begrudge paying £46 though.
                                       

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