The 50th birthday that put a permanent end to The Kinks
For nearly two full decades, music fans have been hoping that Ray and Dave Davies could come back together and reunite The Kinks. The legendary British rock band were pioneers of proto-punk and Britpop, staking their claim as one of the most innovative and exciting bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Although it was a slightly down period, the band continued to record and tour throughout the 1980s and 1990s. For many years, there was never even a thought of the group breaking up.
But just as the Britpop movement was hitting its peak, the notoriously difficult relationship between the Davies brothers finally hit a breaking point. The brothers had started to explore their respective solo careers throughout the 1980s while keeping The Kinks active, but faltering chart success resigned the band to touring as their albums failed to gain much traction.
By 1996, The Kinks were kaput. Dave’s 50th birthday put the final nail in the band’s coffin. All of the then-current band members attended the bash at the Clissold Arms pub, the establishment across the street from the Davies’ childhood home at 6 Denmark Terrace. Old tensions between the brothers continued to manifest, especially as Ray was the one who financed the party.
“Ray had the money and I didn’t,” Dave later recalled to The Daily Mail in 2010. “So he offered to throw it for me. Just as I was about to cut the cake, Ray jumped on the table and made a speech about how wonderful he was. He then stamped on the cake.”
‘I think he probably paid for the cake, too, but that was Ray all over,’ Dave again told The Daily Mail in 2017. “He’d want me to have something like that — but then he couldn’t bear to see me with it. He wants me to have things, but can’t stand it when I do. I love him. He loves me, but when we’re in the same room, it doesn’t work.”
“It’s worse when other people are around — when others are there Ray needs to perform, he needs to be the centre of attention,” Davies added. “I like to say Ray was only happy for the first three years of his life — until I came along. But he’s still my brother.”
As The Kinks went inactive, the Davies brothers had little physical contact with each other over the next 20 years. However, in 2015, the pair reunited on stage at one of Dave’s concerts to perform ‘You Really Got Me’, sparking calls for a reunion. In 2018, it looked like it was actually going to happen, only for plans to stall out before drummer Mick Avory confirmed in 2023 that the reunion was officially dead.
Check out ‘You Really Got Me’ down below.
