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Post by HollyH on Jul 11, 2013 23:14:01 GMT -5
July 11, 1993 -- Sandwiched in between the European Phobia tour and the Phobia US Summer tour, the Kinks play a sell-out show at the Royal Albert Hall. "I'm tired of reading that the Kinks are a 1960s band," Ray Davies declares from on stage. "We're not a 1960s band. Our songs are part of Britain's heritage, and that heritage is being thrown away!"
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Post by HollyH on Jul 11, 2013 23:15:14 GMT -5
July 12, 1964 -- The Kinks go back into the studio -- paying themselves for studio time at IBC Studios, rather than Pye's in-house facility -- to re-record their song "You Really Got Me." Unhappy with an earlier version recorded in April, they are trying for a rawer sound, so instead of using the latest 4-track technology, they opt for primitive single-track recording. Dave Davies plays his Harmony Meteor guitar through his punctured amp to produce a harsher sound; Bobby Graham plays drums, with Mick Avory on tambourine; and a supplemental keyboardist and guitarist (not Jimmy Page) are brought in to give the live single-track instrumental as full a sound as possible.
The Kinks are intensely aware of what's at stake here for them -- if this record isn't a hit, Pye will most likely drop them from the label. "The song came out of a working-class environment, people fighting for something," Dave will later recall. Brother Ray's memory: "When I left that studio I felt great. It may sound conceited, but I knew it was a great record. I said I'd never write another song like it, and I haven't."
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Post by HollyH on Jul 13, 2013 17:21:56 GMT -5
July 13, 1984 -- After more than 20 years with the band, original Kinks drummer Mick Avory finally decides that the now-constant sparring between him and guitarist Dave Davies has reached an impasse, and today he officially resigns from the Kinks. He is immediately replaced by drummer Bob Henrit, who worked with Dave on his solo albums Glamour and Chosen People. Moving into a job as manager at Konk Studios, Avory is still close at hand.
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Post by HollyH on Jul 14, 2013 15:45:17 GMT -5
July 14, 1970 -- With the impending US release of their new single "Lola" / "Mindless Child of Motherhood," the Kinks -- in the middle of a successful North American tour -- have been anxious ever since July 2, when the master tape sent from London to Los Angeles was inexplicably lost in transit. Facing the possibility of re-recording the single -- which has been climbing the British charts, and may well be the spearhead of their American comeback -- the Kinks have just returned to London. There's a collective sigh of relief when they learn today that the lost tape has resurfaced in L.A., just as mysteriously as it vanished in the first place.
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Post by HollyH on Jul 15, 2013 20:30:47 GMT -5
July 15, 1973 -- In front of a crowd of 30,000 people at White City Stadium in west London, a visibly disoriented Ray Davies -- stressed out from overwork and the recent departure of his wife Rasa and their two daughters -- announces to the audience after the band's final song that he is retiring from the Kinks. Unfortunately, the PA has already switched to pre-recorded music, and Ray's dramatic announcement is muddled and somewhat lost.
Later that night, Ray collapses and is admitted to the hospital for what seems to be amphetamine poisoning. Whether it is accidental or intentional is never clear. After his stomach is pumped, Ray is released into his brother Dave's care for the next two weeks.
Later Ray releases a statement: "The White City was not a happy place to say goodbye. The sun wasn't shining, my shirt was not clean, and anyway rock festivals have never held many happy memories for me personally, and I want these shows to be happy. . . . I have just spent a couple of weeks with my brother Dave. At first we didn't talk about music, but then we started singing and playing guitars one day and before we knew it we were like a couple of ordinary 'punk rock punters' trying to play some Chuck Berry riffs."
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Post by HollyH on Jul 16, 2013 21:28:57 GMT -5
July 16, 1978 -- The Kinks launch the second leg of their North American Misfits tour in Seattle, Washington, with a performance at a daylong outdoor concert at Memorial Stadium. The line-up, featuring the Beach Boys as the headline act, draws a crowd of 22,000, much larger than the Kinks usually face. The Kinks go on at 1 p.m. The weather is poor, and the jetlagged band -- who flew in from London just the day before -- deliver a less than rousing performance. They will quickly build momentum on the rest of the tour, however, playing more intimate venues and with a more compatible opening act, Blondie.
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Post by HollyH on Jul 17, 2013 9:34:50 GMT -5
July 17, 1966 -- The Kinks appear at Beat 66, a beat festival in Mallorca, Spain -- performing in a bull ring.
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Post by HollyH on Jul 18, 2013 21:22:38 GMT -5
July 18, 1952 -- Once and future Kinks keyboardist Ian Gibbons is born. Besides his stints with the Kinks (1979-89, 1993-95, and once again with Ray Davies recently), he was a member of Life, the English Assassins, Ian Hunter's band, and the Kast-Off Kinks. Ian has also played with everyone from the Nashville Teens to Dr. Feelgood, the Kursaal Flyers and the Records, not to mention backing Chris Farlowe, Suzi Quatro, and Maggie Bell.
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Post by HollyH on Jul 20, 2013 11:10:52 GMT -5
July 19, 1991 -- The Kinks sign a recording contract with Columbia Records, who will eventually release the band's maxi-single Did Ya and their album Phobia. As usual, signing with a new label will result in their previous label, in this case MCA, rushing out a compilation -- Lost and Found, to be released in August -- in order to squeeze profits out of the portion of the Kinks catalog they still control.
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Post by HollyH on Jul 20, 2013 11:11:40 GMT -5
July 20, 1966 -- The Kinks' hit UK single "Sunny Afternoon" / "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" is released in the US, six weeks after its UK release. Although it never reaches the very top of the charts, as it did in Britain, it climbs to a very respectable #14 chart position in North America -- despite the fact that the Kinks have been banned from touring the States for nearly a year already.
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Post by HollyH on Jul 21, 2013 14:50:12 GMT -5
July 21, 1965 -- The Kinks' hit UK single from last March -- "Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy" -- is released in the US, but with the A and B sides reversed, making the former B-side "Who'll Be The Next in Line" the American A-side. It will peak at #34 in the US singles charts.
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Post by HollyH on Jul 22, 2013 15:04:50 GMT -5
July 22, 1968 -- Though they've logged many TV appearances in the past couple of years, tonight the Kinks tape their first performance on color television, for BBC's late-night Colour Me Pop programme. Among the songs they perform (lip-synch) are "Sunny Afternoon," "Sitting By the Riverside," "Picture Book," "Days," and a medley of "Dedicated Follower of Fashion / Well-Respected Man / Death of a Clown." They also throw in "Two Sisters" and Dave's "Lincoln County." The show will be broadcast four days later, on July 26th at 10.50 pm.
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Post by HollyH on Jul 23, 2013 21:25:20 GMT -5
July 23, 1976 -- Hard at work on the Sleepwalker album, the Kinks have to stop a multi-day recording session of "Hay Fever" when the air-conditioner at Konk studios breaks down in the middle of the summer heat. The track will finally be completed in November.
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Post by HollyH on Jul 25, 2013 20:04:20 GMT -5
July 24, 1968 -- The Kinks release their new single "Days" / "She's Got Everything" in the US. Released in the UK a month earlier, it soared to #10 on the charts. In the US, however, hardly any DJs play the record, and it gets no traction on the charts whatsoever.
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Post by HollyH on Jul 25, 2013 20:05:52 GMT -5
July 25, 1974 -- At the Granada Television Centre in Manchester, England, the Kinks videotape the rock musical Starmaker, a refashioned version of which will become their 1975 album (The Kinks Present) A Soap Opera. Basically a star vehicle for Ray Davies, with the other Kinks relegated to the role of a backing band (except for Dave Davies' lead vocals on "You Can't Stop the Music"), the show adds to simmering resentment in the band about Ray's theatrical experiments. Even Ray doesn't watch the play when it is finally aired on September 4th. When it is broadcast, the show is panned by most critics; though it is shown in the UK (on ITV television) and in the Netherlands, it is never seen anywhere else.
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