News

Fan Club Show Offer

Pleased to announce that Paul Endacott, with the 60s heritage bus tours will offer a 20% discount to Official Kinks Fan Club members, and all attending the Fan Club show on 26th November, and Kollective dates on 24/25th November, plus all bookings up to the end of 2023.

This is for the 7 seater Kinks bus tour, 4 available Friday/Sat and 2 on the Sunday 9am/7pm, so get in quick to secure your preferred time.

The organisers of the ‘official’ Kinks 60 sightseeing tours of Muswell Hill have offered our fan group a 20% discount for tours taken before the end of 2023.

To book your private tour for up to 7 people, visit https://www.60sbus.london/service…/the-kinks-private-tours – Select your preferred tour date and time then add KINKS20 at checkout.

The Journey Part 1

Celebrating 60 amazing years of The Kinks with ‘The Journey – Part 1’, an exciting new 2CD, 2LP and digital anthology compiled by The Kinks.

Order your copy of The Journey Part 1 from The Kinks’ Official Store to receive an exclusive free poster with every LP purchase, and 3x art cards with every CD purchase.

Full details on the website here …

thekinks.tmstor.es/

2022 Boston Arms Show

The Official Kinks Fan Club Meeting

SUNDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2022

The band as last year are all up for it with Kast Off Kinks – Dave Clarke, Mick Avory, Mark Haley and Mike Steed (Bass) augmented by Bob Henrit, Debi & Shirlie, and guests to be confirmed.

Tickets £25.00

Full details here

Boston Dome 2021

The Great News is that we are up and running for the Fan Club show at the Dome on 28th November, the band are Dave Clarke, Mick Avory, Mark Haley, Mike Steed (Bass) Debi & Shirlie plus The Oslo Brass, (Bob Henrit, John Dalton and Pete Watkins(Muswell Hillbillies set) now added ). Doors 1 pm till 6.30pm.

Tickets are £25 and UK attendees can pay by Cheque, payable to The Official Kinks Fan Club, or bank transfer to Official Kinks Fan Club 1996, 20-85-13, Acc 00458090. Obviously you need to email or write in if BACS with your address for the tickets. The Official Kinks Fan Club, 239 Watling Street, Grendon Atherstone CV9 2PJ.

OVERSEAS FANS: Reserve your tickets with billorton@officialkinksfanclub.co.uk. To collect and pay on the door.

PLEASE NOTE THE INFO BELOW FROM THE VENUE

Regarding Covid, we are asking all guests to prove they have had both vaccines or NHS email or text and ID proving they have had a negative test in the last 24hrs.

Inside the venue we have hand sanitiser stations, all staff will also take a test before coming to work, and I will advise all staff to mask up for extra protection.

Venue Manager
The Dome & Boston Music Room
178 Junction Road
London
N19 5QQ

The Moneygoround: A One Man Show For One Night Only

The Kinks are excited to announce that they will be premiering ‘The Moneygoround: A One Man Show For One Night Only’ at 8pm GMT on the 29th January on The Kinks Youtube channel.

A one-off performance of the play co-written by Sir Ray and Paul Siret, shot intimately, the presentation also features video content inserts of archive footage.

Make sure to subscribe to the band’s youtube channel youtube.com/thekinksmusic to be reminded about the premiere.

The premiere will begin at 8pm GMT (29th January). Local times for which are:

12pm – PST / 3pm – EST / 8pm – GMT / 7am – AEDT

Ray Davies’ ‘Any Time 2020’

Following last week’s [October 2020] announcement of the 50th anniversary re-issue of the classic Kinks album Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround Part One, we are delighted to share with you the lyric video for brand new Ray Davies’ remix / medley ‘Any Time 2020’.

A concept album ahead of its time, Lola is a satirical appraisal of the music industry, including song publishers, unions, the press, accountants, business managers, and life on the road. One of the all time classic Kinks albums.

The albums 50th anniversary celebrations began last week with the announcement of a special multi-format release for the album as a lovingly produced deluxe box set, heavyweight black vinyl LP, deluxe 2CD, 1CD and digital release. Click here to buy your copy.

You can read the full article here.

The Official Kinks Fan Club 2020

Cancelled

This has now been cancelled. Due to ongoing restrictions and following further contact with The Dome, we regret that we have taken the decision to cancel this years event. All ticket money will be refunded and we will confirm a new date as things get back to normal.

We are now able to give some details and a date for the Official Kinks Fan Club Meeting this year.

We have had some delay on this as one of our principal players, John Dalton, has decided that he no longer wishes to play our meetings, although he will attend and support us. Plus I have been tied up with the terminal illness of my wife Julie.

As such, to tie in with best Band availability and also give traveling fans the option of the Sunny Afternoon Musical at the Wimbledon Theatre, we have booked The Boston Dome as follows-

THE OFFICIAL KINKS FAN CLUB 2020
Featuring a core band of Dave Clarke, Mick Avory, Mark Haley and Mike Steed (Bass)
Plus former Kinks members and guests to be announced.
SUNDAY 29TH NOVEMBER
1:00pm – 6:30pm
THE DOME at the Boston Arms
Advance tickets via Paypal/Cheque £22.50
More details to follow

Glastonbury Memories – from Mark Haley

When Glastonbury first held a music festival in 1970 I would only have been 9 years old so it’s no surprise that I wasn’t aware of it for a few years. However, by the time the 80s had come around it’s popularity was such that it had been added to my bucket list of “ambitions to achieve”.

My chance finally arrived June 26th 1993 courtesy of the Kinks. By that point I’d been with the guys 4 years during which we’d toured the US several times, all over Europe (including England) and the Phobia album had been launched.

As I recall it we were replacements for Crosby Stills & Nash who had pulled out late -just as the Kinks had done at the very first festival.

There was time for rehearsal and I stayed in the flat adjoining Konk studios sleeping on a pull out sofa that was actually more comfortable than the bed I had at home!

Bob, Jim and myself met up in the studio reception in the morning along with Lucy (Bob’s daughter).and it may surprise you we were chauffeured all the way from North London down to Glastonbury on the day we were to perform. A trip that takes so long we had two drivers sharing the work load. More of them later.

Fast rewinding back to 1989 when I was first introduced to Bob I recalled his very first words to me. Not “Hello” or “pleased to meet you”. Nope. Bob held my outstretched hand in a steely grip and said “Stay away from daughter” through gritted grinning teeth.

Fast forward again to June 26th 1993 and I enjoyed the company of Bob directly opposite watching me like a hawk for over 4 hours.

On arrival I was relieved to see the weather had been kind and the backstage area was free of the mud that occasionally engulfs the festival. I’d love to say I still had a backstage pass but on the day it was one of those annoying wrist band things (similar to what you have in hospitals) which I ripped off as soon as possible.

The road crew quickly found us and that was when I learned that Lenny Kravitz (the headliner) was refusing to go on last as planned.. I’ve heard since that he’d stepped back from headlining out of deference to the Kinks. Not so. Lenny didn’t want to follow us! He needn’t have been concerned. If Glastonbury had a roof he would’ve torn it off. Kravitz had struck gold earlier that year with ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way’ and went over fantastic on the Pyramid Stage.

The clearest memory I have that day was the crowd carried on singing his closing number ‘Let Love Rule’ while our road crew reset the stage. 20 minutes later I went on stage just to test my keyboards and they were still singing ” Leeeeee-et L0000000-ove Ruuuuuuuuuu-ule”. Now we had to follow him!

Bill Orton was part of the crowd at Glastonbury that day and I’m grateful to him for making a copy of the set list we performed. (See below)  Ray was never afraid to give less familiar songs an airing, confident in the knowledge that he has Lola and friends to pull out of a hat when required. Even so I was surprised to see we played ‘Drift Away’.

The set was well received even though the encore included a couple of songs the audience wouldn’t have been hugely familiar with: ‘Aggravation’ and ‘Hatred’ and there was even time to squeeze in an unrehearsed blast of ‘Twist & Shout’. It had been a great experience which unfortunately wasn’t filmed. Any pictures here were taken by Bill.

Finally it was time to head home. A journey that somehow took an extra hour or so longer. The reason? One of the driver’s had decided he wanted to be dropped off first over in the East End of London… Thank you very much! I ended up back at Konk in the extremely early hours and crawled back into the most comfortable sofa bed in the world.


Glastonbury was a good show and there was certainly a high level of crowd excitement as the band hit the stage, I nearly missed the Kinks as at that time you could buy a day ticket and the Kinks were booked for the Sunday, but Red Hot Chilli Peppers pulled out and at a late stage the Kinks were switched to the Saturday night!

Bill Orton

Set List

Intro Tape/Around The Dial (short)
The Hard Way
Low Budget
Apeman (short)
Come Dancing
Phobia
Deadend Street
Driftaway
Over The Edge
Till The End of The Day
Sleazy Town Days
Only a Dream Scattered
All Day and All of the Night

Encores

1 Aggravation/New World
Lola
2 David Watts
You Really Got Me
3 Twist and Shout
4 Hatred

The Kinks: Songs of the Semi-Detached

A new book has been released by Mark Doyle covering a social study around the songs of Ray Davies and The Kinks. The SHINDIG review says it all.

A completely different look at Kinks history from the usual type of book, you could say that this book has been waiting to be written for a long time.

As a piece of rock criticism this is a masterful text, and as an examination of social change in 20th Century Blighty, it is as illuminating as it’s possible to get.

Doyle unravels the Kinks’ relationship to working class England in a variety of ways, casting a light on Ray Davies’ genius for creating immediately identifiable characters as vehicles for social commentary. Doyle’s insights into the subject matter of Davies’ lyrics are particularly illuminating, with the deliberate ambiguity of meaning in his composition a vital factor in their enduring appeal.

That half-smile may have lent a clue, but Davies’ veering between sneering hipster and Victorian Romantic meant that one was never sure that all was what it seemed.

Davies’ own love affair with London and its people is brought to life through the author’s exhaustive research and his commensurate skill in both contextualising the songs and celebrating the “apartness” of their creator. A compelling read for anyone even remotely interested in the band and its music.’ – Shindig

Get it here

Receive a 20% discount code off the retail price of £9.95 (valid for 6 months) KINKSFANS20