Kinks’ Dave and Ray Davies Perform Together For First Time in Nearly 20 Years
It wasn't a Kinks reunion, but it was close. Dave and his brother Ray Davies shared a stage together for the first time in decades – performing a raucous take on 1964's "You Really Got Me." You can watch the entire performance in the clip attached above.
"We had a great night," Dave Davies enthused later, via Twitter. "It was a fun show, had a blast with Ray."
The moment was as highly anticipated as it was offhandedly brief. A pea coat-wearing Ray Davies appeared carrying a bottle of water on Friday (Dec. 18) during Dave’s concert at London's Islington Assembly Hall. He then gave his brother a brief introduction, which Dave accepted with a gesture toward the crowd, before they launched into the Kinks' best-known track.
Afterward, Ray quickly left the stage as Dave Davies wished everyone a merry Christmas. Dave later thanked "my dear brother Raymond" for joining him, sparking another round of delirious applause.
The Kinks, which also featured Mick Avory and Pete Quaife in their hey day, haven't performed together since concluding a summer tour in 1996. There were rumblings, at one point, about staging a 50th anniversary reunion tour, but that never happened.
In the meantime, a Julien Temple-directed Kinks biopic – titled You Really Got Me, of course – will begin filming in March. Who knows? Maybe that will provide just the excuse the Davies and Avory need to reform. Quaife, long since retired, died of kidney failure in 2010. Jim Rodford served most recently as the Kinks' bassist.
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