The Kinks back in their prime
With a reissue of the first three Kinks albums coming out later this month, we talk to the original Kinks drummer, Mick Avory, about the new collection of songs, the Kings Of Leon and fans falling from the sky.
-You must be pretty proud of this huge catalogue of songs on the new CDs that are coming out soon?
Yeah well up to now there are the first three albums plus extra tracks. There are other songs on there that we recorded around that time, they were probably on EPs and stuff, I don’t have the list on me right now but they are extra tracks from that era. I was involved up until 1984 when I left.
-Any reason why it all ended? Is there any chance of getting back together for a reunion?
Personnel reasons... mainly Dave (laughs). It doesn’t look like it, Dave (Davies) isn’t really fit to do live work anyway, and I don’t think he’s mindful of it, he did an article in a newspaper recently and he said no. It is a shame because after all this time it would have been nice to do something together, a lot of people would have enjoyed it and it would have been well received, but it wasn’t to be. You can’t do it without Dave.
-It’s an impressive track listing, are there any in particular that are your favourites, to play and listen to?
There’s an old one called Come On Now that Dave used to sing, that was the B-side of something or other. And I personally like playing Gotta Move, it’s got more of a bluesy sort of feel to it.
-Gallagher once said that you were the fifth best band in the world... probably after his own, but who do you feel were your influences at the time?
All of us had different influences; I listened to jazz mainly for the drummers. Back then there weren’t really any famous rock drummers; it was sort of in its infancy as people were developing. The best drummers were the jazz drummers who were a generation older. Jazz is a different feel; I never thought of us as an out and out rock band, there’s a lot more subtle stuff than rock n’ roll go ahead stuff. You play the song and the music, and after a while you get to know what works.
-Are you still playing with the Kast Off Kinks? (The Kinks nostalgia band) Do you have any interest in recording some new songs with them?
Yeah... well Ray (Davies) wants to do a CD with us, possibly anyway. It will incorporate songs that are not so well known from the older stuff, this is really the Kast Off kinks two as we have new members, so it’s slightly different. We do more recent stuff, if you can call it recent. Songs like Come Dancing.
-Do you still listen to the old Kinks songs yourself? Or have you always found it too hard?
I don’t listen to all of it, I never did. It’s been good with the Kast Off Kinks because it’s made you listen to a lot of the old stuff. Sometimes we are quite pleasantly surprised, things you have forgotten about and you think ‘that’s a nice song y’know’, there’s a stack of stuff otherwise I wouldn’t have listened to.
-Now you can do all the easy digital recordings, surely it has completely changed the industry? Does music not have as much substance or creativity anymore because you can do so much editing?
You can patch things together, there’s all sorts of things you can do now... they can even make me sound like Elvis (laughs)... not that there is much point in it. It’s just the way it’s recorded; it suited the times, it was all part of the sound at the time. You wouldn’t want the old stuff digitalised because it wouldn’t sound right, it adds to the feel of the track at the time. It was a thinner sound then, much tinnier, but if you bolstered it up with digital effects and lots of bass it wouldn’t sound right for the song.
-Any bands you enjoy today?
All I listen to is the radio, things like the Kaiser Chiefs and the Kings Of Leon. They are good bands, but they usually have a couple of good hits and then you lose track of them! The internet is so saturated with bands that are trying to make it. They all do it the opposite way to the old days, you used to have to go out and get gigs and a following, then try to get signed to someone, now they do all that without plucking a note (laughs). No not really, it’s just that they get the business end sorted first, do all the recording, and then do the gig when they get the hit. They are still talented, but things move on, different sounds come up and different things get popular.
-You hear these days about battles with record labels, is this a new thing or has it always been the case?
There were always differences between what the record company thought was saleable and what we wanted to put out... not always but quite often someone who is the A&R man would say what he thought was best, and it wasn’t always the same as what you thought. They are the business men and you are the artist.
-You were seen as the quiet one in the group back in the day, but do you remember any crazy anecdotes or stories from the touring days?
When we were on tour in America, and we had a guy called Kevin who was the road manager. Kevin was a bit of a prankster, he had this dummy that he would put in different places and it would take you by surprise, it would be hanging around on stage or whatever. One night someone had climbed through onto the roof from another building next door, to watch our show. Anyway, we were all playing away and we saw this figure fall from the roof, we thought ‘oh its Kevin playing his pranks again’, but it was a real person, he must have smoked too much dope or something. He fell 60 feet, it was a big place and we had to stop the show. The guy injured two people a lot more than himself, because they broke his fall. He was lucky to be alive, and lucky that the arena was full; it was our popularity that saved him!
Be sure to pick up the deluxe format of first three Kinks albums, Kinks, Kinda Kinks and The Kink Kontroversy on March 28th.
Female First - Edward Lewis
With a reissue of the first three Kinks albums coming out later this month, we talk to the original Kinks drummer, Mick Avory, about the new collection of songs, the Kings Of Leon and fans falling from the sky.
-You must be pretty proud of this huge catalogue of songs on the new CDs that are coming out soon?
Yeah well up to now there are the first three albums plus extra tracks. There are other songs on there that we recorded around that time, they were probably on EPs and stuff, I don’t have the list on me right now but they are extra tracks from that era. I was involved up until 1984 when I left.
-Any reason why it all ended? Is there any chance of getting back together for a reunion?
Personnel reasons... mainly Dave (laughs). It doesn’t look like it, Dave (Davies) isn’t really fit to do live work anyway, and I don’t think he’s mindful of it, he did an article in a newspaper recently and he said no. It is a shame because after all this time it would have been nice to do something together, a lot of people would have enjoyed it and it would have been well received, but it wasn’t to be. You can’t do it without Dave.
-It’s an impressive track listing, are there any in particular that are your favourites, to play and listen to?
There’s an old one called Come On Now that Dave used to sing, that was the B-side of something or other. And I personally like playing Gotta Move, it’s got more of a bluesy sort of feel to it.
-Gallagher once said that you were the fifth best band in the world... probably after his own, but who do you feel were your influences at the time?
All of us had different influences; I listened to jazz mainly for the drummers. Back then there weren’t really any famous rock drummers; it was sort of in its infancy as people were developing. The best drummers were the jazz drummers who were a generation older. Jazz is a different feel; I never thought of us as an out and out rock band, there’s a lot more subtle stuff than rock n’ roll go ahead stuff. You play the song and the music, and after a while you get to know what works.
-Are you still playing with the Kast Off Kinks? (The Kinks nostalgia band) Do you have any interest in recording some new songs with them?
Yeah... well Ray (Davies) wants to do a CD with us, possibly anyway. It will incorporate songs that are not so well known from the older stuff, this is really the Kast Off kinks two as we have new members, so it’s slightly different. We do more recent stuff, if you can call it recent. Songs like Come Dancing.
-Do you still listen to the old Kinks songs yourself? Or have you always found it too hard?
I don’t listen to all of it, I never did. It’s been good with the Kast Off Kinks because it’s made you listen to a lot of the old stuff. Sometimes we are quite pleasantly surprised, things you have forgotten about and you think ‘that’s a nice song y’know’, there’s a stack of stuff otherwise I wouldn’t have listened to.
-Now you can do all the easy digital recordings, surely it has completely changed the industry? Does music not have as much substance or creativity anymore because you can do so much editing?
You can patch things together, there’s all sorts of things you can do now... they can even make me sound like Elvis (laughs)... not that there is much point in it. It’s just the way it’s recorded; it suited the times, it was all part of the sound at the time. You wouldn’t want the old stuff digitalised because it wouldn’t sound right, it adds to the feel of the track at the time. It was a thinner sound then, much tinnier, but if you bolstered it up with digital effects and lots of bass it wouldn’t sound right for the song.