Ray Davies Doubts There Will Be a Kinks Reunion
The Kinks‘ hoped-for 50th anniversary reunion seems to have hit a snag, and for once in the band’s long, fractious history, the beef in question doesn’t happen to be between the group’s sibling co-founders Ray and Dave Davies.
Ray opened up about the holdup during a recent discussion with London’s Telegraph, first waving off questions of a reunion by wincing and asking interviewer Jasper Rees not to raise the subject. But like it or not, it’s more Kinks that the audience wants, and Davies eventually acquiesced, offering a bit of insight as to why the band’s plans for new music to celebrate its half-century haven’t amounted to anything yet.
“I really can’t play with my brother as that name, the Kinks, and not have Mick in,” Davies pointed out, referring to drummer Mick Avory. “Mick will work with him, but Dave doesn’t want to work with Mick. Sibling rivalry is nothing on their rivalry. I have no idea what’s wrong with them.”
As the Telegraph’s report notes, animosity between Avory and Dave Davies is nothing new — they were fighting onstage as early as 1965 — but at the moment, their conflict appears to be at a particularly heated juncture. Asked if this latest row was impossible to overcome, Ray sighed, “Yeah. This week it is.”
Previously, it had been rumored that Ray and Avory were working on new material without Dave’s input, leading some to believe that a Kinks “reunion” could go ahead without Dave — something both brothers quickly denied. For the sake of Kinks fans everywhere, here’s hoping cooler heads eventually prevail.
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