Post by left shoe shuffle on Dec 14th, 2009 at 12:25pm
Kinky movie
By John Earls, 13/12/2009
LEGENDARY songwriter Ray Davies helped revolutionise music with his band The Kinks - but never got as much credit as contemporaries The Beatles or The Rolling Stones.
But now he is set to get the respect he deserves with a movie about the band's turbulent rise and fall.
Ray's battling relationship with his younger brother, The Kinks guitarist Dave Davies, make Noel and Liam Gallagher seem angelic in comparison.
Their story is to be told in You Really Got Me - directed by Ray's pal Julien Temple, who made Absolute Beginners and Sex Pistols' movie The Great Rock And Roll Swindle.
Julien started writing it last week, and Ray told Rated: "I don't mind who plays me - so long as they're not too good-looking!
"It's going to have to be an actor with a bit of character rather than looks. Someone good-looking - that wouldn't work for me.
"Julien thinks The Kinks were quintessential English outsiders, and he's got a great take on that period's style."
The band's classics, like Waterloo Sunset and Lola, have influenced generations of bands from The Jam to Blur and Kasabian.
But Ray thinks if The Kinks were starting out now, they wouldn't stand a chance. He says: "There are so few interesting radio shows for new music in Britain. All I hear on the radio here is the Top 20 and The X Factor.
"I've just got back from touring America, and I found more new music there than I have all year here.
"There's a really good scene in New York because it's easy for new bands to play clubs there - it's becoming virtually impossible for new bands to find anywhere to play in London."
Despite turning 65 this year, Ray has no plans to retire. He is hoping to make an album of duets next year - "Bruce Springsteen has expressed an interest" - and he is working on Olympicland, a theatre project near the Olympics site in 2012. AND he hopes to do a West End musical about The Kinks in the next couple of years.
PLUS he has also just released The Kinks Choral Collection - an album of the band's songs re-recorded with The Crouch End Festival Chorus choir.
A special edition includes new single Postcard From London, a duet with Ray's former partner, Pretenders singer Chrissie Hynde.
They have barely seen each other since they broke up on their wedding day in 1982 - when they fought so much the vicar refused to marry them.
Ray chuckles: "Record- ing with Chris was... ah, a little bit strange.
"I wrote the song with nobody in mind, so we tried a few contenders then someone in my office suggested Chris. I thought 'Why not?' Chris said she'd do it if she liked the song. She loved it, she recorded her vocals in three hours, and she did a great job, as she always does."
Even more surprisingly, Ray now wants to work with his brother Dave for the first time since The Kinks split in 1996. Dave is returning to music next year after suffering a stroke in 2004.
Ray says, "I suggested he do some low-key shows to see how well he can play. If we're going to play together again, we can't hit the road straight away with a big-time announcement.
"But, if Dave feels good about it and there's good new material that we can write, it'll happen."
Ray's new single Postcard From London and The Kinks Choral Collection are out now.
www.newsoftheworld.co.uk
Here's hoping...