The Kinks were one of the biggest selling and most influential bands of the 1960s. Featuring brothers Ray and Dave Davies, they had introduced the world to rock music and produced a string of hits that reflected the English way of life. For most of the 1960s they were banned from America and involved in a string of legal disputes.

Chops and Changes

The Kinks had been asked to produce a soundtrack album for a British comedy film called Percy. The film was about a man who underwent a penis transplant¹ and, unsurprisingly, sank without trace. The album had some good tracks, such as 'God's Children' and 'Moments'; however it also had a couple of instrumentals, including a version of 'Lola,' and some bad songs. John Dalton was made to sing on 'Willesden Green', a song he regards as one of the worst in the Kinks' back-catalogue.

Percy was the last album that the Kinks released with Pye Records. They signed with RCA records. RCA were pleased to have such a big name on board and Ray was pleased that the lavish party they threw would mean they more money to fund his projects. Neither the album or its singles did well in the charts; however as a live act, the Kinks still pulled in the crowds. They embarked on another world tour before coming back to start work on their first RCA album.

'Got no privacy got no liberty
Cos the 20th-Century people
Took it all away from me.'

Muswell Hillbillies was a Ray Davies concept album based on the trials of being working class. Drawing from his upbringing - hence the title - and his working class ideals, he set himself up as the working man fighting the class divide and the corporation. The group went along with his ideas, but it was becoming more obvious that The Kinks were becoming Ray Davies plus band. First Grenville Collins then Robert Wace left, finding it difficult to work with Ray, who had started trying to run things more and more. Their departure of management saw Ray effectively running the band.

Although artistically the new album was a big improvement on its predecessor, it was by no means a chart success. For the forthcoming tour Ray decided to bring on board a brass section. While other members of the band were unsure as to whether their raw live sound should have a brass section and female backing singers, Ray carried on regardless. He even started throwing in more and more show tunes such as 'You Are My Sunshine' and 'Baby Face'. It is tempting to think that Ray was trying to turn the band into a cabaret act!

'Tea knows no segregation, no class nor pedigree
It knows no motivations, no sect or organisation.'

Ray had been trying to get RCA to fork out for a double concept album. RCA were looking for a way to re-engage the audience who seemed to flock to the shows, but not buy the records. Everybody's In Show-Biz, Everybody's A Star was the compromise. It was a double album - half of which was devoted to Ray's thesis on fame and its trappings, and the other was a live recording of one of their gigs.

It is possible that Ray deliberately picked the worst songs for the live EP to make a statement that the Kinks were more than just their hits. It is also possible that Ray was just being difficult! Aside from 'Lola' and 'Top Of The Pops' which were from the Lola... album, all the other songs were either camp showtunes or songs from Muswell Hillbillies which had been released less than a year earlier.

'If my friends could see me now, driving round just like a film star,
In a chauffeur driven jam-jar, they would laugh.'

The studio side was much stronger. 'Supersonic Rocket Ship' provided the group with a top 20 hit and 'Celluloid Heroes' is one of the best songs in The Kinks Katalogue². Ray planned a film to accompany the album. RCA baulked at it, so Ray funded the project himself. The result was a look at life on the road, with its parties and its concerts. Despite the best efforts of Ray and RCA, nobody wanted to show it, so it vanished.

The Return of Mr Thunder, the Rise of Mr Flash and the Fall of Mr Davies

The Kinks started off 1973 gigging. They played The Theatre Royal on Drury Lane with their brass band and backing singers in tow. Ray presented a kind of This is Your Life in music. Ray resisted resorting to just playing Greatest Hits and kept trying to move the band onwards. He started to devise a stage show featuring old and new works.

In June 1973, Ray's wife, Rasa, left him. Perhaps it was because he was working harder than ever that caused her to leave. Perhaps he was working harder to avoid his problems at home. He ended up in hospital after overdosing on drugs. A week later the Kinks played a gig in White City in West London. Ray was surprisingly jubilant; he was on rather strong anti-depressants which he didn't think were working, so he kept taking them. At the end of the show, after kissing Dave, Ray announced his retirement from music for ever. Later in the evening he suffered another, near fatal, overdose.

'Feel those vibrations flow in my brain.
Got my freedom riding down the highway,
Keeps me sane, feel alive,
I'm one of the survivors.'

While Ray was in hospital, the public and the band were worried that this was the end. Nobody seemed to know what was happening; even Dave was none the wiser about the intentions of his brother. Eventually the brothers started chatting in hospital, then playing guitar. Ray issued a public apology saying it was the wrong time to retire. 1973 is the year when Ray's fictional autobiography, X-Ray ended. The band headed back to the studio.

The result was Preservation Act One. It set up the scene for what was in effect a two-part play. The setting was a village, very probably the one that was featured in The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, where the residents are facing up to the prospect of the evil Mr Flash (Booo Hisss!) demolishing their homes. Hope comes in the guise of Mr Black who sets himself up as their saviour, but has ulterior motives.

'Once under a starry sky I led you on and told you lies
Drank too much whisky on that hot summer night.
I acted so slyly because you were acting so shy'

The songs were sung by a number of characters, mostly voiced by Ray. Most characters got one song, as Ray tried to flesh out their personality before the action started. The Tramp was in effect the narrator; he had three songs including the best song of the album, 'Sweet Lady Genevieve'. The vicar sang about how cricket and Christianity are one and the same. Dave got to voice Mr Black, while Ray's Mr Flash was a character that would appear time and again in future work. One person who reappeared from Village Green was the rock and roll superhero, Johnny Thunder. His song was the rock and roll number 'One Of The Survivors' which is probably the only song recorded in 1973 to mention Johnny And The Hurricanes. This song was released as a single in 1973.

With a nod to the Frost Report, 'There's a Change In The Weather' was sung by The Working Class Man, The Middle Class Man and The Upper Class Man.

'All through your life he'll try to bowl you out Beware the Demon bowler. He's crafty and deceitful and he'll try to LBW, And bowl a maiden over.'

At first listen, it is not obvious that there was a plot running through the work. A single, 'Preservation' was released in America in 1974. This amounted to a three-minute trailer for the album, briefly explaining the plot.

Ray made the album into a stage show, complete with silly costumes. On their tour, the band would often do a warm-up set of greatest hits before coming back to do their Preservation set. These gigs lasted up to four hours!

'Bring the government down
A new leader must be found
For the sake of preservation'

Preservation Act One was the first Kinks album to be recorded at their new Konk studios in North London. The next was, rather surprisingly, Preservation Act Two. Somebody at RCA had decided that Ray could have his double studio album. This may not have pleased the rest of the band, who were rather bored with the whole idea.

Act Two saw the Tramp come back from wandering the world³ to find his village still under the grip of Mr Flash. Johnny Thunder and his sideburns had long since ridden off into the distance. Mr Flash (Booo Hiss!) eventually has a crisis of conscience and is brainwashed in order that he can live in the new utopia. The album then ponders whether living under the oppression of utopia is better than living under the oppression of tyranny. The listeners then ponder whether it really needed three albums to tell this story. It was no real surprise that this did not sell very well. John Gosling suggested that Ray had so much free studio time and so the record was re-recorded again and again, losing most of its originality.

'I visualise a day when people will be free From evils like perversion and pornography. We'll cast out Satan and we'll set the sinners free, So people of the nation unite.'

The full Preservation stage show was then toured, complete with silly costumes to rave reviews. With a full theatrical performance behind them, the songs and the story worked together.

Between the two albums, Ray had been commissioned to write a play on songwriting for Granada Television. Starmaker saw an average man imagine that he was a great composer. As well as writing this, the new album and the Preservation stage show, Ray was setting up the Konk record label to go with their new studio. He also found time in 1974 to marry his second wife, Yvonne.

Break Out The Silly Costumes Boys, Ray's Got An Idea

Its been suggested that Ray Davies walks closer to the thin line between genius and madness than any other recording artist. The Soap Opera era of 1975 provides ample evidence for this. Decked out in bizarre costumes and afro wigs, the band's stage show and accompanying album⁴ centred on Norman. Norman was an accountant who believed he was Ray Davies. The audiences were watching Ray pretend he was somebody else who was pretending that he was Ray while singing songs that were not close to classics. The hits were thrown in, but it was obvious Ray was trying to move forward.

I've been put on, sat on, punched and spat on,
They've called me a faggot, a spiv and a fake,
They can knock me down and tread on my face,
They can't stop the music playing on.

While the silly costumes were a massive departure from the elegant band of the 1960s, they were actually a relatively conservative parody of the times. Compared with the garb of Slade's Dave Hill⁵, Wizzard's Roy Wood and Gary Glitter, the Kinks' clown costumes at least had a link with reality.

The Kinks rushed out another album just six months later. Schoolboys in Disgrace saw a return to the band's rock 'n' roll routes, but it also saw the return of a familiar character. This was another concept album, which delved into the background of Preservation's Mr Flash (Booo Hiss). The story could have been based on Ray's life. It was a 'boy meets girl, girl falls pregnant' tale that echoed Ray's romance with Rasa. The boy then declares his intent to get his revenge on the world.

The album saw the Band unleash Dave and his Gibson Flying V on a range of up tempo rock 'n' roll numbers. Of course there was a stage show, and of course the band dressed up as schoolboys. Although there was an effort to return to their roots, the show still consisted of the album being played through before they started on the hits.

There's no use blaming me
And saying I was your ruination
Because it was you equally
That got us into this situation.
It wasn't lust, it wasn't rape,
It was just a mistake
I'm in disgrace.

Schoolboys in Disgrace was to be the last Kinks album on RCA. The label had grown tired of investing their cash in all these uncommercial pieces of musical theatre and let the group go. The label's last release was Celluloid Heroes – The Kinks' Greatest. It was probably wise to miss the word 'hit' out of the title since the album didn't include 'Supersonic Rocket Ship,' the band's only hit single for RCA.

The band's Konk label was not faring much better. The band had hoped to use it to nurture young artists, but after his initial fascination with it, Ray grew bored. The artist that he had most trouble with was Tom Robinson and his band Café Society. Robinson thought that he was destined to be the new Ray Davies. Ray thought that Tom believed that he was the new Ray Davies and so messed him about a bit, delaying his tours and under-promoting him. Tom believed that Ray felt threatened and was doing this on purpose, which he probably was. When Ray went to see Café Society at a London pub, Tom dedicated the song 'Tired of Waiting For You' to Ray. That sparked off a feud between the two.

The Konk studio was doing reasonably well. Dave and John Gosling had formed a production company together and were working with other acts. Dave loved new gadgets and made sure that the studio, his pride and joy, was kitted out with all the best gear. It was just a shame that very few paying acts could use it because Ray had taken up residence. Some artists that could be fitted in between Ray were The Bay City Rollers, Bert Weedon and, in later years, Elastica.

Cleveland, Are You Ready To Rock?

Don't hide your troubles inside,
You should be glad in the gay,
Nobody cares anyway on the outside.

The band were signed to Arista in 1976. The Kinks found the president, Clive Davies, wanted to tap into the band's massive live fanbase. He encouraged Ray's writing and got the whole band working together in a new, rock 'n' roll based, direction. Ray moved to New York where he could be in regular contact with Clive. Dave was also impressed by their new friend, saying that he was a genius with the best musical instincts of anybody he'd ever met.

The band returned to the studio. It was then that John Dalton decided he'd had enough and wanted to quit in order to open a transport café. He stayed on a while to help record some of the album before leaving and being replaced by Andy Pyle. The brothers, especially Ray, assumed that Dalton would come to his senses and return to the band, so Pyle was officially only a temporary replacement. This meant that while he wasn't treated like a full member of the band by the brothers, he was probably spared a lot of angst from Dave. The question was obvious though: After the introduction of their third bassist, who would be the next in line to leave?

Sleepwalker was a pared-down album; just the five band members with Pyle featuring on one track. Many of the original takes were thrown out as Ray rewrote the album while the rest of the band were taking a break from the studio. While it didn't sell too well in the UK, it reached the top 20 in America. The band's home country was in the midst of punk and the Kinks were seen as out of date, and more importantly, too old!

This attitude annoyed Ray. He'd watched glam come and go and now bands had come along that like the early Kinks were raucous and aggressive and their lyrics were about real things in real people's lives. Ray had finally found somebody playing his game and he wasn't allowed to join in!

Thinks he looks cool but his act is dated.
He acts working class but it's all bologna,
He's really middle class and he's just a phony.

The Kinks released a single containing an attack on the over commercialism of punk groups, however it was obvious that most of the insults in 'Prince of Punks' were aimed squarely at Tom Robinson. The other track was one of the great lost Christmas songs, 'Father Christmas'. It embraced the punk ethos of social inequality by telling the story of a department store Father Christmas is mugged by a gang of kids. The kids' parents are out of work and the kids themselves are bullied. They do not want expensive presents, they just want a better life.

Pyle was signed up on a permanent basis, but the taste of life on the road proved too much for him and he left at the end of 1977. John Gosling also left after an argument in the studio with Ray and started a new band with Pyle.

Have yourself a merry merry Christmas
Have yourself a good time
But remember the kids who got nothin'
While you're drinkin' down your wine.

1978 saw the release of Misfits. While it was successful in America, it was largely ignored in Britain. Arista had successfully marketed the Kinks to the US as the more acceptable side of punk, and the title of this album posited Ray as the spokesman for those people left out of society; well at least until Bruce Springsteen started writing about them!

He said a Black Messiah is gonna set the world on fire And he no liar, 'cos he has truly heard the word.

If the British public was ignoring the Kinks, they were not ignoring their music. The Jam had a hit with a cover of 'David Watts', then The Pretenders did a cover of 'Stop Your Sobbing', which caused critics to reassess their view that the Kinks were out of date. The Pretenders' singer, Chrissie Hynde, was to become a massive part of Ray's life. As his new long-term girlfriend, she was cited as the reason for Ray's second divorce. Chrissie had a daughter, Natalie, with Ray and the couple set a date for a wedding before they thought better of it. They were often seen together and the band, Dave especially, noted the Yoko Ono factor.

Chrissie left Ray for the singer of Simple Minds, Jim Kerr. 'Stop Your Sobbing' was not the only Ray song that she released; 1981 saw her release 'I Go To Sleep'.

Van Halen covered 'Where Have All the Good Times Gone' for their Diver Down album in 1981. This added to the band's stadium rock credibility, and surely Dave must have been proud that he had inspired the guitar genius that is Eddie Van Halen. The biggest selling British act of the 1980s was Madness. Their lead singer, Suggs, was a huge Kinks fan, and his influence can be heard in lyrics such as 'Our House' which sounds remarkably like the Davies household on Fortis Green Road.

Jim Rodford, formally of Argent and Phoenix, came in on bass and Gordon Edwards, who used to be in Kinks soundalikes The Pretty Things, took over on keyboards. Edwards got fed up very quickly and left to be replaced by Ian Gibbons. Gibbons arrived at the end of the recording sessions for the new album so only features on one or two tracks.

Low Budget was recorded in New York. Since his band actually had to pay for studio time, the famously stingy Ray made sure that the recording process was as quick and painless as possible. The resulting album was obviously written with their American audience in mind, and it reached number 12 on the charts. It failed to register in the UK.

The band went on a massive tour of America. During this tour they recorded a new live double album and an accompanying video. On One For The Road, released in October 1980, they are a tight band playing at their best. The record features some of the big hits, such as 'Lola' and 'All Day And All Of The Night', some tracks from the recent albums like 'Prince of Punks', some tracks from the early 1970s and also 'Stop Your Sobbing' and 'David Watts' to bring in the fans of The Pretenders and The Jam. The album was a massive success in America and reached number 11 on the Billboard chart.

Now I'm calling all citizens from all over the world
This is Captain America calling
I bailed you out when you were down on your knees
So will you catch me now I'm falling.

The US tour did provide a decent Spinal Tap⁶ moment. One of the overhead pyrotechnics shot into the air at a concert in Austin, Texas. The firework landed on Gibbons's keyboard and set it on fire. The top two octaves melted themselves together!

Another Tap moment occurred in 1984. The Kinks' keyboard technician, Kevin Brown used to inflate a blow-up doll behind the support act, John 'Cougar' Mellencamp, as he sang 'I Need A Woman Who Don't Drive Me Crazy'. As a figure plummeted from the roof during The Kinks' set in Seattle, everybody thought it was one of these dolls. In fact it was a fan who had tried to watch the concert through the glass roof. He was spotted and tried to escape, and fell through the roof. Luckily for the man, the crowd broke his fall!

Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

Many fans were surprised by the next release from Camp Davies. It was AFL1-3603, or as it was more commonly known, Dave Davies. As one would expect from Dave, it was a heavy metal album, but it didn't meet with favourable reviews. Dave had originally used session musicians for the recording, but he got fed up and in the end played almost everything himself!

This was followed up by Glamour in 1981. Many people believed that some of the songs were just bitchy attacks on Ray. Dave moved to Warner Brothers to release his third, and possibly best, album. Chosen People combined the decent sales of his other two records with favourable reviews.

Meanwhile in Ray's world there was a play in the offing. Written in conjunction with Barrie Keefe, Chorus Girls was a fusing of political drama and rock music based on Aristophanes' The Poet And The Woman. Its plot centred around Prince Charles being kidnapped. The critics were not impressed.

1982 saw a Ray Davies film project backed by Channel 4. Return To Waterloo was a look at a commuter's fantasies on a trip from Guilford to Waterloo. The time that Ray dedicated to it annoyed Dave and when a soundtrack was released, Dave made sure it was a Ray solo record rather than being a Kinks release.

1986 saw Ray's first starring role in a film. He teamed up with Julian Temple for an adaptation of the novel Absolute Beginners. The lead actor was David Bowie, who had previously covered some of Ray's songs, and Ray was to play Patsy Kensit's father. Ray got to sing 'Quiet Life' a song that also appears on the soundtrack. It is probably worth mentioning that as well as working her way through the leading lights of Britpop, Kensit married Jim Kerr, the man Chrissie Hynde left Ray for.

Dancing Back Into The Charts

When Oswald shot Kennedy, he was insane
But still we watch the re-runs again and again
We all sit glued while the killer takes aim
Hey Mom, there goes a piece of the president's brain!

The next Kinks album, Give The People What They Want, was released in America in August 1981, the UK didn't see it until the New Year. It was another album aimed squarely at their new friends in the United States. It reached number 15 in America. 'Predictable' was a single that was released in October 1981, accompanied by a Julien Temple video.

'My sister's married and she lives on an estate.
Her daughters go out, now it's her turn to wait.
She knows they get away with things she never could,
But if I asked her I wonder if she would
Come dancing.'

Ray had always been interested in mixing music and video, and the next single proved to be his most successful attempt to date. 'Come Dancing' was a classic Ray Davies track. He reminisced about watching his sisters go out to the dance hall that was down the road with various boyfriends. Although the Caribbean keyboards gave it a cheery music hall vibe, there was an undercurrent of sadness in the record. The brother's sister Rene had died after a night at the dance hall. In the video be played a seedy spiv based on his uncle Frank. The single vanished off the charts, lost in the Christmas 1982 cheesefest that propelled Renee and Renato to number one with 'Save Your Love'. Jonathan King showed the video on Top Of The Pops in 1983 and it appealed to the record-buying public. The song was re-released and reached number 12 in the UK charts, the band's biggest hit since 'Lola'.

The song was from the new album, State Of Confusion. Again it was pitched at the American AOR market, but it did feature tracks about British Society. 'Definite Maybe⁷' was about computer mistakes in the DHSS and 'Young Conservatives' was about the rise of the yuppies. The stand-out track on the record was the second of the 'dance' songs. 'Don't Forget To Dance' could be aimed directly at Ray's sisters - it was a tale of an older woman reminding her how good she felt while dancing. Again,the album disappeared more or less without trace in the UK, but it came into the American charts at number 12.

I bet you danced a good one in your time. And if this were a party I'd really make sure the next one would be mine. Yes, you with the broken heart.

Word Of Mouth did not fare so well in the charts when it came out in November 1984. There were two major reasons for this. Anybody who saw Mick Avory wound Dave with a drum pedal may have been surprised that it took him until 1984 to leave the band. Mick was still part of the original company and took up a role as the studio manager at Konk. Mick was replaced by Bob Henrit, who had worked with Jim Rodford in Argent and The GB Blues Band, the latter also along with Ray's horn section, The Mike Cotton Sound. Henrit had also worked with Dave on Glamour and Chosen People.

'Just because they gave you life, they can't stop if you grow, Now they can't hold you back 'cause you're going solo.'

Uncertainty over the band's line-up may have contributed to the poor sales, but the other reason was that The Kinks cancelled US tour meant they were not in the minds of American record-buyers. The band were forced to cancel due to the fact that Dave, listed as the album's associate producer, had been admitted to a clinic with exhaustion.

Word Of Mouth was the band's last release on Arista. Think Visual came out on London Records (London were the UK label, MCA handled the rest of the world) in November 1986. A Dave track featuring Mick Avory, 'Rock 'n' Roll Cities' was released as a taster track for the album.

If you wanna touch some heat But you don't know how to light that flame If you want some satisfaction Instead of studying the freeze-frame.

Their next release was The Kinks Live on the Road which was a live album, released in May 1988 in the UK, and in December 1987 in the US. It was originally envisioned as a double album, but MCA said no.

UK Jive saw Ian Gibbon's last appearance on a Kinks album. Followingr Avory's departure, the band was essentially Ray and Dave plus assorted employees. Given the brothers' temperamental relationship, this must have been hard for the other musicians. Dave even got to produce a couple of tracks for the new album - perhaps Ray was finally loosening his grip?

1989 also saw the release of Kirsty MacColl's version of 'Days'. The angelic voiced singer-songwriter's humorous and insightful songs showed an obvious Ray influence. 'Days' initially reached number twelve in 1989, and just failed to make the top 40 following its use in an advert in 1995. Another female singer-songwriter who had a hit with a Kinks song was Cathy Dennis who covered 'Waterloo Sunset' in 1997.

1993's Phobia was released on Columbia records as Britpop was in its infancy. Much of it was written on computer by Ray. The process of producing the album was not a happy one, and the band's association with the label only lasted for one release.

When all my energy starts letting me down
I get this feeling I'll be still wandering 'round
Still searching, still workin', still lookin'
Until I find a way.

To The Bone was another live album, actually recorded live in a studio! Since it was only released on their own Konk label, it only had a limited release, and didn't reach the shelves in America.

Godfathers Of The Revolution

The 1990s saw the rise of Britpop and many of the bands owed much to Ray, Dave, Pete, Mick, John, John, and all the other bass, drum and keyboard Kinks.

The most obvious disciple was Blur's Damon Albarn. His 'Country House' is a direct reference to 'House In The Country' and possibly features the son of the 'Well Respected Man'! Blur's 'Parklife' is very much the spiritual successor to the 'Village Green'. Ray appeared with Damon on the show The White Room as well as on a Ray Davies tribute album.

Supergrass had been covering 'Where Have All The Good Times Gone' at their gigs. In Jarvis Cocker, Pulp had their own 1990s Ray Davies. Both art school 'educated' and with experience of working class London, they both wrote songs about England from a unique viewpoint.

While Oasis may not have so readily displayed the Kinks influence it was as strong in the leading Britpop band as in any others. That sound came via Paul Weller, a man whose music is steeped in the Kinks. If you listen through (What's The Story) Morning Glory you may hear a trace of 'Plastic Man' and it is worth asking whether the title of Definitely Maybe was based on 'Definite Maybe'.

As a pair of warring brothers, one can see the similarities between the Davies boys and the Gallaghers. Both the Kinks and Oasis were founded by the younger brother, with an older brother coming in to take over the band and write the songs. Dave and Liam share the traits of being unpredictable, overtly aggressive and extreme showoffs.

Not The End of The Road

By the mid-1990s, the Davies brothers had effectively called time on the band, though original four did reunite for their induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Ray performed solo shows where he read from his 'fictional autobiography' X-ray. The show which featured Ray and a second guitarist interspersed memoirs with songs. The 2006 record, The Storyteller is a live recording of the show.

In 2004, Ray was shot as he tackled thieves who stole his friend's purse. He released Other People's Lives in 2006.

Dave had also released his autobiography, Kink, which as well as having insights into life in the band, recorded a number of his liaisons with famous figures of the 1960s.

Dave also performs solo: However, he suffered a stroke in 2005 which caused him to have to relearn to play the guitar.

Pete Quaife had moved to Canada and has kept a relatively low profile. He worked as a illustrator and taught classical guitar. Mick Avory remained part of the Kinks kompany and would often appear in the band's videos. He occasionally found time to perform with the Kinks tribute act, The Kast Off Kinks which also included John Dalton, John Gosling and Andy Pyle.

With 2005's re-release of The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society and Kinks tracks appearing in adverts, there has been increased interest in the band. They received a lifetime achievement award from the Brits in 2006. There have been discussions about a reunion of the original line up, however it was reported that Dave refused to work with Mick, and Ray refused to work without him. Some things never change!

I wonder what became of all the Rockers and the Mods.
I hope they are making it and they've all got steady jobs,
Oh but rock and roll still lives on,
Yeah, rock and roll still lives on.