| Tour by the Kinks | |
| Associated album | Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) |
|---|---|
| Start date | 17 October 1969 |
| End date | 8 December 1969 |
| No. of shows | 44 |
| The Kinks concert chronology | |
Background edit
In July 1965, the Kinks were informally blacklisted from performing in the United States by the American Federation of Musicians.[1] The circumstances that led to the ban are unclear – bandleader Ray Davies later attributed it to a combination of "bad luck, bad management, [and] bad behaviour".[2] It may have stemmed from a 2 July 1965 incident backstage of Dick Clark's show Where the Action Is, where Davies fought a member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. It may also have arisen after the Kinks refused to perform at a San Francisco concert on 4 July 1965 after the promoter declined Davies's request that the band be paid upfront.[1]
The ban persisted until Davies negotiated its resolution in mid-April 1969.[3]
Promotional campaign edit
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Reprise US Tour Spot Promo |
In preparation for the tour and in light of The Village Green Preservation Society's favourable reviews,[4] Reprise Records and Warner Bros. Records initiated a promotional campaign in July 1969 to reestablish the band's commercial standing.[5] John Mendelsohn, whom Reprise hired after reading his favourable review of Village Green,[6] came up with the campaign's slogan "God Save The Kinks",[5] which referenced the refrain "God save the village green!" from the close of "The Village Green Preservation Society".[7] Reprise mailed press kits to journalists, radio program directors and disc jokeys which included assorted items, including a guide to the Kinks' recordings, a plastic bag with blades of grass from "Daviesland village green" and a promotional compilation album, Then Now and Inbetween.[8] In July or August, Reprise issued "The Village Green Preservation Society" backed with "Do You Remember Walter?" as a US single, though it failed to appear in any charts.[nb 1]
Tour edit
All of a sudden we got our visas to go to the States. We weren't prepared – and [the American audience] hadn't seen us since "You Really Got Me" – and it was like a complete gap.[12]
– Ray Davies, reflecting on the tour
In October 1969, the Kinks at long last returned to the American stage – though hardly in triumph; they were billed second to Spirit at the tour's Fillmore East debut. ... [T]he band was woefully out of tune, out of time, and evinced difficulty in remembering the words to their own [classic] British hits ... A painfully shy Ray Davies did his utmost to avoid the spotlight at all times, leaving Dave to handle the announcements and sing most of the songs ... At the time, however, few aficionados would admit to any shortcomings; the important thing was that the Kinks were back.[13]
– Journalist Nicholas Schaffner, 1982
Our first shows were a little awkward and we were a bit sloppy. It was hard to imagine what the audiences really thought of us when we played songs like "[The] Village Green [Preservation Society]", "[A] Well Respected Man", "Victoria", "Mr. Churchill Says", in the midst of "heavy" American bands playing stoned, with tedious over-indulgent solos that seemed to stretch long into the night. But most of our audiences were out of it. Stoned. So maybe they got more out of it than they expected.[14]
– Dave Davies, 1996
| External videos: Live in San Francisco | |
|---|---|
| 29 November 1969 | |
| "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" | |
| "Big Sky" | |
| "You Really Got Me" / "All Day and All of the Night" |
[The] reception to the band has been enormously gratifying ... I think the audiences are more knowledgeable now. When we came here before ... it was just image then ...[15]
– Ray Davies interviewed by Rolling Stone, late November 1969
Set list edit
The Kinks' set list varied over the course of the tour. Below are examples from two separate nights, according to Doug Hinman:[16]
|
Boston, 25 October (first show)
|
Hollywood, unspecified night (first show)
Hollywood, unspecified night (second show)
|
Tour dates edit
According to Doug Hinman:[17]
| Date (1969) |
City | Country | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 October (2 shows) |
New York | United States | Fillmore East |
| 18 October (2 shows) | |||
| 19 October | Potsdam | Clarkson College Gymnasium | |
| 23 October (2 shows) |
Boston | The Boston Tea Party | |
| 24 October (2 shows) | |||
| 25 October (2 shows) | |||
| 31 October | Chicago | Kinetic Playground | |
| 7 November | Detroit | Grande Ballroom | |
| 8 November | |||
| 12 November | Cedar Rapids | Veterans Memorial Coliseum | |
| 14 November | Cincinnati | Ludlow Garage | |
| 15 November | |||
| 16 November | |||
| 20 November (2 shows) |
Hollywood | Whisky a Go Go | |
| 21 November (2 shows) | |||
| 22 November (2 shows) | |||
| 23 November (2 shows) | |||
| 24 November | Irvine | Crawford Hall, University of California, Irvine | |
| 26 November | Antioch | Exhibition Building, Contra Costa County Fairgrounds | |
| 27 November (2 shows) |
San Francisco | Fillmore West | |
| 28 November (2 shows) | |||
| 29 November (2 shows) | |||
| 30 November (2 shows) | |||
| 1 December | Portland | Sports Center gymnasium, Reed College | |
| 2 December | Davis | Freeborn Hall, University of California, Davis | |
| 5 December | Philadelphia | Spectrum | |
| 6 December (2 shows) |
Toronto | Canada | The Hawk's Nest |
| 7 December (2 shows) |
Stamford | United States | Stamford High School Auditorium |
| 8 December | New York | Ungano's |
- Note: In February 2023, Doug Hinman wrote a plea on a Kinks fansite looking for shows missing from his 2004 day-by-day book. He wrote: "[The Kinks'] return to the US in October 1969 and prior to their return to the charts with Lola later in 1970 saw the band playing a number of small clubs as they weren't able to command a billing in larger venues, especially during the weekdays of their US tours, which resulted in almost invisible, unconfirmable dates. These shows were usually booked on short notice and weren’t advertised in any newspapers, at least any available online, likely only by handbills, newsletters or radio promotion and with no copies of itineraries either published or surviving, knowledge of the gigs have vanished to time."[18]
Notes edit
References edit
Citations edit
- ^ a b Hinman 2004, p. 60.
- ^ Simpson, Dave (16 July 2015). "Ray Davies: 'I'm not the godfather of Britpop ... more a concerned uncle'". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 July 2015.
- ^ Hinman 2004, p. 128.
- ^ Rogan 1984, p. 99; Kitts 2008, p. 146.
- ^ a b Hasted 2011, p. 147.
- ^ Mendelsohn 1985, p. 101.
- ^ Jovanovic 2013, p. 149.
- ^ Mendelsohn 1985, p. 101; Kitts 2008, p. 146; Hinman 2004, p. 130.
- ^ Rogan 1984, p. 197.
- ^ Hinman & Brabazon 1994, quoted in Davies 1996, p. 273.
- ^ Anon. 2018: "Originally released on Reprise Records, July 1969, as US 7" single 0847."
- ^ Hinman 2004, p. 133.
- ^ a b Schaffner 1982, p. 103.
- ^ Davies 1996, p. 121.
- ^ Hinman 2004, p. 135.
- ^ Hinman 2004, pp. 134, 135.
- ^ Hinman 2004, pp. 133–136.
- ^ Emlem, Dave. "News & Rumors". kindakinks.net. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
Sources edit
- Anon. (2018). "The Village Green Preservation Society" (Liner notes). The Kinks. BMG, Pye Records. BMGAA09BOX10.
- Davies, Dave (1996). Kink: An Autobiography. New York City: Hyperion. ISBN 978-0-7868-6149-1.
- Hasted, Nick (2011). The Story of the Kinks: You Really Got Me. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-1-84938-660-9.
- Hinman, Doug; Brabazon, Jason (1994). You Really Got Me: An Illustrated World Discography of the Kinks, 1964–1993. Rumford, Rhode Island: Doug Hinman. ISBN 978-0-9641005-1-0.
- Hinman, Doug (2004). The Kinks: All Day and All of the Night: Day by Day Concerts, Recordings, and Broadcasts, 1961–1996. San Francisco, California: Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-0-87930-765-3.
- Jovanovic, Rob (2013). God Save the Kinks: A Biography. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-84513-671-0.
- Kitts, Thomas M. (2008). Ray Davies: Not Like Everybody Else. New York City: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-97768-5.
- Mendelsohn, John (1985). The Kinks Kronikles. New York City: Quill. ISBN 978-0-688-02983-8.
- Rogan, Johnny (1984). The Kinks: The Sound and the Fury. London: Elm Tree Books. ISBN 0-241-11308-3.
- Rogan, Johnny (1998). The Complete Guide to the Music of the Kinks. London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-7119-6314-6.
- Rogan, Johnny (2015). Ray Davies: A Complicated Life. London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 978-1-84792-317-2.