Ray Davies: You Really Got Me, Southbank Centre

Legendary Kinks frontman Ray Davies will play a live show at the Southbank Centre on September 9, bringing his unique take on British life back to London.

As the creative force behind iconic British rock band The Kinks- which he formed with his brother Dave- Davies has amassed a huge fanbase worldwide and is regarded as one of the most important songwriters in British music history.

Through Ray Davies’ literate and observational songwriting, The Kinks’ material is regarded as some of the most important music of the 1960s and 1970s, characterised by songs of nostalgia chronicling the quaint traditions of English life and culture.

Albums including Face to Face, The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur are undisputed classics of the 1960s and have had a huge influence on modern artists including Blur and Paul Weller. The Kinks were also to be an important influence on the Britpop scene in the 1990s

Davies’ songwriting combined a sharp pop sensibility with a revival of idiosyncratically English sounds like music hall, as demonstrated in songs like Sunny Afternoon and Autumn Almanac. The latter is a paean to quintessentially British pleasures like roast beef and Blackpool.  

After The Kinks’ ‘60s and ‘70s heyday, Davies began a solo career, releasing his first solo album in 1985, entitled Return to Waterloo.

Since then Davies has released a further 4 albums, the most recent being 2010’s See My Friends which featured collaborations with Bruce Springsteen, Metallica and others.

His highest point as a solo artist is arguably the 2006 album Other People’s Lives, which reached the Top 40 in the UK charts.  

Ray Davies has also recently found new critical acclaim for writing the lyrics and music for the new musical Sunny Afternoon , telling the story of The Kinks’ rise to fame in the 1960s. After a sold out original run in Hampstead Theatre, it has been so well received that it has recently been moved to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End.

Davies’ live shows feature a selection of his solo material as well as a generous helping of hits from his Kinks days, so expect a time-hopping and uniquely British experience at the Southbank Centre.