The Kinks

Hordern Pavilion
Sydney, Australia
19 February 1982

Around the Dial
The Hard Way
Where Have All the Good Times Gone / Tired of Waiting for You
Come On Now
Destroyer
Yo-Yo
Lola
Dead End Street
A Gallon of Gas
Low Budget
Add It Up
Art Lover
Celluloid Heroes
Till the End of the Day
Bernadette
All Day and All of the Night

encore
Give the People What They Want
Pressure
Twist and Shout
Stop Your Sobbing
David Watts
You Really Got Me

The Kinks

Hordern Pavilion
Sydney, Australia
19 February 1982

1. Around the Dial
2. The Hard Way
3. Where Have All the Good Times Gone / Tired of Waiting for You
4. Come On Now
5. Destroyer
6. Yo-Yo
7. Lola
8. Dead End Street
9. A Gallon of Gas
10. Low Budget
11. Add It Up (fades out ... tape flip)

12. Art Lover
13. Celluloid Heroes
14. Till the End of the Day
15. Bernadette
16. All Day and All of the Night

encore
17. Give the People What They Want
18. Pressure
19. Twist and Shout
20. Stop Your Sobbing
21. David Watts
22. You Really Got Me


===================

Hi all,

Today, 19th February 1982, is the 40th anniversary of the last show that the Kinks ever played in Australia.
It's also special to me as being a long time hard core Kinks fan because not only did I get to spend time with Ray Davies in the afternoon at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney
while they filmed a performance for Australian TV but also after the show that night & well into the next day, at his request I may add & before anyone thinks dirty thoughts
it was all above board!

The Kinks are amongst my top 3 English favourite bands & remain so to this day as I buy all the Deluxe Reissues.
I first heard Kinks songs when I was a kid back in the mid to late 60�s on the radio in my parent�s house in London.
I remember one song I liked the tune of, finding out much later on that tune was Autumn Almanac.
Speaking of parents my Mum was born & bred in the same North London suburb of Muswell Hill that Ray & Dave Davies hailed from.

By mid-1968 we�d emigrated to Australia, where I didn�t hear anything Kinks wise on the radio.
That changed the next year when a school chums older brother had their 1969 LP Arthur, the single from the LP Victoria received some airplay here.
I heard Arthur often when at my schoolmates joint, liked what I was hearing & would ask him to play it again.
The older brother taped Arthur onto a cassette for me, as time went by Arthur has became my favourite Kinks LP, though other Kinks LP�s hover close to that position.

My first bona fide Kinks purchase was the 1970 single Lola.
The Kinks toured Australia in June 1971, Badfinger were going to be the support band for the tour but they unfortunately cancelled, shame as Badfinger never ending up making it to these shores
Myself along with the aforementioned school mate & his brother went to the open-air Sydney gig, I remember it as a sort of somewhat ramshackle gig that took place on a very cold winter afternoon.
The Kinks 1971 Australian Tour program was the first one I ever brought, a right deadset flimsy affair it was too, as it was printed before the tour half of it is made up of Badfinger articles.

Later that year while lurking at my local record shop I came upon a Kinks LP entitled The Golden Hour Of The Kinks, which was a budget release with rather tinny sound that was a 20 track
compilation of 1960�s hit singles, some B-Sides, EP Tracks plus the odd LP track, IMHO a pretty good selection.
Brought it, played it to death, loved what I heard, it was that budget LP that started the quest to search for more Kinks product, first stop was to buy Arthur & their LP's before that.
I regard Rays song writing skills especially lyric wise to be equal to Dylan.

By the time of the Kinks 1982 February Sydney gigs I was a 26yo who had for a number of years had been living an alternate lifestyle, I�d quit my job, was practically living at the beach up the coast,
I'd grown my hair past my shoulders, plus I had ditched my christian name & was now using my middle name instead. Ruby contacted me to say that the Kinks were touring, did I want to go, yes was my reply.
Ruby brought tickets to both Sydney shows, by getting in early Ruby scored us front stalls tickets both nights seats.

For these gigs I thought I�d be a little creative so I had two T-Shirts made up, the first was a black T-Shirt with in white on the front the words �My Mum�s From Muswell Hill�,
the other was a white T-Shirt with the same words in black.
I had the daft idea that if Ray saw them he�d give me some sort of acknowledgement, little did I know what would follow.

For the first night show I wore the black �My Mum�s From Muswell Hill� T-Shirt.
When the house lights went off we bolted down to the front, got to about three rows from the front of the stage,but directly in line with Ray�s microphone stand.
Early in the gig Ray spotted my T-Shirt, rewarding me with a nod of his head, as well as some smiles during the show.

The next night I wore the white �My Mum�s From Muswell Hill � T-Shirt, and like the previous night we managed to get down the front obtaining nearly the same position.
Once again Ray clocked me early wearing the -T-Shirt, gave me the thumbs up, every now & again I would get a smile.
Both shows were excellent, much louder than I thought they�d be, Dave Davies was an excellent guitar player; IMHO he�s never received the accolades he deserves.

I went home a happy chappie knowing that I�d had some personal interaction with one of my musical idols.
The Sydney reviews weren�t that positive, one well known Sydney music critic moaned that the Kinks were now too American, too flash, too loud, too much possturing
all of which I partly agree with but having the live bootlegs from the 1981 US tour year before this Kinks fan knew what a 1982 Kinks show exactly would be delivering.

My Ray Davies Story Part One.

Unknown to me the next day (4th February) Ray had asked people from�his Sydney record company if they could track down the individual at the shows who had worn the "My Mother" T-Shirts.
So, they in their search to find this person contacted some Sydney record stores, one of them being Sydney�s major import Red Eye Records in the hope that they might possibly know this person.
�
Red Eye staff knew me well as I�m was a personal friend of the owner plus I�d be at Red Eye just about every week so they twigged pretty quickly to whom the record company folk describing.
When they rang me to tell me that Ray Davies would like to meet me, they knew that I was a Kinks fan so I didn�t believe them, surely they were having a lend of me, having a laugh,taking the piss.
To prove they weren�t joking they provided me with the phone number of the person from the record company who had contacted them.
I rang the number still believing I was being had, the person who I spoke to asked me some questions to make sure that I was indeed the person that Ray had described to them,
I could answer all questions asked of me, so they had got their man.

Once it was established that I was indeed this individual she went on to say Ray wanted to meet me.
By this time the band where performing gigs elsewhere in Australia but were coming back to Sydney for a 3rd show, which was to be the last show of the tour.
Arrangements were made for me to catch up with him on the afternoon of 19th February at the Hordern Pavilion when the band were there to soundcheck for the concert that night.

From the moment I was informed that Ray Davies wanted to meet me till the time I headed off to the rendezvous at the Hordern, I was the proverbial bag of nerves plus rather apprehensive,
I kept asking myself why me, why me. I�ll admit that my main concern was is Ray going to hit on me, and if that occurred it would have been a definite no from me.
As it turned out he was a complete gentleman but to be honest during the considerable time we were in each other�s company the thought did crop up now & then.

My instructions on reaching the Hordern were to go around the back, ask for the tour manager, once there I saw some blokes standing about & approached them.
Asked where I could find the Kinks tour manager, one of the blokes said that�s me.
I introduced myself, he replied I know who you are, why you�re here, then asked me to accompany him inside the Hordern.
Once inside we went to the side of the stage where the band were playing Art Lover from the band�s latest LP �Give The People What They Want�.

When the band stopped playing the tour manager went up onto the stage to tell Ray I�d arrived, Ray turned around to where I was standing, smiled at me, held his hands up to do a 20-minute sign.
It was then that I noticed that the band had all turned around to look at me, I felt really uncomfortable, like a living breathing geek show.
Then the band launched into Art Lover again, tour manager came back down to tell me to take a seat & that Ray would be down shortly.

It was only when I sat down in the front row that I noticed TV cameras / cameramen on & off the stage, what I was actually observing was�The Kinks making a video for��Art Lover�
to be shown on the Australian TV music program �GTK� sometime in the future.
It felt strange watching a band live on stage with my arse / ass being the only one on a seated in an empty 5,000 seat venue.
BTW I�ve only ever seen this B/W video clip once & that was not long after it was filmed.

After another run through Ray came down to where I was seated, I was all sixes and sevens as he walked towards,
I didn't realize he was so tall, he towered over me,he called me by name, introduced himself & shook my hand.
The first question he asked me was where about�s did my Mum live in Muswell Hill plus what was her family�s name, I told him but her family name didn�t ring any bells
with him but he did know the street she had lived on.
He asked if my Dad was from there, I said no he's from Walthamstow which isn't that far from Muswell Hill, Ray said that he knew Walthamstow well.

We had a brief chat, then he was called to go back on stage to do more takes of �Art Lover� but before leaving Ray told me to talk to the tour manager, then we said our goodbyes.
The Kinks tour manager provided me with a ticket for that nights show plus a back-stage pass (both these are featured in the artwork) then informed me that I'd had also been invited to
go to the Sebel Town House where the band were staying after the show, so I needed to come back stage after the show where I'd leave the Hordern with Ray & the band.
I then went home still in disbelief that me a Kinks fan had not only been sought out by the singer but that I witnessed a Kinks video shoot.

The Hordern Gig

That night Kinks put on a great show, mixing songs from their current LP � Give The People What They Want� with some cuts from their last LP �Low Budget� sprinkled in amongst these were gems
from their 1960�s catalogue such as "Dead End Street", "Come On Now" (which was dedicated to someone who had pulled / scored / picked up someone the night before,
"Where Have All The Good Times Gone", more favs of mine.
Also in there was �Bernadette� which wouldn�t be released until next years �State Of Confusion� LP.
At the start of �Lola� Ray did a small snippet of the Australian classic �The Pub With No Beer� followed by a dedication to the Australian Road crew then straight into �Lola�.

They kicked off �Celluloid Heroes� with a 2-minute instrumental then stopped with Ray dedicating the song to Lee Strasburg the famous acting coach & Charlie Mingus the bass player who he
said had both had passed away that week.
I�ve since looked up their obituaries Lee Strasberg passed away on the 17th February,two days before this show but Charlie Mingus had actually passed away on the 9th January 1979,
over two years previously so I don�t know why Ray says he had passed away that week.
Which is even more strange seeing Ray produced in 1991 a documentary about Charlie Mingus titled �Weird Nightmare�.

We at the Hordern received more encores than they played at the earlier Sydney Capitol shows such as early Kinks songs Stop Your Sobbing & David Watts, which funnily enough the music critic
in his Capitol show review had whined that those two very songs should have been played at the Capitol.
Maybe Ray had read his critical Sydney review & decided to include them at their final Sydney show.

I�ve had this Kinks Hordern 1982 recording since the mid 80�s, I can�t recall who I received it from, however I have a feeling that it may have been recorded by Death Death.
I'm not aware if this recording has been heavily circulated but even if it has this will be an upgrade to previous versions.
I�d describe the sound quality as resaonbly good,it's still a good listen, the band were really loud & at times they drown Ray out but never completely!
It's the only show to surface from the 1982 Australian tour.

I wrote above the arrangedment was to meet backstage up after the gig, from there I would go back with him & the band to the Sebel Townhouse.
As I was heading backstage I bumped into an old friend who was turned out to be a member of the Kinks Australian road crew, we got chatting, by the time I made it backstage everybody had left.
To find out what happened after I arrived at the Sebel Part Two of my Ray Davies Story is included in the torrent files.

This wasn�t the last time I would come in contact with Ray.
We caught up in Sydney December 1995 when he was here for solo shows at the Seymour Centre, I taped two shows the 4th & 5th December 1995.

The next time was London on the 1st July 1999 when he sat in front of me at a Patti Smith concert, I taped that nights Patti plus the 2nd July as well.

The last time was back in at the Enmore Theatre on the Sydney 17th March 2008.

I�ll write more about those three Ray meetings when uploading the 1995, 2008 Sydney shows plus the two Patti Smith 1999 London gigs.
Once again thanks to audiowhore & Big Knob for the Sydney Kinks photos.

Enjoy,
Waz
�
�---
�
�

My Ray Davies Story Part Two.

As I had missed leaving the Hordern with Ray & the Band to go to the Sebel Townhouse Hotel up at King Cross my mate from the road crew drove me there.
On venturing inside, the first person I encounter was the tour manager, he told me that Ray�was actually out the front looking for me but we obviously had missed each other.
Next thing Ray is in front of me, shakes my hand, then says to me me that he has to put in an appearance at the Sebel Townhouse bar, to do some met & greet with the
Australian record company people, some local celebs & other assorted hangers on.
From the look on his face & they way he said it he didn�t seem to be too enthused about having to do this.

He asks me to stay with him.
When we enter the bar, everyone turns around all eyes are on us, I could see people were itching to talk to him, I feel somewhat bewildered.
We find a table, Ray asks me what I�d like to drink, I tell him & he goes over to the bar where people flock to him.
He indulges them for a while then comes back to the table with the drinks.
I�d read that Ray is somewhat tight with his money, so I watched when he�d go to the bar, every drink he brought he paid for with money straight out of his pocket, not put on a bar tab.

The Kinks Keyboard player Ian Gibbons came over to talk to Ray, I was introduced to him, he sat with us for a short time chatting, he was friendly, engaging me in conversation.
Ian pulled out some white sheets of paper from his jacket & proceeded to make an origami paper foldly thing that opened & closed, when he finished making it he gave it to me, I still have it.
He then excused himself saying he was tired & going to bed.
I wasn�t introduced to any other band members.

Mick Avory who I would have really liked to chat to was seated at a table not that far away, he did look our way & smiled at me a few times.
Ray�s brother Dave was standing at the end of the bar�drinking with a "Nobody bother me"�look on his face.
He looked over our way once or twice but the two brothers didn't acknowledge each other at all during the time we were there.
�
Once Ian Gibbons had left is when the�well-wishers came on over, totally ignoring me but they would give me the once over, I could see them thinking who the fuck is this with Ray Davies.
One was a very attractive very tall Afro - American female whose name I can�t remember; at the time she was hosting�a Sydney�night-time TV show that might have been called the Zoo.
I got the impression she was a bit up herself full of herself.
She boasted to Ray that she had�previously entertained a visiting UK rock band earlier that year (Ian Drury & The Blockheads) at her penthouse that has an excellent night view
of Sydney�& the harbour, and that if Ray wished he could accompany her there.

As an afterthought she looked down at me, turned to Ray�& said "Oh, you can bring your little friend if you want".
Hearing�that Ray said "Sorry, but my little friend & I have other plans".
She then swanned off in a bit of a huff, Ray said to me �'I hate Rock & Roll & all these people, let�s go".
We stood up, Ray saying he had he had to go upstairs to his hotel room as he was expecting a call.
He said goodbye to no one as we departed the bar, but Mick Avory did wave goodbye to me, once again all eyes were directed at us as we made our way to the door.
I got a small glimpse of what it must be like to be a well-known figure with everyone gawking at you.

One reaching his room we sat down, had another drink, over which he told me that he'd been having a�bad time�of things since the Sydney shows,
which he followed him during the rest of the tour & was still affecting him.
I do know that at the first show in Adelaide he abused the audience, then stormed off the stage swearing his head but came back on soon after.
He didn't exactly tell me what was causing his grief, he didn�t go into great detail, basically said he was troubled & that these troubles were affecting him.
I do remember him saying that he had been taking things plus drinking more than he should have during this period.
During my time with him he seemed to be functioning ok, I did pick up that although he's a performer he didn't seem comfortable being around a lot of people as he wasin the bar beforehand.
�
I don't think�these troubles were�associated with his then girlfriend�Chrissie Hynde from the Pretenders.
I presume their well known relationship problems came later down the track.
The call that he had gone back to the hotel room for was actually from Chrissie, she was in America on tour with the Pretenders.
When her call came in, I wasn�t ushered away from the table, he conducted a conversation with her while I was in ear shot.
Nor did he lower his voice, not that I was listening but it appeared to be a trouble-free call.
Who knew that 22 years later a mate & myself would spend a couple of hours backstage at the Enmore Theatre with her having a highly enjoyable conversation.

Not long after the phone call ended there was knocking at his door, Ray got up to answer it.
From my seat I could see when he opened the door that standing there were two extremely good-looking females maybe in their early twenties,
he excused himself rather hastily too them & shut the door.
Ray came back to the table looking a tad annoyed, saying again to me again let�s get out of here & could I suggest somewhere where we could go to�be alone.
By this time, it was about 1:AM & still was warm outside, a nice Sydney summer night, well morning now.
�
I suggested�that we could walk down to Arthur McElhone Reserve, a beautiful small park in Elizabeth Bay that I once lived near, roughly about a 20-minute stroll from the Sebel,
hopefully no one would be there at this time.
So that�s what we did, even though it was now after 1:AM there was enough street lighting to still see how beautiful the place is.
In the middle of this park there's a small stone footbridge with wide ledges on each side. its situated over a large pond that was stocked with Koi, Japanese carp.
We hoisted ourselves up & sat on the ledge with our legs dangling over the water like school kids.
�
Once we were there Ray seemed to be able to relax & unwind, asking me about my life, what I was up to, my parents, why I had like his music & why I attended the Kinks shows.
I'd feel such a dag if I went down the veritable starstruck fan trotting out the typical fan clich�s, you know because I love your music, I can relate to it, your songs saved my life & so forth.
So, I told him I was just a big fan of his song writing, that simply I derived pleasure from his & the bands output over the years.

He went on to ask what LP�s, Kinks songs were favourites of mine, I replied that was a rather unfair question to ask of me as there were so many, so instead of naming the well known
Kinks 60's albums I thought I'd pick lesser loved, less celbrated ones.
He was surprised when I nominated that the 1972 LP �Everybody�s In Show-Biz was amongst my favoured Kinks albums & that I liked the studio LP as much as the live LP.
I felt comfortable enough to say that I wished the incomplete Carnegie Hall 1972 show on the 2LP would one day be issued in full.
I finally got my most of my wish granted in 2016 when that LP was remastered & released on CD with extra songs from the Carnegie Hall performances.

As for Kinks songs I mentioned a handful, one being Two Sisters from the 1967 LP Something Else, he told me he�d written that about Dave & himself but changed their sexes,
that he was a bit envious that while he had married early Dave was single & fancy free.
I also volunteered that I much preferred �All Day & All Of The Night� over �You Really Got Me�, he surprised me by saying so did he, feeling bold I asked
him what did he think of The Doors �Hello, I Love You� 1968 single with it stolen riff from �All Day & All Of The Night� plagiarism controversy.
He said that he liked the Doors song & it was compensation enough that the Doors admitted to purloining it.

Ray then backtracked to �You Really Got Me� saying no matter how many times Jimmy Page says he plays the guitar on it he fucking didn�t,
it�s my 17yo brother Dave that played the solo & if I were too listen closely, very closely during the solo I could hear Dave say fuck.
You can you know.

I did say to him I was a tad disappointed that I didn�t get to hear another favourite Waterloo Sunset at any of the 3 Sydney concerts, to which Ray replied
if we had talked about songs before the Hordern show he would have sang it plus any other song I requested.
I responded by saying that it would have killed the atmosphere if the band had played Supersonic Rocket Ship or Sitting in My Hotel.
He laughed.

Ray relayed many stories to my eager ears while we sat on that stone bridge, some of�them I would eventually read years later in his book X-Ray published in 1994 but other things he mentioned
to me I can�t remember if they are in the book or not, so long since I've read it. Such as that they were offered support spots on the Rolling Stones 1981 US tour but he knocked it back
& in hindsight he wished he hadn't.

Other things he told me which may or not be in X-Ray was that one of of his biggest thrills in his life was hearing /seeing Jimi Hendrix play Waterloo Sunset on an acoustic guitar
in the green room when both Jimi & The Kinks were appearing on Top Of The Pops (UK TV Show) episode�in 1967.
And that Lola was a black person & that this incident which occurred in Paris happened to one of their managers not him.

He told me that when spent a lot of time in New York in the early 1970�s, during that time one of Andy Warhol's drag queen superstars (he didn't name her)�had fallen in love with him,
that she had found out his home address in London & proceeded to bombard him with love letters to his home at such a rate that it pissed off his�first wife Rasa.
Rasa he told me had provided backing vocals on many 1960�s Kinks songs, this is now a very well-known story in Kinks lore now but wasn�t back then.
Ray confessed that he missed his children�because at that time (1982) he wasn't allowed to see them or only very little of them.
He talked about even at this stage he was still tied up with court cases regarding his 1960�s song royalties.
I got the impression his being troubled at this time might have been related to either one or both of these two situations.
�
We stayed there chatting on that stone bridge till the sun rose, we were both starting to tire, in bright sunshine we�walked back to the front of the Sebel.
Ray thanked me for showing him a part of Sydney he most likely wouldn�t have seen & for me being good company.
I remember saying something along the lines of thank you for being gracious enough for inviting me a dedicated Kinks fan with some one on one time.

Ray waved down a taxi for me, gave the driver some money to take me to where-ever I wanted go, put his arm around my shoulder, then opened the taxi door for me.
In the cab I realized that I hadn't asked for an autograph, I didn�t even think of asking him to sign my Hordern ticket & backstage pass that I had on me.
For the next few days I fielded questions such as �Well, did you do it with Ray Davies� from friends & Red Eye staff, I have the suspicious feeling that some were disappointed
when I explained that nothing remotely underhand took place.

40 years on I�m still amazed why Ray singled me out, my Ray Davies experience was so surreal, did it kick off because my mother came from Muswell Hill,
and once we started talking he realized that I wasn�t a rabid gushy fan who would make demands of him, who knows but he must have enjoyed my company enough to spend time with me that
stretched over a day & a half, maybe perhaps because he was depressed at this time he just wanted someone to converse with that he didn�t know from Adam.

This wasn�t the last time I would come in contact with Ray.
We caught up in Sydney December 1995 when he was here for solo shows, he was taken back by how different I now looked now compared to the last time he saw me back in 1982.
when I had long hair whereas I now resembled G.I. Joe.

The next time was London in July 1999 when he sat in front of me at a Patti Smith concert, on seeing me after the show he greeted me with
�Oh, my little friend from Sydney, what you are doing in London�.
The last time was back in Sydney March 2007, I asked him if after all this time he still remembered me, he sang the line "Do You Remember Walter?" to me then laughed.
I�ll write more about those three Ray meetings when uploading the 1995, 2007 Sydney shows plus the two Patti Smith 1999 London gigs.

Cheers,
Waz

---



My Ray Davies Story Part Two.

As I had missed leaving the Hordern with Ray & the Band to go to the Sebel Townhouse Hotel up at King Cross my mate from the road crew drove me there.
On venturing inside, the first person I encounter was the tour manager, he told me that Ray�was actually out the front looking for me but we obviously had missed each other.
Next thing Ray is in front of me, shakes my hand, then says to me me that he has to put in an appearance at the Sebel Townhouse bar, to do some met & greet with the
Australian record company people, some local celebs & other assorted hangers on.
From the look on his face & they way he said it he didn�t seem to be too enthused about having to do this.

He asks me to stay with him.
When we enter the bar, everyone turns around all eyes are on us, I could see people were itching to talk to him, I feel somewhat bewildered.
We find a table, Ray asks me what I�d like to drink, I tell him & he goes over to the bar where people flock to him.
He indulges them for a while then comes back to the table with the drinks.
I�d read that Ray is somewhat tight with his money, so I watched when he�d go to the bar, every drink he brought he paid for with money straight out of his pocket, not put on a bar tab.

The Kinks Keyboard player Ian Gibbons came over to talk to Ray, I was introduced to him, he sat with us for a short time chatting, he was friendly, engaging me in conversation.
Ian pulled out some white sheets of paper from his jacket & proceeded to make an origami paper foldly thing that opened & closed, when he finished making it he gave it to me, I still have it.
He then excused himself saying he was tired & going to bed.
I wasn�t introduced to any other band members.

Mick Avory who I would have really liked to chat to was seated at a table not that far away, he did look our way & smiled at me a few times.
Ray�s brother Dave was standing at the end of the bar�drinking with a "Nobody bother me"�look on his face.
He looked over our way once or twice but the two brothers didn't acknowledge each other at all during the time we were there.
�
Once Ian Gibbons had left is when the�well-wishers came on over, totally ignoring me but they would give me the once over, I could see them thinking who the fuck is this with Ray Davies.
One was a very attractive very tall Afro - American female whose name I can�t remember; at the time she was hosting�a Sydney�night-time TV show that might have been called the Zoo.
I got the impression she was a bit up herself full of herself.
She boasted to Ray that she had�previously entertained a visiting UK rock band earlier that year (Ian Drury & The Blockheads) at her penthouse that has an excellent night view
of Sydney�& the harbour, and that if Ray wished he could accompany her there.

As an afterthought she looked down at me, turned to Ray�& said "Oh, you can bring your little friend if you want".
Hearing�that Ray said "Sorry, but my little friend & I have other plans".
She then swanned off in a bit of a huff, Ray said to me �'I hate Rock & Roll & all these people, let�s go".
We stood up, Ray saying he had he had to go upstairs to his hotel room as he was expecting a call.
He said goodbye to no one as we departed the bar, but Mick Avory did wave goodbye to me, once again all eyes were directed at us as we made our way to the door.
I got a small glimpse of what it must be like to be a well-known figure with everyone gawking at you.

One reaching his room we sat down, had another drink, over which he told me that he'd been having a�bad time�of things since the Sydney shows,
which he followed him during the rest of the tour & was still affecting him.
I do know that at the first show in Adelaide he abused the audience, then stormed off the stage swearing his head but came back on soon after.
He didn't exactly tell me what was causing his grief, he didn�t go into great detail, basically said he was troubled & that these troubles were affecting him.
I do remember him saying that he had been taking things plus drinking more than he should have during this period.
During my time with him he seemed to be functioning ok, I did pick up that although he's a performer he didn't seem comfortable being around a lot of people as he wasin the bar beforehand.
�
I don't think�these troubles were�associated with his then girlfriend�Chrissie Hynde from the Pretenders.
I presume their well known relationship problems came later down the track.
The call that he had gone back to the hotel room for was actually from Chrissie, she was in America on tour with the Pretenders.
When her call came in, I wasn�t ushered away from the table, he conducted a conversation with her while I was in ear shot.
Nor did he lower his voice, not that I was listening but it appeared to be a trouble-free call.
Who knew that 22 years later a mate & myself would spend a couple of hours backstage at the Enmore Theatre with her having a highly enjoyable conversation.

Not long after the phone call ended there was knocking at his door, Ray got up to answer it.
From my seat I could see when he opened the door that standing there were two extremely good-looking females maybe in their early twenties,
he excused himself rather hastily too them & shut the door.
Ray came back to the table looking a tad annoyed, saying again to me again let�s get out of here & could I suggest somewhere where we could go to�be alone.
By this time, it was about 1:AM & still was warm outside, a nice Sydney summer night, well morning now.
�
I suggested�that we could walk down to Arthur McElhone Reserve, a beautiful small park in Elizabeth Bay that I once lived near, roughly about a 20-minute stroll from the Sebel,
hopefully no one would be there at this time.
So that�s what we did, even though it was now after 1:AM there was enough street lighting to still see how beautiful the place is.
In the middle of this park there's a small stone footbridge with wide ledges on each side. its situated over a large pond that was stocked with Koi, Japanese carp.
We hoisted ourselves up & sat on the ledge with our legs dangling over the water like school kids.
�
Once we were there Ray seemed to be able to relax & unwind, asking me about my life, what I was up to, my parents, why I had like his music & why I attended the Kinks shows.
I'd feel such a dag if I went down the veritable starstruck fan trotting out the typical fan clich�s, you know because I love your music, I can relate to it, your songs saved my life & so forth.
So, I told him I was just a big fan of his song writing, that simply I derived pleasure from his & the bands output over the years.

He went on to ask what LP�s, Kinks songs were favourites of mine, I replied that was a rather unfair question to ask of me as there were so many, so instead of naming the well known
Kinks 60's albums I thought I'd pick lesser loved, less celbrated ones.
He was surprised when I nominated that the 1972 LP �Everybody�s In Show-Biz was amongst my favoured Kinks albums & that I liked the studio LP as much as the live LP.
I felt comfortable enough to say that I wished the incomplete Carnegie Hall 1972 show on the 2LP would one day be issued in full.
I finally got my most of my wish granted in 2016 when that LP was remastered & released on CD with extra songs from the Carnegie Hall performances.

As for Kinks songs I mentioned a handful, one being Two Sisters from the 1967 LP Something Else, he told me he�d written that about Dave & himself but changed their sexes,
that he was a bit envious that while he had married early Dave was single & fancy free.
I also volunteered that I much preferred �All Day & All Of The Night� over �You Really Got Me�, he surprised me by saying so did he, feeling bold I asked
him what did he think of The Doors �Hello, I Love You� 1968 single with it stolen riff from �All Day & All Of The Night� plagiarism controversy.
He said that he liked the Doors song & it was compensation enough that the Doors admitted to purloining it.

Ray then backtracked to �You Really Got Me� saying no matter how many times Jimmy Page says he plays the guitar on it he fucking didn�t,
it�s my 17yo brother Dave that played the solo & if I were too listen closely, very closely during the solo I could hear Dave say fuck.
You can you know.

I did say to him I was a tad disappointed that I didn�t get to hear another favourite Waterloo Sunset at any of the 3 Sydney concerts, to which Ray replied
if we had talked about songs before the Hordern show he would have sang it plus any other song I requested.
I responded by saying that it would have killed the atmosphere if the band had played Supersonic Rocket Ship or Sitting in My Hotel.
He laughed.

Ray relayed many stories to my eager ears while we sat on that stone bridge, some of�them I would eventually read years later in his book X-Ray published in 1994 but other things he mentioned
to me I can�t remember if they are in the book or not, so long since I've read it. Such as that they were offered support spots on the Rolling Stones 1981 US tour but he knocked it back
& in hindsight he wished he hadn't.

Other things he told me which may or not be in X-Ray was that one of of his biggest thrills in his life was hearing /seeing Jimi Hendrix play Waterloo Sunset on an acoustic guitar
in the green room when both Jimi & The Kinks were appearing on Top Of The Pops (UK TV Show) episode�in 1967.
And that Lola was a black person & that this incident which occurred in Paris happened to one of their managers not him.

He told me that when spent a lot of time in New York in the early 1970�s, during that time one of Andy Warhol's drag queen superstars (he didn't name her)�had fallen in love with him,
that she had found out his home address in London & proceeded to bombard him with love letters to his home at such a rate that it pissed off his�first wife Rasa.
Rasa he told me had provided backing vocals on many 1960�s Kinks songs, this is now a very well-known story in Kinks lore now but wasn�t back then.
Ray confessed that he missed his children�because at that time (1982) he wasn't allowed to see them or only very little of them.
He talked about even at this stage he was still tied up with court cases regarding his 1960�s song royalties.
I got the impression his being troubled at this time might have been related to either one or both of these two situations.
�
We stayed there chatting on that stone bridge till the sun rose, we were both starting to tire, in bright sunshine we�walked back to the front of the Sebel.
Ray thanked me for showing him a part of Sydney he most likely wouldn�t have seen & for me being good company.
I remember saying something along the lines of thank you for being gracious enough for inviting me a dedicated Kinks fan with some one on one time.

Ray waved down a taxi for me, gave the driver some money to take me to where-ever I wanted go, put his arm around my shoulder, then opened the taxi door for me.
In the cab I realized that I hadn't asked for an autograph, I didn�t even think of asking him to sign my Hordern ticket & backstage pass that I had on me.
For the next few days I fielded questions such as �Well, did you do it with Ray Davies� from friends & Red Eye staff, I have the suspicious feeling that some were disappointed
when I explained that nothing remotely underhand took place.

40 years on I�m still amazed why Ray singled me out, my Ray Davies experience was so surreal, did it kick off because my mother came from Muswell Hill,
and once we started talking he realized that I wasn�t a rabid gushy fan who would make demands of him, who knows but he must have enjoyed my company enough to spend time with me that
stretched over a day & a half, maybe perhaps because he was depressed at this time he just wanted someone to converse with that he didn�t know from Adam.

This wasn�t the last time I would come in contact with Ray.
We caught up in Sydney December 1995 when he was here for solo shows, he was taken back by how different I now looked now compared to the last time he saw me back in 1982.
when I had long hair whereas I now resembled G.I. Joe.

The next time was London in July 1999 when he sat in front of me at a Patti Smith concert, on seeing me after the show he greeted me with
�Oh, my little friend from Sydney, what you are doing in London�.
The last time was back in Sydney March 2007, I asked him if after all this time he still remembered me, he sang the line "Do You Remember Walter?" to me then laughed.
I�ll write more about those three Ray meetings when uploading the 1995, 2007 Sydney shows plus the two Patti Smith 1999 London gigs.

Cheers,
Waz



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