LIVE REVIEW : RAY DAVIES AT FAIRFIELD HALLS CROYDON 10/10/2012

At first I was planning to go and see Ray in a more glamorous setting (the Royal Albert hall) but there was a date clash with the Joe Pernice gig at the Wilmington Arms (more on that later on...) so I opted for the Fairfield Halls in Croydon. The place was built in the sixties so it has this concrete "soviet-union" block look (not too different from the recently demolished theatre in Le Mans).

I arrived just in time to catch support act James Walbourne  who was playing with his wife Kami Thompson (daughter of Richard Thompson). They played a mixture of James's solo tunes and songs from the band they have together called The Dead Flamingos). James's guitar playing is really good but it's always tough to be the support act to someone who has written so many great songs.

After a break where the fifty plus age range audience was offered the possibility to buy some ice cream (rock'n'roll !!!), Ray arrived on stage. He seemed really happy to be there (quite unlike the last time I had seen him in a Spanish festival where he had greeted the crowd with : "it's not exactly beatlemania here tonight".  The first part of the show was an electro-acoustic set with guitar player Bill Shanley featuring Kinks hits with several requests from Ray for audience participation (how to ruin a song by Ray Davies part one). I was sitting beside an old lady who was perverse enough to sing out of tune AND out of synch with everybody. In the midst of old Kinks favourites (This is where I belong, Autumn Almanach, Sunny Afternoon...), we got the one solo song of the night (In a moment). The full band came in the middle of Dead End Street. Things started to go a bit downhill from there unfortunately. I think Ray was having difficulties dealing with the volume and there were a couple of songs where he really struggled to stay in tune (and remember the words also on Oklahoma USA). I think the only issue was the volume because Ray's singing was perfect in the acoustic part. Nevertheless we were treated to fine renditions of All Day and all of the night, Where have all the good times gone and Till the End of the Day. The gig had started a bit late so we got only one song for the second encore (Lola), instead of the usual three on the tour (Lola, You really got me and Come Dancing).

In the end a good gig but Ray would definitely benefit from playing smaller (but more appreciative) audiences where he could perform more of his solo albums and lesser known Kinks album tracks (not one song from "The village green preservation society" album apart from Days was played in Croydon)