LIVE REVIEW : SUNNY AFTERNOON AT THE HAMPSTEAD THEATRE 10/05/2014

With the announcement of the shows transfer to the west end next October it's more than time that I published my review of the performance I saw last month... I must admit that I didn't have high expectations on this musical but as I'm huge Kinks fan I simply couldn't miss it. It had some official band input in it as it's based on a story by Ray Davies and I was curious how it would compare to "Let It Be", the lousy "musical" about The Beatles I went to see last year. The show's first run from the 24th of April till the 25th of May at The Hampstead Theatre and following its success will be reprised at the Harold Pinter Theatre in October.

The Hampstead Theatre is a small venue with only 325 seats and we were right in the middle with a perfect view of the stage. The story starts with the beginning of the band when they were playing dances and parties backing future manager Robert Wace. It then charts their rapid ascension to fame following the release of You Really Got Me and the numerous problems they had with the music industry culminating with the band being banned from touring america for 5 years. Despite a couple a couple of inaccuracies and a few historical short cuts, the play is rather splendid with really good historical detail. All the main players in the Kinks 60's story are there (impresario Larry Parnes, Music publisher Eddie Kassner, producer Shel Talmy, managers Robert Wace and Greenville Collins, Rasa Davies and all the members of the Davies clan). Ray (really good performance by John Dalgeish) is pictured as the thoughtful, shy one while Dave (played a bit heavy handedly by George Maguire) is pictured as a raving lunatic, only interested in partying and raising hell. The songs are perfectly slotted into the story and some more obscure Kinks tracks get an airing (who would have thought they'd manage to fit Maximum Consumption, from 1972's Everybody's in Showbiz album). It's a musical so everything is slightly tweaked to come up with a happy ending thus bypassing several important elements (Pete Quaife the bass player leaving two times and being replaced by John Dalton for example) and as the show culminates with the band playing Lola at the Madison Square Garden, it conveniently skips the hit and miss Rock Opera albums of mid seventies and Ray Davies public breakdown during an open air gig in London in 1973.

Nevertheless it's a remarkably entertaining show which made excellent use of its cast (who double on instruments and acting parts for most of them) and set with good historical detail and a good story. It's more than a jukebox musical. Don't miss it when it plays in the west end !!!

LIVE REVIEW : DAVE DAVIES AT THE BARBICAN 11/04/2014

After returning to the stage in the US last year, Dave Davies made his  UK comeback at The Barbican last Friday, 13 years after his last concert in this country. Following a stroke that almost cost him his life in 2004, he had to relearn to speak and play guitar.

I'd thought that the choice of venue was maybe a bit optimistic capacity wise. When Dave last played in London in 2001 it was at Dingwall's in Camden (a much smaller venue) but the stalls in The Barbican were pretty full up by the time opening act Laura Howe and Pixi Morgan came on stage at 7.30. They first met Dave Davies at the beginning of this year while they were busking on the streets of Devizes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-UUt57LJ0k&feature=share), after which he offered them the opening slot of his gig at The Barbican. Blending covers and originals over their 40 minutes slot, they displayed remarkable vocal interplay (Pixi's singing was similar to The Dubliners) and won the crowd over with their enthusiasm and freshness.  

Dave's backing band came on stage to the sound of a rather pompous intro music and then launched into a hard rock version of The Kinks 1966 B-Side "I'm Not Like Everybody Else". Dave joined them in the middle of the song and then plunged straight away into "I Need You" which was followed by "She's Got Everything". While the first song has been a live staple in Ray Davies's set list over the past few years, it was nice to hear some lesser known Kinks songs. We got to hear "Young and Innocent Days","Strangers" , "Susannah's Still Alive", "Creeping Jean". The hits weren't ignored with Dave's signature Kinks song "Death Of a Clown" getting an airing (slightly spoilt by an unnecessary dig from Dave to bass/keyboard player Tom Currier). Songs from the latest album weren't particularly great (I'd have to check the recorded versions to formulate a definitive opinion) but "Flowers in The Rain" from Dave's 2002 Bug album was as good as any Kinks song. After finishing the main set with fine versions of "Where Have All The Good Times Gone" and "All Day and All Of The Night", Dave came back to close his vibrant UK return with The Kinks mosty well known song "You Really Got Me".