Sunny Afternoon Interesting to hear it without Nicky Hopkins' piano, but of course the song is so strong that it easily survives. Dandy Once again Pete's bass is very prominent, but his skill is enough to get him through this forensic study of his playing. All decent performances, and I'm sure it would have been terrific to be there - as least if you could have heard the band above the screaming kids - but it's not an album that I would pull out to play very often (indeed it's probably 30 years since I last played it!)
It's always worth remembering that the screams are artificially boosted here - they are literally a loop through the album if you pay attention! They're also louder in the stereo mix, though it's a mess whichever way you play it. I'll give this album another spin this afternoon, but it's not one I ever choose to pull out, despite owning the Mono LP box set version & the PRT stereo reissue!
I only ever play this album to remind myself just how bad it is. I never bothered to rip it to my NAS drive when I first got my streamer. I did buy the Reprise (Live Kinks) import vinyl back in the dark past because the Pye album wasn't available. The best thing I can say about it is it has a great photo of the band on the sleeve. I only possess it on cd because it was in the Pye album box set.
I have to wonder. Here's a pic taken during the actual recording. Look at the recording mics -- the large, vertical condensers -- they're pretty close to the vocalists, without a lot of space for room leakage to interfere. Is the bulk of the "hall reverb" something that was added after the fact, along with the looping audience sounds? If yes, I consider that a serious misstep. It makes me all the more hopeful that the raw tapes of this performance will eventually surface, if they still exist.
Listening on headphones to my mono LP compared to the stereo YouTube video is chalk and cheese for sound quality and balance of instruments and vocals. YouTube doesn't show this concert album - imperfect as it is - in its best light.
I agree 100% with you. But didn't things get even worse when they played at places like Bately Variety Club?
Yeah, later 1968 live excursions included a tour of Swedish theme parks in Summer and the UK cabaret circuit that Autumn. :/ They might have made their most celebrated album that year but it was also arguably their nadir as a live attraction.
I did wonder about that... I doubt I will ever listen to this enough, or closely enough to pick up on the loop lol
I have more questions than answers on this album. It sounds like the mic's are at the back of the hall. If those mic's were the recording mic's the vocals at least would/should be clear....
Not sure you understand the insignificance of places like Bately Variety Club to a band like the Kinks in in the late 1960's? It's not "where" it was but "what" it was that's important here. Turning down opportunities to play Woodstock and then performing on the rubber chicken circuit is not a good look. I live in London but I'm not a Londoner, not even a Brit, so the North/South thing is irrelevant to me.
I was gonna write that's what I like the best about the album. The sheer excitement, the energy level, of both the performance AND the screaming. As a piece of recording, the album doesn't hold too much value to me but I've alway enjoyed it as a "document" of the adrenaline level the band could generate at the time. And then I read this : …and now I wish I'd never read it !
Kelvin Hall I had an early CD copy 30 years ago and likely sold it within 5 years vowing to never buy it again.......... It's not quite that bad but iam still yet to pony up for another physical copy as my bones got more brittle than the guitars! I remember that I would put it on and only play the 3 cuts I enjoyed which included Sunny Afternoon, You Really Got Me & one other. Of course as stated up thread the softer and quieter the song the better it comes off and all those years ago to be fair, I was not familiar with all of the material. My favourite recording related to this is Dave Davies on the BBC being asked to comment about the albums (imminent) release and he very jovialy says something like; "It should be a laugh!"
Not only did The Live Kinks come out a half year earlier in the States, it was still in print in the early 1980s when I bought my first copy. This & the Stones' live set from 1966, Got Live If You Want It were the only legit examples of live albums of the major British Invasion groups until the Beatles At The Hollywood Bowl finally came out in 1977. I currently have the 1998 stereo/mono CD of this album, which is definitely pretty sloppy playing while competing w/the audience. I must say that the set list was more varied than the Beatles' in their last tour & the last medley was good. I also think that there should have been more songs judging from the rather abrupt ending of the album. I think that a remixed version would be a great addition to a Something Else Super Deluxe Box Set, although I do play One From The Road more often to get my live Kinks Kicks.
I think that it was about this time that the Kinks played in Beirut, Lebanon. It was a few years before the Lebanese Civil War, but I've read that they had a trying time there.
And it had a different cover than the UK version....with no indication the album is actually titled "Live at Kelvin Hall." Plus Ray is making a face so strange that if someone told me that wasn't him, I would believe it... EDIT: Tried to post LP cover. No luck. I'm a dunce at this kind of thing....
That was in May 1969 I think, just after John Dalton rejoined and just before the Arthur sessions. An utterly strange out of the blue foreign gig. Ray describes it a bit in his 1st autobiography, but I’ve always thought there was the makings of a full investigative article there. I’m particularly intrigued by the local TV show that Ray claims they were due to appear on there, where Dave and Dalton were no-shows so the producer told Ray and Mick to ‘spread out’!
Had there been an obvious tongue in cheek emoji I would have used it. Instead, I will now spell out that my comment was fully tongue in cheek.
An "orgy for ears" on the US copy is hilarious.... I can only assume that means you have the blanket wrapped around your head.... I don't want to think about it lol
Stanley, Stanley, Stanley, it's rather easy to do: Another thought that I had is that the liner notes to The Live Kinks tried to tie them w/the Monterey Pop festival, which just happened & in which their US record label cleaned up w/their signing of Jimi Hendrix. I not sure if they were ever invited & probably the travel ban was still in effect, but I wonder how they would have gone down if they did play there. The British acts that did play there did very well for themselves at the festival themselves & afterwards.
This site is more stupid than you are. You can’t actually post an image, you have to post a valid link to one. If you have a jpeg, for example, you need to upload it to an open image sharing service like Imgur then paste the Imgur url in the image field.
I suppose it's Ray's fault for writing too many "Day" songs that they end up getting listed wrongly on album sleeves! "An Orgy For Ears" - is that meant to entice you in??
