If you've had a really strong Madras Curry earlier in the day, and push for those high power notes, it could be quite literal
Belly Up - Dave Davies Live I normally start by saying 'I bought this on release...' but no, I had, as I thought enough live Dave Davies in my collection. It was also released during a spell when money (that's what I want) was tight. So I don't have this one, nor the next 'Around The Galaxy'. I felt that there wasn't enough to tempt me after buying all the previous live releases. I guess it would be nice to have a live version of 'Unfinished Business' for my 'Best of Dave Davies - Live' compilation - which I want to keep to a single CD, but unless it appears somewhere, it's not looking likely to happen. It seems unlikely that these two live albums will be added to my collection - more because they're rare as hens teeth, than anything else. I think in real time, Dave had over-saturated the rather small market he had for his live releases.
Belly Up! (part four) As the show is reaching its final part, the energy level is high but it also starts to sound like Dave's voice is getting more and more ragged. "All Day and All of the Night" still sounds very good and the audience's enthusiasm reflects that. If I had been at the gig, the rather underwhelming cover of "Money (That's What I Want)" would have made me look at my watch and ponder when the last subway home departs and when I need to leave the venue. To my ears it sounds like the band rushes through the song and that Dave throws whatever is left of his voice at the song. The combined effect is in my opinion that it makes them sound like a second-rate covers band doing a sloppy and tired version of a once-good song. And even worse, the energy they've wasted on doing this unnecessary cover affects the next song, "David Watts". I really like that song and normally it would have been a thrill to hear it at a gig but here it just sounds too rushed. The gig regains some of its momentum with a quite strong version of the reflective "Unfinished Business". At the time it was unreleased and if I had been at the gig it would have made me pay attention again. It's such a great song! The opening riff of "You Really Got Me" would have made me certain it would be the last song of the gig, so I would withdraw towards the venue's wardrobe as much as possible, hoping to beat the post-gig queue. To my ears, this is just the zillionth of versions of this particular song and not that exciting to hear. So while overall the "Belly Up!" CD shows how great Dave's early gigs as a solo artist were, it does lose some momentum towards the end. The later recorded "Rock Bottom" CD shows that Dave learned from this and became more adept at pacing himself to maintain energy better throughout a gig.
From the valley below? Ok 'twas not the K Pop type i was referring to, Dave was just tired and wailing for you!
Come Dancing The Musical. With 20 new songs, Come Dancing, the musical ran at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, London in September–November 2008. From the British Theater Guide - Theatre review: Come Dancing at Theatre Royal, Stratford East 'Come Dancing,' a 1980's hit for The Kinks, was a nostalgic look back to the 1950s that was inspired by Ray Davies' memories of his elder sisters' visits to the Palais. In this new musical he takes us back to tell the story behind the song and it is very much his show. There are two other Kinks numbers you may have heard before but this is not a musical made up of recycled songs from the group's back catalogue. It is a freshly-conceived show in which tuneful new numbers follow the story - not the other way round! Though having its inspiration in Davies's own background, it presents a fictional family: a former big-band singer, her husband and her three daughters and the then ten-year old son and their friends. The story is told by their ten-year-old brother, looking back from fifty years later and played by Davies himself. It begins on the eighteenth birthday of Julie, the youngest of the sisters who has suffered from polio, preparing for her first outing to the Ilford Palais. The other sisters' boyfriends and the rock band they form, the crooning dance band leader with whom their mother used to sing and a young black saxophonist, whom Julie falls for, are also a big part of what happens. It all takes place at a time when there is still a bomb-site next to the Palais and Britain has not quite thrown off post-war austerity. A time when Rock and Roll was gaining ground over the show bands and the crooners, when there was 'a new beat about to hit the street.' In his tuneful new songs Davies ranges from ballads and a snatch of calypso to ear-splitting electric rock, complete with tea-chest bass, some classy jazz singing from big-voiced Wendy Mae Brown and even a point number about new towns as one of the sisters and her husband think of moving out to Stevenage. The stage is a dance hall lined with patrons at tables which spill over into the front of the stalls. Its red walls make it one with the theatre auditorium, with chandelier and glitter ball above and the band under MD Robert Hyman raised at the back on a platform from which band leader Frankie and his singers can dominate the scene, or try to. From big skirted frocks to teddy boy jackets it looks the period (designers Harriet Barsby and Jenny Tiramani) and Omar Okai's choreography captures the essence of the dances of the time while not seeming in any way old-fashioned. This is retro styling at its best and a wonderfully spirited cast give it all they have got to the audience's delight -- whether the crooning of Alasdair Harvey's lemon-jacketed Frankie, with his tired tag lines and billed acts who never seem to turn up, or the rockers: reformed Borstal Boy Tosher, Basil and Sid (Marcus Ellard, Anthony Flaum and Stephen Lloyd). This is a show that is full of hopeful confidence: 'If you believe in things enough they can come true - sometimes.' Rose and Arthur (Katey Munroe and Bradley Clarkson) never got to Stevenage, but they did take a £10 passage to Australia. But Davies and Paul Sirett's book also gives us a world when opportunities are often closed to Essex girls and youths, where racism rears its ugly head and a knife can seem a solution to a problem - things have not changed that much in half a century we are reminded. Such things are implicit in the story and are not laboured, even a dark secret in the family is not explored for this is a relatively simple story line that follows the experience of Gemma Salter's delightful, innocent Julie and her love for her black saxophonist, played by Delroy Atkinson,who may be short and stocky but has a giant-sized charisma -- how could anyone not fall for him! Director Kerry Michael has given it an unfussy minimalist production that concentrates on the numbers, especially in the first half when there seems to be less dialogue and action, but the second half brings stronger dramatic impact. It is still simply presented, but I have rarely been more touched than when he places two doomed young lovers standing motionless as a revolve takes them slowly round the stage. Though Davies nostalgically remembers the smell of the old Palais: 'Brylcreem, stale cigarettes, beer and cheap perfume - the best smell in the world,' that's one thing that perhaps we can be glad was lacking, but what this show does give you is a Saturday Night Out, whichever day of the week you chose to go. At Stratford until 25th October 2008 Reviewer: Howard Loxton -------------------------------------------------------------- For My Big Sister: Ray Davies' Come Dancing and the Making of a Musician Kinks’ Ray Davies Comes Dancing in Own Musical | WhatsOnStage Ray Davies comes dancing Ray Davies to Star in London’s Come Dancing -------------------------------------------------------------- Down the bottom of the page here are a lot of articles and reviews about Come Dancing The Musical Kinks Articles
Come Dancing The Musical - The actual show. We open with a sung introduction, that leads into So Tired Of Waiting For You. Tired Of Waiting For You . We get a short piece of this Klassik Kinks track, and it slides straight into Come Dancing. We start with the chorus and this ends up being a short scene setting version also. Narrator. Here we have Ray introducing the theme based around the idea of watching his older sister going dancing. He introduces some of the cast and also speaks of his sisters. Then we get the first bit of acting as mother calls for daughter to get herself together, because they're in a hurry. Big Sister. This song takes the form of a an old type swing/jazz type track. We have Ray singing the opening and then the characters take over moving on with the storyline. We get some scene setting and plot development and then A New Beat/Rhythm. We get this swinging rock and roll R&B track, with a solid almost gospel vocal from a lady. Saturday Night. A narrative driving song that gets sung by a couple of the guys in the play. -------------------- So what we essentially have are song pieces and character narratives that mix and match through the show. I guess it takes the form of a traditional musical play. Although it would obviously work better with visuals, I think in general the way it is presented somewhat paints a picture in itself. -------------------- When The Band Begins To Play . This works as an intro to the Palais and we get a gregarious MC, doing the sort of MC stand up kind of routine one expects from a play in this form. Penny For Your Thoughts . The MC sings a small portion of this older style sounding song. We have the characters moving the character development and narrative forward. Because I'm Yours. This takes the form of a song sung at the Palais by the MC and Annie Waller. Stevenage. Stevenage is a town 27 miles north of London. I've Got A Knife Decent track that essentially works as character development. ----------------------------------------------------- This is the first 31 minutes of the play. I'm not sure how interested everyone is going to be, but it seems like doing this in four sections will give anyone interested enough time to take in what we have here... but also for folks not very interested, we won't take up too much time, in terms of days on the thread. It seems to me that this is an interesting little play that develops as we go along, and although it would be much easier to digest if we had video, I think the general idea comes across. The audio quality is certainly good enough for our purposes.
I can't seem to link it, but the only photos I can seem to find at the moment are from a facebook page "Ray Davies Come Dancing, The Musical that Belongs On Broadway" or something like that
Wonders of the Thread. As we were discussing all things Kinks, somewhere in the cold winter days of early 2022, the Come Dancing musical pops us in the conversation. Was it during the 80 Days days ? It reminded me of reading about it in rock magazines back in 2008 and thinking “oh yeah, a Kinks musical with old songs re-done as West End numbers – not for me, this”. Months after this, late last summer, a much-esteemed member of the club mentions in a post being in possession of a double CD bootleg of the thing. PM’s are exchanged. Internet helping, copies are exchanged too. By “the thing”, I mean, 49 tracks, two hours of music. About 20 all new (to me) Ray Davies songs! Stupor. The much-esteemed member of the club warns me that the sound’s not too great and points in the direction of one bona fide "complete" Ray song, just one. Miracle, it’s the one I’d been looking for all these years, called A Better Thing (or Let Her Grow), which I saw Ray sing in the studio, in a TV documentary somewhere, a long time ago, not suspecting it was from this musical !! After this find, I put it aside as a curio, with the YT version of 80 Days sung by the cast… not my thing, this ! And then Mark announced that we’d spend a few days on it. And so I listened with more attention and surprise! (this is the Thread of surprises, isn’t it ?) Ray’s there all through the show!!! He speaks, he introduces, he’s the narrator throughout, a mix between his Soap Opera and Storyteller styles. But more importantly, he SINGS. Not only A Better Thing, but more tunes, fragments etc. And the songs are great! Not 49 songs, but about half a dozen little snippets sung by Ray, and another half a dozen excellent melodic tunes sung by the cast. Bring on the discussion, @Mark! And bring on the demos… someone!!!!
Would you be withdrawing to the wardrobe thinking the Belly Up checked coats only to learn the man you handed it to outside the door was a tramp performing his Act 1 leaving you hoping there wasn't a change in the weather!
I gave the audio a listen. I suppose if Ray was going to build a musical around only one of his songs, then "Come Dancing" was a good choice in that it has a definite story to it. Ray is the narrator so he is basically in Storyteller mode in this role. And when he does perform 'Tired Of Waiting For You", he cannot help falling into performer mode and encouraging the audience to sing along. I found the other songs were not typical Ray songs because they were written for a musical and are designed to tell a story whereas a typical Ray song usually has more layers to it. It makes perfect sense Ray would be interested in a dramatic presentation based around his work (just like another Londoner Pete Townshend) and it was interesting to hear a performance in which Ray was the central performer.
I think the character « Frankie » introduced in the song When the Band Begins to Play refers to one of Ray’s uncles, a «wild boy» he claimed was one of the inspirations of his mustachioed dandy character in the Come Dancing/Don’t Forget to Dance videos. You know, not a gangster but a dandy creature of the night, we also saw shades of in the Sleepwalker/Poseur era. It’s really remarkable how Ray’s creative vision seems to have been defined by his childhood. Probably because of the age difference with the big sisters who, from his perspective, belonged to a lost past and had seen if not better, at least more romantic days than he ever could. It’s like he never really gotten around the fact he was lucky to be a sixties guy…
I wonder how Ray’s family felt about having their story put out … over and over again? I enjoyed this first part. “Uncle” (honorary) Frank, the MC. Annie, the Storyteller’s mom. The reference that at least Stevenage isn’t Australia. The cruelty of calling Julie a cripple to her face pisses me off…but it’s the story and I don’t doubt it happening. In short, it is drawing me in…just like it’s supposed to.
Just a mention that the Bob Dylan page expectingrain.com has a story entitled Dave Davies Admits Brotherly Brawls Were A Constant In The Kinks posted today.
I’m sorry as I’m sure this will already have been covered above and I missed it, but how are we covering the studio versions of the 3 Come Dancing songs (Big Sister, Stevenage and Space) that are on the Arthur box? Will they be covered on one of the Come Dancing days?
New appreciation by sometime Dr Who writer Gareth Roberts in the right leaning UK paper The Spectator. Gareth has been involved in a lot of culture wars nonsense in recent years but fortunately he doesn’t lay it on too thick here and it’s pretty even handed celebration (other than very lightly dismissing The B*atles). The very British Kinks
“Ray looks worried even when he is promising to love you all day (and all of the night). Dave looks like he’s won the pools even when he’s singing about an alcoholic clown expiring alone.”
“When they finally caught up with and arrested him, Mick tried to deny it all. “But the cops turned round and said ‘Mr Avory, we’ve got 5,000 witnesses!'"
I had a listen to the first half hour this morning while at work. Not being a dedicated follower of musicals (I don't think I've ever seen one in the flesh), is it customary to have an audience singalong in the opening minute? This probably goes down as one of those things that I might have gone to see, had I known of its existence, just because it was Ray Davies, but under any other circumstance wouldn't have gone near! There are some fragments of songs in there which sound promising, but then they go all "musical-ly". I haven't yet heard any song fragments that I like as much as anything in 80 Days, and and it doesn't have the musical content of Soap Opera. Things may well change over the next 90 minutes, though! The only other musical reference to Stevenage that I've ever heard is in Morrissey's "Maladjusted".
Re: customary. I don’t know but, per the reviewer’s description of the staging, it seems “The stage is a dance hall lined with patrons at tables which spill over into the front of the stalls.” So I get the idea that having actors basically elbow-to-elbow with the audience may well have helped prompt this audience participation.
