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While Liam battles on, something of a sign of hope in a miserable world - last night, for the first time in two decades... well, this happened:
Yes, Ray and Dave Davies, on stage, together, doing a Kinks Song. Without anyone getting punched at. This was at the Islington Assembly Hall.
Oh, the horror. Gordon publishes photos today of Ray Davies which might shock you.
KINKS star Ray Davies looks a long way from his Sixties heyday — wearing jogging bottoms that are too short and white socks.Perhaps if the shitty London Media pap who took the long lens shot of him had called him in advance and warned him that he was going to be photographed for no apparent reason in the street, he might have worn a suit. Or perhaps he might have thought "I'm having a quiet day off, going for coffee, why the hell should I lob on a suit just because I once wrote a song about a third party who was a dedicated follower of fashion? After all, there'd be no earthly reason for a national newspaper to run a story about me wearing jogging bottoms, is there?"
Ray Davies has suggested that, since Dave Davies thinks that a Kinks reunion would be a night of the living dead, he'll get the gang back together without him:
"I can understand what he's trying to say. I think it's a reference to comebacks in general."... but, hey, he won't rule out playing with Dave if they ever get a booking at Unicorn Gardens.
He added, "The fortunate thing for me is that I was never a sexy frontman. Dave was always the pretty kid. So maybe he feels that way about himself. But we'll do it without him if we have to. The music is the issue."
Ray also made a sly reference to his guitar-playing sibling's interest in spiritual matters. "I hear Dave's more cosmic than ever. I'm a little more based on planet Earth than certain other members of my family."
Symapthy in the other direction, though, when Ray Davies hung up on a George Lamb interview live on 6Music. Davies, it seems, didn't feel it worth his time answering questions like "are you bald", for some reason.
There are bands which are going concerns and, increasingly, bands which are merely not currently going concerns. The Kinks are now considering making a new album, should the health of Dave Davies and Peter Quaife allow, says Ray:
The Sunday after next, Ray Davies is going to follow in the steps of Prince by giving out free copies of his new album with a Sunday paper. This time, it's The Sunday Times, and Ray is excited:
Ray Davies failed to show up in court for the trial of Jerome Barra, the man accused of shooting him in the leg after trying to steal Davies' girlfriend's bag, which lead to Barra having charges against him dropped.
Davies has complained that he wasn't given enough notice of the court date, and says that he's not happy:
As if you're not having a hard enough time trying to balance out the sixty-three streams of BBC TV programming from the current Glastonbury (all, admittedly, showing Gogol Bordello on differing lengths of time-delay) here's a spot of YouTubeage from the festival ten years ago. Ray Davies, doing Waterloo Sunset:
Also:
Placebo
Radiohead
Beck
The Prodigy
More to come across the weekend
We can understand that having a shrine in your honour taken down and broken up must be upsetting, but since the pub which housed the Kinks corner has gone out of business, it's a bit rich of Ray Davies to complain that the new owners aren't having a corner given over to paying tribute to him:
The slightly bemusing Ivor Novello Awards - Britains' premier (i.e. only) songwriting prizes - have been presented. Two for James Blunt, one for KT Tunstall.
KT was delighted:
"I've been writing songs for 15 years and it's amazing to just sit in your room and do something that you like doing and it turns into this. It gives you a kick up the arse to carry on."
We're saddened to hear that KT felt she was in a need of a kick up the arse - we would have been happy to provide one of those.
The winners in full, then:
BEST SONG MUSICALLY & LYRICALLY
Song: Suddenly I See
Writer/s: KT Tunstall
UK Publisher: Sony / ATV Music Publishing
Performed By: KT Tunstall
PRS MOST PERFORMED WORK
Song: You’re Beautiful
Writer/s: James Blunt // Amanda Ghost // Sacha Skarbek
UK Publisher: Bucks Music Group // EMI Music Publishing
Performed By: James Blunt
BEST TELEVISION SOUNDTRACK
Broadcast: Elizabeth I
Composer: Rob Lane
UK Publisher: Bucks Music Group
OUTSTANDING SONG COLLECTION
Philip Cunningham // Gillian Gilbert // Peter Hook // Stephen Morris // Bernard Sumner (New Order)
BEST SELLING UK SINGLE
Song: That’s My Goal
Writer/s: Jorgen Elofsson // Jeremy Godfrey // Bill Padley
UK Publisher: BMG Music Publishing // Universal Music Publishing
Performed By: Shayne Ward
ALBUM AWARD
Title: Employment
Writer/s: Nick Baines // Nick Hodgson // Simon Rix // Andrew White // Ricky Wilson
Performed By: Kaiser Chiefs
THE IVORS CLASSICAL MUSIC AWARD
Sir Harrison Birtwistle CH
INTERNATIONAL HIT OF THE YEAR
Song: You’re Beautiful
Writer/s: James Blunt // Amanda Ghost // Sacha Skarbek
UK Publisher: Bucks Music Group // EMI Music Publishing
Performed By: James Blunt
BEST ORIGINAL FILM SCORE
Film: Evil
Composer: Francis Shaw
UK Publisher: Copyright Control
BEST CONTEMPORARY SONG
Song: Wires
Writer/s: Joel Pott // Steven Roberts // Timothy Wanstall // Carey Willetts
UK Publisher: Chrysalis Music Publishing
Performed By: Athlete
INTERNATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT
Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull)
SONGWRITERS OF THE YEAR
Damon Albarn // Jamie Hewlett
PRS OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO BRITISH MUSIC
Ray Davies
THE SPECIAL INTERNATIONAL AWARD
Kenny Gamble // Leon Huff
THE ACADEMY FELLOWSHIP
Barry Gibb // Maurice Gibb (Posthumous) // Robin Gibb
Yes. They gave a prize to Athlete, which just goes to prove they've at least got a sense of humour, those Ivor guys.
As Ray Davies launches his solo collection Other People's Lives, he's making sure that he's not slamming the door on his past. He's hinting that he'd be more than happy to make some more Kinks records:
"It's finding a voice after spending most of my life in a band called The Kinks, a wonderful band, I love all the work I've done with them, I hope to do more one day, who knows. I'm not sure, but I did have to find a voice because of being part of that machinery, the technology, the sound, I was part of the sound."
Our ten most-accessed individual pages for the past seven days:
1. Our list of most-read stuff on the site for the previous week
2. Sugababes new line-up starts to implode after a few days
3. The most indie Celeb Big Brother ever gets under way
4. Pete Doherty chalks up a double arrest...
5. ... but had made a clean breast of his earlier offences
6. Putting a price on Pete Burns' face
7. Charlotte Church says only she, Robbie and Liam tell it like it is
8. That May 2004 Britney and Avril falling out. Again
9. Eminem flogs wedding snaps to Hello; says goodbye to cred
=10. BBC casts Jesus as Morrissey
=10. Music industry: we didn't mean home taping was killing music
=10. The Queen calls Ray Davies' attacker a bastard
You might have noticed some disruption to the service this week, as we were moving house and, for the next couple of days, are attempting to blog using BT's awful dial-up, a service which is only beaten for slowness by the speed at which they move Broadband service from one line to another. (The speed, it seems, is dictated entirely by the computer system - which all their helpline staff describe as The Process, like it's actually a living microcommunity. It seems they only have two boxes to choose from in The Process, which means if you want anything other than a very standard service, you're stuffed. We're told our broadband is back on Wednesday - we shall see...)
All this week's posts on a single page
Last week's posts summarised in a single post
And, this week, we plugged...
Gorgeously comprehensive round-up of the last 12 months in alternative music
Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis goes solo
Broken Social Scene topped up with slices of Feist
Oddly, Sing-Sing's second album only seems available as an import through Amazon
The city we never knew: a journey round the tube schemes that never made it - complete with maps
David Morrissey and Spencer Leigh bunk off school and flee to Wales in 1983's One Summer
Bad Seeds double DVD action
All the Bauhaus videos and some live bits and pieces. Cheekbone rating: high.
The reports we've seen frustratingly remove the swearing, but apparently when Ray Davies was picking up the CBE, the Queen swore her head off:
Kinks frontman Ray Davies says he was shocked when Britain's Queen Elizabeth told him, "I hope they catch the (expletive) who shot you."
Wanker? Bastard? Motherfucking cocksucker? Mimsy? What did she say? And does this mean that the Queen is a big Kinks fan? Come Dancing, like at the Palace on a Saturday?
Peter Blake popped up on Radio 4's Today programme a short while ago, still banging on about how he only got two hundred quid for doing the Sgt Pepper album sleeve - "it would have been nice to share in its success" he said, ignoring that it's the piece which has probably underpinned his entire career and is the main reason why he's still sought after today. He does sound curiously like Denis Norden these days.
Anyway, besides muttering that he's been talking about doing a Kinks box set with Ray Davies. he also defended Yoko Ono over the recent attack on Macca. Blake describes her long rant as "a slip of the tongue" - which is like describing endurance skating as "slipping on some ice" - and then concluded that he was sure "she didn't mean to be nasty." He offered no reason as to why he thought this - perhaps he saw pictures of her looking peaky and thought that she'd be acting out character that day.
We didn't really think there was going to be much point in a post to keep track of the Katrina material, because there seemed to be not much to say in a music-related blog about such a horrible event. But then, of course, Kanye West made it very on topic, and stories about benefits came in, and musicians losing homes, friends and family.
We know that The Minor Fall... has a point:
but we have a hard time getting worked up over the fact that some celebrated New Orleans musicians are missing. It seems a bit crass what with all the other New Orleanians missing as well; what's the story here, "Famous People Not Waterproof Either"?
... but, on the other hand, we tend to record when former members of Sigue Sigue Sputnik develop bunions, so it'd be odd not to mention the near-washing away of Fats Domino. Added to which, it's really hard to get an idea of the scale of what's happened - an accurate, firm, sense of the scale, more than "big" or "fucking huge" or "bugger, that's big"; "areas the size of the United Kingdom" and "cities somewhere between the size of Birmingham and Sheffield" are useful but don't really work for us (is a Sheffield a proportion of a Wales?). The growing list of musicians who've lost their life's posessions is a starting point to giving a scale: double that, for builders; double again for bakers and bankers; double again to take into account lube merchants, burger flippers, librarians and florists...
These are the stories so far; we'll keep updating as more come in.
Thursday 1st September
Britney prays, Green Day plays
George Bush plays the guitar as New Orleans drowns
Fats Domino missing
Friday 2nd September
Domino found; Celine offers a million
Alex Chilton missing
Saturday 3rd September
Kanye West departs from the script: George Bush doesn't care about black people
CD Baby rallies to the cause
Sunday 4th September
More Kanye West reactions, while Macy Gray rolls sleeves up
Monday 5th September
Celine Dion - not your normal political beast
Tuesday 6th September
George Bush Sr and Barbara: black people love our son
Michael Jackson announces plans to announce plans to announce plans for a charity single
Wednesday 7th September
Britney offers to auction placenta; Kanye silenced by NFL; Prince makes downloads ready
Alex Chilton is safe
Jay-Z, and Louisianan artists back West
Thursday 8th September
Republican Biloxi residents 3 Doors Down say 'no more blame'; Ray Davies ignores them
Friday 9th September
Laura Bush: Kanye West is disgusting
C-Murder goes missing; is found
Saturday 10th September
Telethon take two; Pepsi keeps fizzing for Kanye
Sunday 11th September
Displaced by Katrina, Gatemouth Brown dies in exile
Tuesday 13th September
Additional benefits: Motley Crue and Linkin Park link up
Jackson: is he actually getting a record together?
Usher defends Kanye; Kanye talks with Ellen
TV On The Radio make statement with free mp3
Wednesday 14th September
Oasis make ill-considered tribute
Telethon audiences somewhat low
Doctor John scoffs at Harry Connick
Monday 19th September
Benefit round-up
Saturday 24th September
Brian Wilson makes that call
Tuesday 18th October
GOP students protest against Kanye
August 2006
Mos Def arrested outside the MTV awards
Ray Davies knows a thing or two about New Orleans, as that's where he was shot and wound up spending time there getting his health back. His criticism isn't reserved for George Bush - although there's an element of that - but for the way the city had been left to rot slowly for years before:
"Why didn't the people who are supposed to be experts on this stuff react sooner? The problem we all know by now is money. Budgets. America's preoccupation with wars overseas. Nobody cares about the poor. Etc, etc," he said.
"It was clear to me ... that something disastrous was on the cards."
During another trip, he was driven to see the pump houses, and noticed that "the whole infrastructure was very fragile".
"The levees seemed insufficient for the amount of water surrounding the city. The roads were uneven and the tap water pressure in most houses was weak," he said. "The whole system appeared improvised."
The singer, who had friends in New Orleans when Katrina struck, added that the city is no longer just an American responsibility.
He said: "Whatever we think of George W Bush, we cannot take it out on the poor and needy in Louisiana and Mississippi. He won't be there in four years. They will."
Meanwhile, there's been no evidence of a national consumer backlash against Kanye West for his NBC telethon Bush critique (or, for those of you convinced he's a moron "his rant"). Far from it, in fact: His album Late Registration has debuted at number one on the US chart; with 800,000 sales that's over double the first week take of his previous album. That's greater than 600,000 more than the second place album, Tony Yayo's Thoughts of Predicate Felon.
Which, of course, will lead to West being accused of publicity stuntage.
As the clean up slowly gets underway, more musicians are sharing their stories of what happened to them. Juvenile's St Tammany Parish house and all his possessions were lost; more grimly, many of his relatives are still missing.
Chopper, who'd been part of Puff Daddy's Making The Band reality team, lost his house; two of his school friends died:
"Two of my high school friends drowned and a couple of my homies got shot out by the police," he said. "I ain't gonna lie, it's a hurtin' feelin'. It's hard for me to cry, but I shed a tear with this one."
And 3 Doors Down - from Biloxi - have had homes destroyed and are still waiting for news of relatives. The Republican band are, like most strict Republicans, trying to move attention away from what went wrong:
"I think we should focus on salvaging the city and worry about pointing fingers later," he said. "We just need to get them out of there. It's a really difficult situation. I don't think people realize how many bridges are in the South and how many bridges go into all those cities. Biloxi, New Orleans, all of the bridges [going in] are gone. It's hard to maneuver in New Orleans anyway. It's just an old-designed city."
Ah, so it was the bridges being down that meant FEMA couldn't think of anything better to do with volunteer firemen than tell them to give out leaflets with a telephone number on or crowd around in the background of Bush's photoshoots, was it? It was the tight corners of the French Quarter that left Mayor Dayley of Chicago frustrated that nobody showed any interest in his offers of help? It was the old architecture of the city that persuaded the government it should lock people in the Conference Centre in the dark, and refuse to let people out the city - or rescuers in?
It's been a slow process, but Ray Davies finally looks set to release his debut solo album. He's signed up with V2 for a release; although he's been working on this for years, it's still going to be a while: he hasn't yet settled on a title or a setlist.
Jerome Barra is a bit of a lucky bloke - he had been due to appear in court to answer charges that he shot Ray Davies in the leg, but Davies says that he's too busy touring to go to New Orleans to testify. Michael Howard is expected to launch his condemnation of this softness on gun crime at about 9.00 this morning.
I'LL STUMBLE FOR YOU: It seems Ray Davies was more seriously injured when he got shot than we were lead to believe; medical advice has lead to him pulling out of this week's Tibert House benefit at Carnegie Hall. He's hoping to be allowed to fly back to the UK "soon."
LISTEN TO YOUR FATHER: Got a problem? No-one else can help you? Ray Davies CBE busy elsewhere? Then why not launch a Task Force. The usual Labour solution to tricky situations - creating a pointless cross-agency partnership body - has been wheeled out to "help" the live music scene (something that wasn't having very much in the way of problems until that new law came in insisting that any place which wanted to put on any live music would have to have an extra licence). The body - led by Fergal Sharkey, from the recently disbanded Radio Authority - will have "a range of experience and expertise to help us [...] identify the barriers to live music being played and find out why some areas thrive while others do not." explained Estelle Morris, the government minister who felt unable to cope with a "proper" department like education but who gamely battles on with the apparently less tricky Culture, Media and Sport portfolio. So, it's not just a bunch of well-fed toffs driving round the country in a bus popping into pubs, then.
