Golden Oldies
KINKY MEMORIES
One spring evening in the mid-sixties, a group of school friends and I went to see the Kinks at the Granada Cinema in Walthamstow, London. In those days, cinemas doubled up as venues for live acts.
It was the first time I’d been allowed to go to a concert without adult supervision, as my parents were worried about the horror stories of young people being crushed as they surged to the stage to get close to their idols. However, I was under strict instructions to meet my lovely dad outside the cinema as soon as the concert finished.
The show was everything we had hoped for, with Ray and Dave Davies living up to their reputations, both musically and sartorially, in their velvet jackets and frilly shirts! As the evening came to an end, I noticed that it had finished ahead of time and I told my friends, ‘I’m going to find Ray.’
I walked round the side of the cinema to find that the ten-foot-high iron gates, usually kept locked, had been left open. So I approached a partially frosted ground-floor window. To my amazement, the small top window was open and I could see and hear Ray Davies talking.
Just as I realised my good fortune, a burly bouncer approached. I threw my autograph book through the window and shouted for Ray to sign quickly and return it. Sadly, the bouncer reached me before the book and I was duly launched outside the gate into the arms of my rather angry dad.
Fast-forward about 40 years and, still an ardent Kinks fan, I went with a friend to see Ray’s solo performance at the Ipswich Regent. After the concert, as my friend and I were waiting for her husband to collect us, a stretch limo slowly glided to a halt in front of us, the electric window slid down – and there was Ray!
Without a moment’s hesitation, I explained that I had given him my autograph book over 40 years earlier and it hadn’t been returned. Ray immediately saw the joke. He smiled that thin, Ray Davies smile and pretended to retrieve the book from his jacket’s inside pocket. At which point, a ‘minder’ once again intervened, saying, ‘That’s enough,’ and the blackened window closed.
So Ray, if by any chance you read The Oldie, can I have my book back, please?