Kinks frontman Ray Davies on his band's infamous US ban

Legendary Kinks frontman Ray Davies was interviewed by Tom Dunne on Thursday, in advance of his appearance at the Dublin Writers Festival next week.

At the National Concert Hall on Monday, Davies will be giving a special talk in which he explores his difficult relationship with the United States. With the Kinks in the ‘60s Davies played a major role in igniting the so-called ‘British Invasion’ with hits such as ‘You Really Got Me’. However, the group was banned from touring the US for 4 years due to their on stage antics. Many years later, in 2004, he was shot by a mugger in New Orleans. These experiences have informed his new book, Americana: the Kinks, the Road and the Perfect Riff.

During the interview Tom asked Davies if American culture had been an influence on the music of the Kinks. “Well it was originally, because of R ‘n’ B music, Blues, Cajun music, country music...Americana became a quest because we were a band cut off in our prime without fulfilling our potential. It became more of a cause than a music style,” he explained.

What effect did the American ban have on the group’s career?

“It was a big pot of honey…an opportunity to take our careers further and we had that denied to us,” he told Tom.

Davies gave a succinct explanation for the Kink’s American ban…”Bad luck, bad management, bad behaviour”.

“It made me root myself more in Europe, the folk tradition in Britain,” he told Tom.

Perhaps, on the flip side, if that ban hadn’t been implemented, ‘Waterloo Sunset’ would never have been written.

Ray Davies is in interview with Joseph O’Connor at the National Concert Hall, as part of the Dublin Writers Festival, on Monday, May 19th, at 8pm. Tickets can be purchased at www.nch.ie