John Peel Wiki

Changes to the look of John Peel Wiki will take place in the near future due to a new skin being rolled out over Oct/Nov across Wikia. Please see the Wikia Staff Blog for further details. On this site, the changes will affect the navigation from the left menu, as well as introduce a fixed page width with narrower content space. Please be patient while adjustments are made for the switch to the new system.

UPDATE: As the change is now in force for some users, I have switched the navigation to the simplified one for the new system. Please check Navigation in the Help section if you can't find things. I also initially made small adjustments to the front page layout, but have now reverted to the old look until all users are on the new system.

COUNTDOWN: Just a reminder for people still using Monaco that the final switch to the new skin is due on Nov. 3. After that, it will no longer be offered as an option. Sorry. Nothing to do with me.

Steve W

READ MORE

John Peel Wiki
Advertisement
in: Artists, Covered

Kinks

Sign in to edit

The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Dave Davies and Ray Davies in 1963. The Kinks, who rose to fame during the mid-1960s and were part of the British Invasion of the US, are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock groups of the era.

The Kinks first came to prominence in 1964 with their third single, "You Really Got Me", written by Ray Davies. It became an international hit, topping the charts in the United Kingdom and reaching the Top 10 in the United States (...) The Kinks had five Top 10 singles on the US Billboard chart. Nine of their albums charted in the Top 40. In the UK, the group had seventeen Top 20 singles and five Top 10 albums. Four of their albums have been certified gold by the RIAA. Among numerous honours, they received the Ivor Novello Award for "Outstanding Service to British Music". In 1990, the original four members of The Kinks were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, as well as the UK Music Hall of Fame in November 2005 (read more at Wikipedia)

Links to Peel[]

The Kinks' run of hit singles coincided with Peel's time working as a DJ in the US. During 1966, when he was working at KMEN under the name John Ravencroft, Kinks singles regularly appeared in the station's charts, with "A Well Respected Man" reaching number 2 in the main chart in February, and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", "Sunny Afternoon" and "Dead End Street" featuring in both the station chart and Ravencroft/Peel's own "K/Men British Pop Ten", "Sunny Afternoon" topping the British chart of 29 July. Despite this, Peel seemed to like them less than their British contemporaries such as the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Yardbirds and the Who, who were played far more often on the DJ's shows on Radio London and the BBC.

Nevertheless, the Kinks recorded four sessions for the John Peel show between 1967 and 1974, with musicians Ray Davies, Dave Davies and Mick Avory present for all three. These were originally included on the 2001 double album BBC Sessions and subsequently on the lavish 2012 box set The Kinks At The BBC. The band became unfashionable with the British underground audience of the late 1960s, but developed a cult status with some American rock critics, who enthused over Ray Davies's songwriting. Peel played a number of tracks by them on his shows in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when they were becoming more successful as an album band.

The Kinks retained their reputation as a key 1960s band in subsequent decades and were often seen as an influence on the Britpop movement, of which Peel was wary (he would embrace Blur only when they moved away from their previously strong Kinks influences). Ray Davies's song "Victoria" was covered in 1988 by Peel favourites The Fall (and subsequently by Sonic Youth in their "Fall covers" Peel session). But John later admitted that he preferred the Kinks "best in their earlier days, when they were sort of verging on being an R&B band." [1] This might reflect a general antipathy on his part towards a certain kind of "Englishness" in pop and rock music (hence perhaps also his lack of enthusiasm, compared to his friend and colleague Andy Kershaw, for the works of Robyn Hitchcock, who once said on one of Kershaw's programmes - although citing British music press journalists rather than Peel specifically - that the antipathy towards him by people of Peel's social and educational background reflected, in his view, a sort of cultural embarrassment at their origins). What is more, some of Ray Davies's lyrics, which portray individuals struggling against bureaucracy and the civil service, or express distaste for the modern world and nostalgia for earlier times, have been quoted with approval by right-wing critics, and interpreted as assertions of Tory values; it is very unlikely that Peel, as a man of the left, would have been unaware of this tendency.

Sessions[]

1. Recorded: 1967-10-25. First broadcast: 29 October 1967. Repeated: 26 November 1967.

  • David Watts / Sunny Afternoon / Susannah's Still Alive / Autumn Almanac / Mr. Pleasant / Harry Rag

2. Recorded: 1968-07-01. First broadcast: 07 July 1968. Repeated: 04 August 1968.

  • Days / Monica / Love Me Till The Sun Shines / Waterloo Sunset

3. Recorded: 1972-05-05. First broadcast: 16 May 1972. Repeated: 04 July 1972.

  • Holiday / Supersonic Rocket Ship / Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues / Skin And Bone

4. Recorded: 1974-06-06. First broadcast: 11 July 1974. Repeated: 08 August 1974, 16 August 1977.

  • Money Talks / Demolition / Mirror Of Love

Show Appearances (Excluding Sessions)[]

Kinks
KMEN British Pop Top Ten
  • 15 Apr 1966: Dedicated Follower Of Fashion (2)
  • 22 Apr 1966: Dedicated Follower Of Fashion (4)
  • 29 Apr 1966: Dedicated Follower Of Fashion (7)
  • 01 Jul 1966: Sunny Afternoon (9)
  • 08 Jul 1966: Sunny Afternoon (9)
  • 15 Jul 1966: Sunny Afternoon (2)
  • 22 Jul 1966: Sunny Afternoon (2)
  • 29 Jul 1966: Sunny Afternoon (1)
  • 05 Aug 1966: Sunny Afternoon (2)
  • 12 Aug 1966: Sunny Afternoon (5)
  • 10 Dec 1966: Dead End Street (6)
  • 17 Dec 1966: Dead End Street (8)
  • 24 Dec 1966: Dead End Street (5)
  • 31 Dec 1966: Dead End Street (4)
  • 07 Jan 1967: Dead End Street (3)
  • 14 Jan 1967: Dead End Street (3)
  • 21 Jan 1967: Dead End Street (3)
  • 28 Jan 1967: Dead End Street (6)
Dave Davies

Covered[]

(The list below was compiled only from the Cover Versions page of this site. Please add more information if known.)

Artist | Track | First Known Play

See Also[]

Links[]

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
Advertisement