Brecon Jazz Festival 2015

Ray Davies and Band, The Grolsch Market Hall, 07/08/2015.

After commencing my 2015 visit to Brecon Jazz Festival by witnessing an intimate duo performance by pianist Kenny Barron and bassist Dave Holland I decided to opt for something completely different with this show from the former front man of The Kinks, singer, guitarist and songwriter Ray Davies. 

Of course the true jazz option would have been to visit Brecon Cathedral where singer Norma Winstone was leading her acclaimed trio with Italian pianist Glauco Venier and German reeds player Klaus Gesing. However I felt that two concerts of “chamber jazz” back to back might be a bit much, plus I’d also seen Norma sing fairly recently as part of pianist Nikki Iles’ wonderful Printmakers band.

So instead I opted for a man of the same vintage as Barron and Holland, another musician worthy of the “living legend” tag, albeit in a very different musical field. OK, so Ray Davies isn’t a jazz musician, but tell me, how can you not like The Kinks?

Brecon has a history of putting on shows by non jazz acts that initially raise the eyebrows of the jazz aficionados but which pull in the crowds and often result in triumphant performances that even the most hardcore of jazz fans can appreciate. I remember a collaboration between the Festival (then under a previous management regime) and the Fringe that saw folk/rock musician Seth Lakeman deliver a storming show in the Market Hall back in 2009. Tonight’s performance by Ray Davies was a sell out with the newly sponsored Grolsch Market Hall filled with expectant fans.

I don’t intend to delve into Davies’ illustrious career as tonight’s show was something of a retrospective in itself, a trawl through the Kinks back catalogue that contained virtually all the hits plus one or two surprises. As I said previously Davies is of a similar age to Kenny Barron and Dave Holland yet it never even crossed my mind that those two could fail to deliver. In the case of ageing rockers one is far more more sceptical, but as it turned out Davies delivered the goods in spades, still in fine voice, looking lithe and trim and still a commanding and charismatic front man with the same kind of ready wit that peppers his songs. And what songs they are, as this near two hour show revealed Davies has penned some absolute classics, songs that have become part of the British national consciousness. 

As the lights dimmed Davies’ five backing musicians sidled onto the stage to introductory music that seemed to come from the Louisiana bayous rather than Swinging London. Guitarist Billy Shanley teased the audience by slamming out the familiar opening chords of “You Really Got Me” but as Davies himself took to the stage for ‘le grand entrance’ the song metamorphosed into “I Need You”, another early Kinks hit.

The sound was a little muddy and indistinct to start and as Davies and the band moved on into “Where Have All The Good Times Gone?” I began to wonder if maybe I should have opted for the crystalline tones of Norma Winstone instead. However full credit to the guys behind the mixing desk who quickly cleaned up the sound and achieved a much more satisfactory balance. I suspect that they were probably part of Davies’ entourage as opposed to ‘in house’ sound engineers, anyway well done guys.

Thins began to look up with an authentically angry sounding “I’m Not Like Everybody Else” which was introduced by a searing passage of lead guitar from the Cork based Shanley, the star instrumentalist in a tightly drilled band that also included keyboards, bass, drums and a younger second guitarist who mainly played rhythm but was also granted the occasional lead break. Davies himself also played some guitar, both acoustic and electric. Davies did introduce the band but the names were lost amongst the crowd noise and they’ve proved more difficult to track down on line than I’d anticipated.

Next up we had a veritable medley of hits as Davies began to work the crowd. “Tired Of Waiting Of You” has another killer riff and was ripe for a little call and response with the audience. So too was an acoustic “Dedicated Follower Of Fashion”, one verse of which Davies sang in the style of Johnny Cash to much general hilarity. The crowd were well up for it by now and sang along gleefully to the camped up vaudevillian revelries of “Sunny Afternoon” and bellowed out the chorus to the sharply observed urban vignette that is “Dead End Street”. You don’t need me to describe these songs any further, like the hits of The Beatles they’ve virtually become a kind of contemporary folk music. “Victoria” is only slightly less well known and has another great sing along chorus. 

Davies has always been a sharp social commentator as was evidenced by the lyrics of songs such as “20th Century Man”, “Till The End Of The Day” and “Misfits”, a song written on the road in the USA, a country which once banned The Kinks from touring for four years. Famous (or infamous) for their establishment baiting live shows during their early days The Kinks were also barred from playing in nearby Neath, a ban that Davies maintained is still in place to this day! 

Next up was the latter day Kinks hit “Come Dancing”, a charming piece of personal nostalgia which Davies wrote in tribute to his six older sisters, all habitués of London’s ‘palais’ de dance’ during the 1950s when young Ray was growing up. He also touched on his bitter, fractious relationship with his younger brother Dave, former lead guitarist with The Kinks. Theirs is a long running sibling rivalry that makes the Gallagher brothers’ familiar familial spats look almost tame by comparison. It’s also the reason why a full blown Kinks revival has never happened. The song “A Long From Home” with dynamic changes that ranged from country tinged acoustic to all out rock seemed to be a musical expression of the Davies brothers tempestuous relationship.

Despite the infamous ban and the fact that he’s seen as a quintessentially English songwriter Davies has always harboured a fascination for the music and culture of the United States. Indeed he’s recently been working on a project titled “Americana” and the next three songs all contained American references. The mature, reflective nostalgia of “I’ve Heard That Beat Before” gave way to the cartoon imagery of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Cowboys” and finally we heard “Oklahoma USA”, a song from the “Muswell Hillbillies” album that describes Davies’s sister Rosie and her adolescent fantasies of moving to the US in the fifties having been sold the “American Dream” by a cocktail of the cinema, the dance hall and rock ‘n’ roll.

Following this reflective section Davies now unleashed a closing hits fest beginning with the riff driven “All Day And All Of The Night”. “Celluloid Heroes” represented another trip to the USA and a visit to Hollywood. The emotive nostalgia “Days” sparked another bout of community singing with Davies conducting his loyal followers.

At this point he and the band feigned to take their leave, but we all knew there was more to come, and what it was going to be. First up was the inevitable “You Really Got Me” which the band initially played as a slow blues with Davies on mouth harp. The leader explained that this was how the song was originally written before brother Dave came up with “that riff” and virtually invented power chord rock and arguably even heavy metal in one seminal moment. Now Shanley unleashed “the riff” in all its glory and the song metamorphosed into the three minute thrash we all know and love. It did seem a bit strange seeing a seventy year old man howling and bellowing a song written about teenage lust but hell, most of us in the audience were hardly spring chickens any more, and dammit it still sounded good. This is a song that will always strike a (power) chord.

As the crowd went appropriately apeshit Davies and his band quit the stage once more before returning to acknowledge the applause and to instigate a raucous audience sing-along through “Lola”, a song that was regarded as something of a “comeback” hit when it was first released in 1970.

“They always say you should end with a ballad” said Davies by way of introduction to a frankly rather ragged acoustic version of “Waterloo Sunset”. The leader had broken a string while strumming his way through “Lola” and played what is arguably his best known song on only five strings. “Waterloo Sunset” is one of the most beautiful and evocative pop records ever made but here it took on another life as a boozy sing-along, an incarnation positively encouraged by Davies -
“all together now -sha la la!”

After nearly two hours and a staggering twenty three songs that was it, an unashamedly nostalgic set liberally sprinkled with some of the most enduring songs to have emerged from British pop and rock. Influential songs too, if Damon Albarn hadn’t found a box of old Kinks records under the bed Blur may never have recorded “Modern Life Is Rubbish”, the precursor for the mega selling “Parklife” and the whole Britpop thing. And for what it’s worth “Modern Life” is still the better album in my humble opinion.

Before tonight’s show I’d read some decidedly lukewarm reviews about some of Ray Davies’ recent live appearances but I had very few quibbles here. The man was in terrific form tonight and although the Market Hall isn’t the most sympathetic of venues everybody seemed to go home happy.
Davies was well supported by his band and I’d liked to have seen the big screen zoom in on the instrumentalists for some of the occasional guitar and keyboard solos - this is probably just a jazz critic thing, I don’t expect most of the rest of the audience were that bothered. 

Overall this was a show that exceeded my expectations and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. My wife rated it as the best thing she saw all weekend and I’m sure many people felt the same. Davies impressed with his energy and charisma and his band were excellent but the real stars were the songs themselves and it was a privilege to witness their creator sharing them with us.