Ray Davies at The Royal Albert Hall

On Sunday evening we went to see Ray Davies (Sir Ray as he should be) at the venerable Royal Albert Hall in ye olde London Towne. Since it was a lovely, sunny afternoon, we walked from Victoria through the embassy-laden land of Belgravia and through Chelsea to Kensington and the Hall. And, to be honest, I headed straight for the bar for a drink after that long walk in the sun and missed the support band but was safely in my seat for the man himself.

I got my first Kinks record - the single, 'Lola', in 1970 - and somehow didn't see Ray play live until 2008 when I saw him in his musical, 'Come Dancing' at Stratford East. Then I saw him play in the rain at Kenwood House in June 2009 and at Hammersmith Apollo in December 2009. And then at the Royal Albert Hall. I'm not a big fan of the Royal Albert Hall and the stage isn't really very flexible and the sound isn't always very good, but it's a prestige venue with the enormous pipe organ filling most of the wall behind the surprisingly small stage. Anyway...

On came Ray and his guitarist to start the show with an acoustic set, just the pair of them sitting on the stage surrounded by band equipment and some lighting stands. With a catalogue of songs like Sir Ray's it must be difficult to decide what to leave out and he has great scope in deciding what to include. On Sunday, he said he was starting out with old Kinks 'B' sides but I've never thought of the songs as 'B' sides. It was great to hear some of the songs stripped back, playing 'This Is Where I Belong' and 'Set Me Free' before moving on to some of the biggies.

It was nice to hear the songs played simply and very effectively but it was even better for an acoustic set to turn into full-on rock gig in the middle of one song when the band ran on stage and started pounding away on drums, electric guitar going wild and rock lights filling the stage as it headed to a mad crescendo. Annoyingly I can't remember which song saw the transition - was it '20th Century Man'? Whatever, it was excellent and ably demonstrated that Ray can still effortlessly rock the joint with a flick of the wrist and a few chords.

Ray then left the stage to remove his suit and return in what looked like Teddy Boy jacket and drainpipes for the rock set. It comprised largely of his solo works in the last few years, mainly from 'Working Men's Cafe' with a few Kinks songs thrown in for good measure. And then off he went, only to return for two encores before the lights were switched on while he was still saying goodbye to the crowd at the front that rushed the stage during 'All Day And All Of The Night' (at the start of which he praised brother Dave's innovative guitar work).


This was the third time in under a year that I've seen Sir Ray and I'm not tired of him yet. Along with a catalogue of music to die for, he didn't stop talking, joking or exhorting us to sing along. He's been on stage for enough decades now to have developed a fine line in stagecraft and he's effortless with it.

Highlights for me were 'Victoria', 'Waterloo Sunset', 'I'm Not Like Everyone Else', 'Well Respected Man' and the great 'All Day And All Of The Night', 'Morphine Song', 'Vietnam Cowboys' and 'Working Man's Cafe'. A couple of surprises were 'David Watts' and 'Celluloid Heroes'. 'Low Budget' was an encore and so was the glorious 'Lola'. I couldn't help but think that here was a concert hall full of middle aged, middle class people singing a song of praise to a tranny called 'Lola'. And I *love* Lola.

Thank you, Sir Ray, for a great gig. I look forward to the next time - but I'm also looking forward to the cast recording of 'Come Dancing' so get that sorted please.