Their first hit, You Really Got Me, in 1964, broke new ground with driving power chords and Dave Davies’ distorted guitar sounds, and created a template for many bands to follow in a rock and roll development which led variously to heavy metal, new wave and grunge.

Later work saw the band’s style change to more melodic songs, highlighting Ray Davies’ lyrical and observational skills in songs like Sunny Afternoon, Dead End Street and Waterloo Sunset.

Although the band’s popularity in the UK waned in the 1970s, they found new commercial success, particularly in the USA, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and returned to the UK top 20 in 1983 with Come Dancing. The Kinks continued as a recording and gigging band until 1996, when the Davies brothers went their separate ways with solo careers.

The Kast Off Kinks formed in 1994 to keep the music playing on, and it is what the name implies – the original line-up consisted of the band that played Lola (apart from Ray and Dave) – Avory, Dalton and Gosling – together In 2009, the line-up became the band that played Come Dancing – Avory, Gibbons and Rodford (respectively the Kinks’ longest-serving drummer, keyboard player and bassist) – still with Dave Clarke covering for the Davies brothers. Jim then became very busy playing with The Zombies and Argent, so John Dalton was persuaded out of retirement to stand in for him and now plays very regularly with The Kast Off Kinks. 

Tickets are available at £15 to see The Kast Off Kinks on Saturday 16th April at 7.30pm. They are available from the Box Office, open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 3pm, on-line at www.becclespublichall.com or by ringing: 01502 770060. Don’t miss!