Case file Nº 013 1963–1996

The Kinks

Before Oasis, there were the Davies brothers. Ray and Dave Davies built one of Britain's greatest songbooks while conducting a sibling war that predates and outlasts every other feud in this archive — punctuated by the 1965 Cardiff incident, in which drummer Mick Avory felled Dave onstage with a cymbal and fled believing he'd killed him, and by a mysterious four-year American touring ban that kneecapped the band at the exact moment the British Invasion was minting its rivals.

Formed: 1963
Origin: London, England
Genre: Rock / British Invasion
Status: Disbanded 1996; brothers' détente perpetually rumoured
Documented lineup changes: Founding rhythm section departed; the brothers, tragically for each other, did not

The file

Formed in Muswell Hill, London in 1963, The Kinks — brothers Ray and Dave Davies, bassist Pete Quaife and drummer Mick Avory — invented the power chord riff with 'You Really Got Me' (played through an amp Dave had slashed with a razor blade) and went on to write the most English catalogue in rock. They also established the template every warring-brothers band since has followed, usually without knowing they were following it.

The violence was not metaphorical. The band's internal fights were so routine that promoters reportedly factored them in; the definitive entry came at Cardiff's Capitol Theatre in May 1965, when Dave Davies — feuding with Avory and having kicked over his drum kit mid-set the previous night's argument having carried over — insulted the drummer's playing onstage, and Avory responded by striking him with a cymbal stand hard enough to knock him unconscious. Avory fled the venue believing he had committed murder; Dave required sixteen stitches; the police sought Avory; and the matter was smoothed over as, officially, stagecraft gone wrong. Avory remained in the band another nineteen years.

Then came the ban: following a chaotic 1965 US tour of missed payments, onstage disputes and a backstage altercation with a television-union official, the American Federation of Musicians refused the band permits — effectively banning The Kinks from the United States for four years, 1965 to 1969, with no official reason ever published. While the Beatles, Stones and Who conquered America, its potential third giant wrote 'Waterloo Sunset' at home. The exile arguably produced their greatest music and unarguably cost them an empire.

The thread

Timeline of unravelling

1963–64

Formation and the razor-blade amp

The Davies brothers form the band with Quaife and Avory; Dave slashes his amplifier's speaker cone to invent the distorted snarl of 'You Really Got Me,' a UK No. 1 in 1964. The brothers' first fights predate the first single.

May 1965

Cardiff: the cymbal incident

Night two of a feud that began with Dave kicking over Avory's drums, Dave insults Avory's drumming onstage at the Capitol Theatre. Avory strikes him with his cymbal stand, knocking him out cold, and flees into hiding believing him dead. Sixteen stitches, a police inquiry defused by diplomatic statements about a 'new act,' and one of rock's most astonishing facts: the two worked together for another two decades.

1965

The American ban begins

After a US tour marked by contract disputes, unpaid fees, and a backstage altercation in which Ray struck a union official who had insulted the band, the American Federation of Musicians declines to issue the band permits. No formal reason is ever published. The ban holds until 1969 — the entire golden age of the British Invasion, spent involuntarily at home.

1966–69

Exile makes the masterpieces

Cut off from America, Ray turns inward and English: 'Sunny Afternoon,' 'Waterloo Sunset,' The Village Green Preservation Society — commercial disappointments at the time, later canonized. The band's US absence lets contemporaries claim territory The Kinks had pioneered.

1969

Quaife quits; America reopens

Founding bassist Pete Quaife, weary of the brothers and of Ray's dominance, leaves permanently. The AFM ban lifts, and the band begins the long climb back into the American market it should have owned.

1970

'Lola' and a word about cola

'Lola' restores the band to global charts — after Ray flies from New York to London mid-tour to re-record one word, 'Coca-Cola,' as 'cherry cola,' because the BBC bans brand names. A 12,000-mile round trip for two syllables: the most bureaucratic crisis in this archive.

1973

Ray's onstage resignation

At White City Stadium, amid the collapse of his marriage, an unwell Ray announces onstage that he is retiring; he is hospitalized shortly after. He recants within weeks — the resignation, like most Kinks endings, proving provisional. This file notes the episode with sympathy: it was crisis, not theatre.

1977–84

The American resurrection

Reinvented as an arena act, the band scores its improbable second imperial phase in the US — 'Come Dancing' (1983) becomes their biggest American hit in nearly two decades. The brothers celebrate by continuing to fight; Avory, the cymbal now folklore, finally exits in 1984, worn down by his eternal feud with Dave.

1990

Hall of Fame, separate tables

The Kinks are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; contemporary accounts of the era note the brothers could barely coordinate a acceptance. The band winds down through the early 90s as the acts they inspired — chiefly Blur and Oasis — conquer charts with Kinks DNA.

1996

The quiet end

The Kinks play their final show and dissolve without announcement, ceremony or, characteristically, agreement on whether they had actually split. The brothers' subsequent relationship is conducted through interviews, one-sided birthday messages and the occasional shared stage moment treated by the British press as a diplomatic summit.

2015–present

The eternal almost-reunion

Ray and Dave periodically announce they are working together again; the announcements are periodically clarified, walked back, or contradicted by the other brother within the week. The Kinks reunion remains the longest-running 'imminent' event in rock — and given the source material, perhaps safest left imminent.

Personnel ledger

Who held the thread

Ray DaviesVocals, songwriter · 1963–96One of England's greatest songwriters; knighted in 2017. Has described the band as his life's work and his brother as his life's argument.

Dave DaviesLead guitar · 1963–96Invented the distorted riff at 17; survived the cymbal, a 2004 stroke, and sixty years of Ray. Keeps the feud's flame lit via interviews and social media.

Mick AvoryDrums · 1964–84Felled Dave in Cardiff in 1965, then drummed beside him for nineteen more years — this archive's most extreme example of British conflict-avoidance.

Pete QuaifeBass · 1963–69Founding bassist; left permanently in 1969, later saying the atmosphere had become unlivable. Died 2010.

John DaltonBass · 1969–76The steady replacement through the theatrical-concept-album years, which were their own kind of hazard duty.

Where the thread lies now

The Kinks' afterlife is dominated by the reunion that never quite happens: the brothers, both active solo, have spent nearly three decades confirming and denying joint work in alternating press cycles. Avory, magnificently, remains on good terms with Ray and plays in the Kast Off Kinks; he and Dave have even shared stages since — the cymbal, presumably, kept at a safe distance.

Historically, the file matters for the ban: no other band in this archive was administratively removed from the world's biggest market at its peak. The Kinks' four-year American exile is the great counterfactual of the British Invasion — and the reason their influence (on Britpop, punk, and every warring-brothers band since) so outstrips their sales. The Davies brothers built the template; Oasis merely added social media.

Exhibits