| Tour bythe Kinks | |
.jpg) Promotional poster for the 6 July concert at theHonolulu International Center | |
| Associated album | Kinks-Size |
|---|---|
| Start date | 18 June 1965 |
| End date | 10 July 1965 |
| No. of shows | 16 |
| The Kinks concert chronology | |
| |
The English rock bandthe Kinks staged their first concert tour of the United States in June and July 1965. The sixteen concerts comprised the third stage of a world tour, following shows in Australasia, Asia andin the United Kingdom and before later stages in continental Europe. Initially one of the most popularBritish Invasion groups, the Kinks saw major commercial opportunity in the US, but the resultant tour was plagued with issues between the band, their management, localpromoters and the American music unions. Promoters and union officials filed complaints over the Kinks' conduct, prompting theUS musicians' union to withhold work permits from the band for the next four years, effectively banning them from US performance.
The programme was in the package-tour format typical of the 1960s, with one show per day, several support acts on the bill and the Kinks' set lasting around 40 minutes. Concerts were characterised by screaming fans and weak sound systems. The US press, which still largely viewed rock music as simple teenage entertainment, generally avoided reporting on the tour. Some shows were poorly attended, owing to a lack of advertising and promotion, leaving local promoters sometimes unable to pay the band the full amount they were due. A payment disagreement led to the band refusing to perform at theCow Palace near San Francisco, and an argument over a union contract before a television appearance resulted inRay Davies, the Kinks' bandleader, physically fighting with a union official.
The relationship between Ray and the Kinks' personal manager,Larry Page, was marked by continual friction. Bothered by Ray's behaviour, Page departed to England in the tour's final week, an action that the Kinks viewed as an abandonment. The band's subsequent efforts to dismiss Page led to a protracted legal dispute in English courts. Unable to promote their music in the US via tours or television appearances, the Kinks saw a decline in their American record sales. Cut off from the American music scene, Ray shifted his songwriting approach towards more overt English influences. Ray resolved the ban in early 1969, and the Kinks stageda comeback tour later that year, but they did not achieve regular commercial success in the country again until the late 1970s.
In April 1965,the Kinks' personal managerLarry Page announced the band's intention to tour the United States. Initially planned to begin on 11 June, the tour would run for three weeks and would be the band's first in the country.[1] The shows formed the third leg of a world tour, following concerts in January and February in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore, andconcerts in the United Kingdom in April and May.[2] Page began co-managing the Kinks in November 1963, around two months after the band's two other managers, Grenville Collins and Robert Wace.[3] The resulting three-manager set-up was complicated,[4][5] and it soon became a source of resentment for the Kinks when they saw much of their income going to other people.[6]
After witnessing the enormous commercial success experienced in the US bythe Beatles in 1964, Page was hoping to break the Kinks into the American market beforethe Rolling Stones, who he felt had been underpromoted.[7][nb 1] Like their contemporaries, the Kinks were part of theBritish Invasion, a cultural phenomenon where British pop acts experienced sudden popularity in the US.[12][13] A second wave of British acts, including the Rolling Stones,the Yardbirds andThem,[14] entered the American charts in early 1965,[15] and the Kinks were initially the most popular of these.[14] Two of their earliest US singles – "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night", released in September and December 1964, respectively[16] – had each reached the top ten of theBillboard Hot 100 chart, whiletheir first US album was moderately successful,[17] peaking at number 29 in themagazine's Top LPs chart in March 1965.[18] As the Kinks appeared to be on the verge of major American success,[19] the band and their management considered a US tour to be the next pivotal step in their career.[20][21]
From 10 to 14 February 1965, while returning to Britain from the first leg of their world tour, the Kinks visited the US for the first time.[22] The original plan had the band appearing on twomusical variety programmes –Hullabaloo in New York andShindig! in Los Angeles – along with two concert dates, but only theHullabaloo appearance went ahead.[23] When the band appeared on the programme,[24] they angered trade union officials by initially refusing to sign paperwork with theAmerican Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), the US performers' union.[23][25] Joining the union was a requirement of the Kinks' appearance,[23][25] but the band were not convinced that it was necessary.[26] Two weeks after the band's visit, their US labelReprise Records issued "Tired of Waiting for You" as a single in the US.[27] It subsequently reached number six on theBillboard Hot 100,[28] making it the Kinks' third consecutive top ten single in the US.[24] To capitalise on the nationwide publicity the band were experiencing,[24] Reprise rushed out a second album in late March,Kinks-Size,[29] which peaked at number 13 in the third week of June,[30] the same week the US tour commenced.[31]
By early 1965, the Kinks had developed a reputation for violence and aggression,[32][33] both on and off the stage.[34] The band's concerts were characterised by hysterical fans, whose swarming attempts occasionally left the group bruised, concussed and with torn clothing.[35][36] On 9 April, a concert inCopenhagen, Denmark, descended into a riot between fans and police;[37] the incident was covered by theAssociated Press newswire and reported on in newspapers across the US.[38] The band sometimes broke into physical altercations during rehearsals, recording sessions and concerts; infighting was most common between the brothersRay andDave Davies and between Dave and the drummerMick Avory.[39][40] Tensions within the group were more elevated than usual following a violent intra-band dispute on 19 May at a concert inCardiff, Wales, where Avory struck Dave in the head with ahi-hat stand.[41] Dave was briefly hospitalised, and the four remaining dates of the band's UK tour were cancelled.[42][43] Britain's national press covered the Cardiff incident in detail, leading tohoteliers across the country imposing an unofficial ban on the Kinks.[44] The band initially considered replacing Avory with a different drummer, but their managers pressured them into downplaying the incident, both to avoid police charges and to allow them to fulfil their commitments, including the imminent US tour.[20] After agreeing to regroup, the band performed one concert and made four British television appearances in the first week of June.[31]
The US shows were in the package-tour format typical of the 1960s. The Kinks andthe Moody Blues were set to be joint headliners,[45] but when the Moody Blues were unable to enter the country after having been deniedUS visas,[46][47] they were replaced with different acts at various stages of the tour, includingthe Supremes,the Dave Clark Five andSonny & Cher.[45] Local groups and musicians performed as support acts, includingPaul Peterson,Dick and Dee Dee,the Hollywood Argyles,the Rivieras andDobie Gray, among others.[48] Rather than headlining at the shows in California on 3 and 4 July, the Kinks instead appeared as one of several support acts for the American rock bandthe Beach Boys.[49][50][51]
The shows ran for several hours,[52] the Kinks' set usually lasting for around 40 minutes.[53][54] On Page's recommendation, they based their shows around their first hit single "You Really Got Me". To generate anticipation, they played the openingbars of the song at the start of each concert before abruptly switching to a different number. They performed a complete version of the song midway through the set and repeated it during their encore.[53]
The band wore matching redjackets,frilly shirts, black trousers andChelsea boots,[55] all of which were custom-ordered from Bermans & Nathans, a major theatrical costumier in London.[56] Page commissioned the outfits in April 1964 as part of his early efforts to rework the band's image,[57] providing them with a distinctive look, similar in effect to the collarless suits the Beatles wore in 1963.[56] Though not historically accurate to theVictorian era,[56] the look emphasised the band's Englishness, especially to an American audience who knew little about English culture.[58] The band were regularly taunted by Americans during the tour over their appearance, especially their long hair,[59][60] which, when paired with their outfits, gave them a moreandrogynous and less masculine appearance than that of other contemporary pop acts.[61][62][nb 2]
Sound quality at the band's shows was poor, as the often weakPA systems at the venues struggled to compete with the loud screams of fans. Drums were typically not miked, and Avory later recalled struggling to hear himself play at larger venues.[64] A local newspaper article describing a show at one of the smaller venues reported that the band's vocals were "lost in an array of electric guitars".[65]
Dave began the tour with his main guitar, a blackGuildarchtop electric with two Guildhumbucking pick-ups and aBigsby tailpiece,[66] a custom-built instrument originally meant for BeatleGeorge Harrison.[67] The guitar was lost by an airline when the band flew to Los Angeles,[68] and because the band did not travel with spare guitars, Dave was obliged to find a replacement at a local music shop.[69] He bought a 1958Gibson Flying V, which he debuted onShindig! on 1 July.[49][70] Dave played the guitar at chest-height, placing his arm through the cut-out V shape at the guitar's base.[67][nb 3]
The Kinks were accompanied on tour by Page and road manager Sam Curtis, who was hired two months earlier, before the band's recent UK tour.[74] Page saw his own role as mainly promotional, dealing with stage management and public relations, while Curtis handled custodial duties, such as organising transport, meals and sleeping arrangements.[75] In the final week of the US tour, California businessman Don Zacharlini stood in as temporary tour manager in Page's place.[49] Collins and Wace, who generally focused on office work,[76] remained in the UK for the duration of the tour.[61][77] The band were regularly visited by their publisherEdward Kassner, who took time to promote Ray's songwriting catalogue; the band's publicist Brian Sommerville and booking agent Arthur Howes arrived three weeks before the start of the tour to perform advance work. The tour was booked through Ken Kendall Associates in New York City.[78]
After announcing the tour, Page made several changes to the itinerary. He announced different dates in press releases before delaying the start by a week to 17 June,[79] something necessitated by Dave's head injury in Cardiff.[80][81] Early plans included different locations, including a Canadian show, probably forVancouver, on 11 July.[82] By 16 June, five of 16 finalised shows were cancelled, prompting the addition of hastily arranged concerts indownstate Illinois,Denver andHonolulu.[31]
We got the contracts sent from America. These were standard agency contracts. ... I went round to seeRay [Davies], sat there, showed him the contract and said, "Fine, you've got to countersign them with me". And I gave him a fountain pen and I watched him empty it on the floor. ... There was no way he wanted to put pen to paper to do the American tour ...[83]
The Kinks signed contracts for the tour on 16 June at Denmark Productions,[31] the London offices of Page and Kassner.[84] Among the forms were applications to join theAmerican Federation of Musicians (AFM), the US musicians' union.[31][81] The union's main purpose was to regulate the movement and placement of professional musicians in America,[85] and joining was a requirement for working in the country.[86] Concerned that foreign workers would take away jobs from American citizens, the AFM in 1964 initially opposed allowing any British rock musicians to perform in the US.[87] British groups often found the regulations of the AFM and AFTRA overly complicated,[88] and some complained about the requirements to pay hundreds of dollars in fees for each visit.[89] Ray initially expressed reservations about signing the necessary paperwork;[90] after working a union job as a teenager, he had come to see trade unions as needlessly corrupt and militant.[91] Page instead ascribed Ray's hesitance to his tendency towardsprima donna–like behaviour.[90]
Each of the Kinks had held romantic notions about the US since they were young,[26][92] but Ray was apprehensive about visiting the country, having become more cynical after theassassination of US President John F. Kennedy in November 1963.[93] He worried in part how American police would respond to the Kinks' sometimes violent intra-band disputes,[90] especially since only a month had passed since the incident in Cardiff.[93] He was further disappointed by the poor financial returns of the band's February visit and was unhappy about leaving his wife Rasa at home with their first-born child, who was born weeks earlier in mid-May.[94] Ray agreed to go after receiving assurances from his father that he would help Rasa take care of the baby.[95]
| External audio | |
|---|---|
 Clay Cole Meets the Kinks, 17 June |
The Kinks departed London at midday on 17 June and arrived in New York City early that afternoon. The same day of their arrival, the band appeared onThe Clay Cole Show to promote their latest single "Set Me Free",[31][96] which entered the Hot 100 the week before and peaked a month later at number 23.[97] The tour's first show occurred the following day at theAcademy of Music, a cinema in New York City.[31] The appearance was beset by issues; the band were disappointed by the old venue's facilities and the theatre's employees, who showed open contempt to those in therock and roll business. The venue's marquee initially incorrectly advertised "The Kings", and a dispute arose when the Kinks, the Supremes and the Dave Clark Five realised that promoterSid Bernstein had promised each group that they would be topping the bill.[98][99] Problems continued at the following day's performance in Philadelphia, where Page was arrested and briefly jailed for failing to pay a local tax as demanded by a union official.[54][100]
The wild, piercing sounds of the four long-haired Englishmen brought the crowd to a near frenzy as it screamed its approval and pushed towards the stage. The "Kinks," who gyrate on stage as if they were all flea bitten, had to be protected by a human barrier formed bySpringfield policemen and security guards.[101]
The Kinks' audience, many of whom were teenage girls, were prone to fanatical behaviour.[102][103] Curtis recalled women following the band throughout the tour out of sexual interest, especially for Dave.[104] Upon their arrival in New York, the band were unable to enter their hotel for about two hours owing to a large crowd; and on other nights fans clung to the side of their moving vehicle or smashed its windows with their fists.[103] After fans rushed the Kinks at the conclusion of their concert in Chicago, police and security guarded the stage at a show two nights later inSpringfield, Illinois.[101] To keep the fans further at bay during the tour,[102] police escorted the band throughout the day and were posted at their hotel.[105][106]
Tensions among the Kinks remained high during the tour.[107][108] Since the incident in Cardiff, Dave and Avory had generally stopped speaking to one another,[108] and Page later recalled separating the group to prevent more fighting.[61][107] He further recalled that bassistPete Quaife was generally a calming influence among his bandmates, but he remained hesitant to take sides.[107] Throughout the tour, Page experienced regular issues from Ray, who often pestered his manager to amuse himself.[109][110] Page described Ray as behaving like aprima donna, and Curtis suggested that Ray regularly sought to annoy anyone whose interest in him was entirely financial.[111] While the other Kinks went out to clubs, Ray spent much of his free time during the tour alone in his hotel room, disappointed he was not at home with Rasa and their newborn.[26]
The Kinks' shows received little to no coverage in local newspapers, as most journalists viewed the band and rock music more broadly as simple teenage entertainment.[112] In contrast with the effective publicity work done by the Beatles and their management, the Kinks were aloof with the press in interviews.[113] Ray was apprehensive about his role as the band'sfrontman and he was typically nervous in front of cameras.[26] The band often tried to make interviewers look foolish or feel uncomfortable, something which regularly drew consternation from Page.[114][nb 4] Band biographerJon Savage writes that compared to the British Invasion's "packaged pop groups", like the Dave Clark Five andHerman's Hermits, the Kinks instead presented as "brooding, dark, androgynous mutants" whose attitudes seemed anarchic toMiddle America.[61] The band later described sometimes feeling resentment from Americans during the tour, especially as they proceeded into theAmerican Midwest, where attitudes skewed more conservative.[105][117][nb 5] Ray further sensed disgust on the part of those in the American music business, whose unhappiness with disruption of their industry by British acts was compounded when the Kinks' appearances were drawing less money than originally expected.[121] A week before the band's 27 June show inStockton, California, promoter Betty Kaye cancelled the concert because of poor advance-ticket sales,[105] an action she expected to lose her around US$3,500 (equivalent to US$35,000 in 2024).[122][123]
The Kinks were disappointed by the tour's early financial returns, which left them staying in inexpensive hotels and travelling mostly bycoach.[26][nb 6] The band and their management experienced regular issues with local promoters, who often looked for reasons to avoid paying the full amount required by contract.[124] Having been hastily arranged only weeks earlier, the band's shows in downstate Illinois were poorly advertised and poorly run,[54] contributing to a growing feeling among the band that the tour was not meeting their original expectations.[54][125][nb 7] The band's 25 June concert inReno, Nevada, was poorly attended because of both a lack of advertising and its conflicting with the opening day of the popular Annual Reno Rodeo. Kaye offered the band half of the agreed payment upfront, promising them the rest after the next night's performance inSacramento, California.[64][100] In retaliation, Page threatened to sue her, and the Kinks only performed for 20 minutes rather than the 40 minutes originally contracted. At the Sacramento show, Kaye was further offended when the Kinks played for 45 minutes but filled much of their set with a prolonged version of "You Really Got Me".[105]
From 27 June to 2 July, the Kinks had a week off from concerts, during which time they mostly did promotional work inHollywood, California. The bandlip-synched performances on the television programmesShivaree,The Lloyd Thaxton Show,Shindig! andDick Clark's variety showWhere the Action Is. At the same time, Kassner promoted Ray's songwriting catalogue around Los Angeles. By the end of the week he had secured four agreements, including fromPeggy Lee, who recorded "I Go to Sleep" as a single.[121][nb 8] The same week, Page metCher as she finished sessions forher debut album atGold Star Studios in Hollywood, and he convinced her to record "I Go to Sleep" as well.[121][nb 9]
Cher's recording inspired Page, who booked studio time for the Kinks at Gold Star on 30 June.[121] The band were normally produced byShel Talmy, whose contract withPye Records specified that he was to supervise all of their recording sessions. Talmy anticipated Page attempting to usurp his role and had filed a legal notice before the band left England advising them to not record in the US without him, but the session proceeded anyway.[130] The Kinks were enthusiastic at the prospect of recording in an American studio for the first time, especially after plans to do so the day before atWarner Brothers Studios failed to materialise. During the session, they recorded Ray's composition "Ring the Bells".[121] Page hoped to issue the recording as their next single,[131] but Talmy again served the band legal papers to prevent it, leaving the recording unissued.[121][nb 10]
The Kinks were the featured performers onShindig! for the week of 1 July, and the band selected "Long Tall Shorty" to play as the show's closing number. Rather than have the bandmime to the version they recorded for their first LP, AFM requirements dictated that a newbacking track be made, which the show'shouse band the Shindogs recorded at a separate evening session on 30 June. The Kinks attended the session, but Dave was the only one of them who appeared on the recording, contributing rhythm guitar.[121] Among the Shindogs was lead guitaristJames Burton, whom the Kinks were especially excited to meet, having known him for his guitar solos on many ofRicky Nelson's hits; Ray later recalled that getting to play with Burton was both "the biggest thrill" and "the only good thing" to happen during the tour.[121][nb 11]
On 2 July, the Kinks appeared at theCinnamon Cinder club inNorth Hollywood for a daytime shoot ofWhere the Action Is.[49] While waiting beforehand in the band's dressing room,[136] Dave refused to sign a contract presented to the band by AFTRA.[49] The refusal prompted a union official to threaten to have the Kinks banned from ever playing in the US again.[49] After a further exchange of words, a physical altercation occurred between the official and Ray,[49] which ended when Ray punched him in the face.[137] Ray later said the worker taunted the Kinks by calling them "communists", "limey bastards" and "fairies".[137] He also recalled:
I remember a guy came down – they kept on harassing us for various reasons ... and this guy kept going on at me about, "When the Commies overrun Britain you're really going to want to come here, aren't you?" I just turned around and hit him, about three times. I later found out that he was a union official.[138]
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Ray's fight with the union official on 2 July marked a low point on the tour for him,[49] a depression exacerbated by the absence of Rasa.[139][140] The following day, after the afternoonsoundcheck at theHollywood Bowl, Ray informed Page that he was not going to perform the evening's show.[49] Advertised as "The Beach Boys Summer Spectacular",[49] the concert had the Kinks billed highest among the Beach Boys' ten support acts.[50][141] Page regarded the concert as the pinnacle of the tour and an opportunity to present the Kinks as a second Beatles, and he later recalled trying to convince Ray to perform: "I spent all day pleading, begging, grovelling – and this was after a very heavy tour ... it was totally degrading for me."[139] Ray demanded of Page that Rasa and Quaife's girlfriend Nicola be flown out to see them, and Page contacted Collins back in London to arrange the flight.[142] Ray agreed to perform,[49] and the concert proceeded as normal in front of around 15,000 concertgoers.[143][144] Rasa and Nicola arrived in Los Angeles after the show and joined the group for the remainder of the tour.[49][145]
After weeks of being agitated by Ray's behaviour, Page lost his patience at the Hollywood Bowl.[146] He abruptly departed back to London on the morning of 4 July.[49][139] In his place, he arranged for the band to be led by both Curtis and temporary tour manager Don Zacharlini, a local businessman who owned a chain of laundromats.[147] Page advised Dave, Quaife and Avory of his intentions but did not tell Ray, who learned of Page's absence later that day. Ray was incensed by what he saw as an abandonment of the band; after expressing his feelings to his bandmates, the group decided that they would extricate Page from their business dealings upon their return to the UK.[49]
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The same day as Page's departure, the Kinks arrived at theCow Palace near San Francisco for an afternoon show as part of "The Beach Boys' Firecracker". The promoter, again Kaye, lost a significant amount of money when only 3,500 tickets were sold out of 14,000. The Kinks demanded to be paid upfront, but a lack of cash receipts meant that she was only able to offer acheque. In light of their earlier pay disputes with her in Reno and Sacramento, the band refused to perform the San Francisco show.[49]
Despite the absence of Page,[77] the final week of the tour proceeded generally without incident.[148] The band arrived in Hawaii on 5 July and held two concerts in Honolulu the following day,[49] including a show for US Army troops atSchofield Barracks.[149] Ray had expected Hawaii to be overly commercialised, but he was charmed by the islands' quiet beaches; he later named it his best holiday ever,[112][150] and Rasa described her time there with Ray as like a second honeymoon.[151] After an off-day spent inWaikiki, the band flew to Washington state and held three concerts, concluding the tour in Seattle on 10 July.[112][nb 12]
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Quaife and Avory remained in the US for an extra ten days sightseeing southern California with Zacharlini;[112][155] Ray and Dave arrived home in London on 11 July and immediately conveyed their angry feelings about Page to Wace.[112] Page was initially unaware of the others' plans to oust him, and though Ray and Wace continued to be friendly in their interactions with him, the two met with a solicitor on 2 August to begin planning the separation.[156][157] The following day, Ray arrived unannounced at a Sonny & Cher recording session at which Page was present, angrily objecting to the duo recording one of his compositions,[156] "Set Me Free", while also expressing his wish for Page to terminate involvement with the Kinks.[129]
The Kinks resumed their world tour in Sweden on 1 September, accompanied only by Curtis.[158] The following day, Wace and Collins' firm Boscobel Productions served a legal notice advising Page and Kassners' firm Denmark Productions that the Kinks intended to terminate their existing contract.[159][160] Page filed litigation in November over his subsequent remuneration,[161][162] leading to a protractedlegal dispute between the two parties in London'sHigh Court in May and June 1967, followed by theCourt of Appeal from March to June 1968.[163][164] Key aspects of each of the hearings centred on whether Page's departure to London in the final week of the US tour constituted alegal abandonment, something which generated disagreement among the three justices hearing the appeal.[165][166] Page was only partially successful, when both courts awarded him compensation up to 14 September 1965.[167][168] The management dispute ended on 9 October 1968, when a final appeal filed by Page was rejected.[169][nb 13]
Following the issues between the Kinks and Betty Kaye in Reno, Sacramento and San Francisco,[100][173] she filed a formal complaint with Local 6,[137] the San Francisco branch of the AFM.[174] Union officials in Los Angeles and likely San Francisco filed further complaints.[173][nb 14] In response, the AFM withheld future work permits from the Kinks,[147] in effect banning the band from future US performance.[177][nb 15]
The last tour we did in America was terrible. We played some dreadful places. If we go again I would want 100 per cent better organisation and facilities. I couldn't bear [another package tour] – really. There are two ways of promoting in the U.S. One is to do a monster tour of the whole country and the other is to do three or more major TV shows which are networked – that's the way I want to do it.[179][180]
The AFM made no public statements regarding their action against the Kinks,[181] nor did they communicate to the band an explanation or possible duration.[177][181][nb 16] The Kinks hoped to return to the US soon after,[112][182] but four tours booked for between December 1965 and December 1966 were each cancelled a month beforehand after the band proved unable to obtain work visas.[183] Anticipating further visa issues, they declined an invitation to theMonterey International Pop Festival,[184][185] a June 1967 Californian music festival which elevated the American popularity of several acts.[186][187][nb 17] Plans to tour the US in December 1967 and December 1968 similarly fell through after more visa denials.[191]
The AFM's ban on the Kinks persisted for four years.[176] Ray negotiated with the union to lift it when he visited Los Angeles in April 1969.[192] As part of the agreement, the AFM required the Kinks and their management to write apologies to Kaye[193] and refrain from discussing the matter publicly.[194] Over ensuing decades, Ray, Dave and the band's management remained vague in explaining the situation in interviews.[195][nb 18] Asked for comment in December 1969 byRolling Stone magazine, the union stated that it had no official paperwork regarding a ban on the Kinks but added that the reciprocity agreement between the AFM and theBritish Musicians' Union allowed either organisation to withhold permits from acts which "behave badly on stage or fail to show for scheduled performances without good reason".[182][198] Other AFM officials subsequently said that the Kinks were banned on the grounds of "unprofessional conduct".[199][nb 19] The biographer Thomas M. Kitts alternatively suggests that the AFM's sanctions against the Kinks were motivated by a desire "to make an example of some young English musicians who, the union believed, were taking work from Americans". Kitts adds that the Kinks proved an easier target than the Rolling Stones, who, despite their presentation as one of teenage rebellion, often remained on agreeable terms with officials and promoters.[147][199][nb 20]
The American ban had a profound effect on me, driving me to write something particularly English in a way which made me look at my own roots rather than American inspirations. I realised that I had a voice of my own that needed to be explored and drawn out.[204]
In later interviews, Ray regularly cited the ban as producing a pivot in his songwriting towards English-focused lyrics.[205] The situation left the Kinks comparatively isolated from American influence and changes in its music scene,[206] guiding the band away from their earlierblues-based riffing towards a distinctly English style.[207][208] While American songwriters explored the emergingdrug culture and genre ofpsychedelia,[209] Ray focused on English musical influences likemusic hall.[208][210] Ray later suggested that visiting America ended his envy of the country's music,[112] leading him to abandon attempts to "Americanise" his accent while withdrawing into what he later termed "complete Englishness and quaintness".[211]
The American ban hampered the development of the Kinks' career. Unable to promote their music in the US via tours or television appearances, they saw a decline in their American record sales.[212][213] American groups covered Ray's compositions less often after 1965, and those that did generally restricted their selection to British Top Ten hits.[214] The band experienced continued success in the UK, but only two of their singles entered the top 30 of theBillboard Hot 100 while the ban remained active.[215][nb 21] By late 1967, after a string of poor performing singles, American record shops had generally stopped stocking the band's releases.[217] The band steadily lost American fans,[218][219] but they retained a cult following and received favourable coverage from America's nascentunderground rock press.[177][217] After the ban was lifted, Reprise andWarner Bros. Records initiated apromotional campaign to re-establish the Kinks' commercial standing beforetheir return tour, held from October to December 1969,[220][221] which the promotional campaign and some contemporary newspapers described as the band's first American tour.[222] Other than their single "Lola",[223] which reached number nine in the US in October 1970,[97] the Kinks did not achieve regular commercial success in the country again until the late 1970s.[224][225]
Critics and journalists often retrospectively identify the American ban as the critical juncture in the Kinks' career.[226] Commentators typically see the ban as essential in shaping the band's underdog and outsider image, especially when compared to most successful British Invasion bands.[227] According to the academic Carey Fleiner, the ban serves as a "rallying cry" for the band's fans when arguing why they do not enjoy the same long-term "multinational corporate brand" as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones.[228]
The Kinks played for around 40 minutes,[53][54] but no complete set lists from the US tour are known to band biographers.[48] Below are examples of set lists from the second and fifth legs of the world tour, roughly two months before and three months after the US tour, respectively:[229]
30 April 1965, Adelphi Cinema, Slough, UK | 1 October 1965, Hit House, Munich, West Germany
|
According to the band researcher Doug Hinman, except where noted:[48][nb 22]
| Date (1965) | City | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 18 June | New York | Academy of Music |
| 19 June | Philadelphia | Philadelphia Convention Hall |
| 20 June (2 shows) | Peoria | Exposition Gardens |
| 21 June | Chicago | Arie Crown Theater |
| 22 June | Decatur | Kintner Gymnasium |
| 23 June | Springfield | Illinois State Armory |
| 24 June | Denver | Denver Auditorium Arena |
| 25 June | Reno | Centennial Coliseum |
| 26 June | Sacramento | Sacramento Memorial Auditorium |
(cancelled) | Stockton | Stockton Memorial Civic Auditorium |
| 3 July | Los Angeles | Hollywood Bowl |
(cancelled) | Daly City | Cow Palace |
| 6 July (2 shows) | Honolulu | Conroy Bowl |
| Honolulu International Center | ||
| 8 July | Spokane | Spokane Coliseum |
| 9 July | Tacoma | Memorial Fieldhouse |
| 10 July | Seattle | Seattle Center Coliseum |
Note
... the three-hour concert ...
The voices of the 'Kinks' could hardly be heard near the end of the 2½-hour concert as the audience seemed to be content just screaming and looking at the singers.
This music must be good or the 10,000 young voices would have tired of cheering during the long, long hours of yesterday evening in the Seattle Center Coliseum.
More than 15,000 people, the vast majority of them youngsters ...
Ray Davies: 'There were two or three issues that got intermingled and one I really cannot talk about that I think was the determining factor on the West Coast. ... I'm not angry about it, I just cannot talk about it, for legal reasons. It will emerge one day.'
After five years on Reprise, [the Kinks] arrive in person this fall for their first US tour.
The new album and the group's first national tour may do much to bring the Kinks the recognition the group deserves.
During [the Kinks'] first American tour in October ...
