So I met Ray Davies of The Kinks today...

[Jules]

I was tagging along with some pals of mine who were demoing some gear at Konk studios, London, today. (I hadn't been in there since the early 80's and was curios to see it again) Its owned by Ray Davies of The Kinks.

Anyhow, one old Neve desk, 2 Fairchilds and about 4 Pultecs later, I was enjoying the visit when the 60's songwriting genius walks in and says "I'm Ray, who are you?"

Quick as a flash I reached for one of the (now legendary) Gearslutz pens I carry for just such a moment and handed it to him.

He took the gift with good grace and didn't immediately have me thrown out.

So I am declaring my visit a total victory!

(I didn't hang around long in case it was one of the ones that doesn't work..)

The inhouse engineer Ben (Yo Ben!) seemed to know about Gearslutz so that was cool

Found this footage of the studio on YouTube YouTube - Cat the Dog Konk Studios London

[Ruudman]

Almost 007ish to have an emergency pen!
Cool and 'kinky' story thumbsup

[henryrobinett]

Wow! That's cool! I saw the Kinks back in '65. They played across the street from my apartment (flat). I lived across from Battersea Park. He wouldn't remember me. I watched from my window!

But even then, at the ripe old age of 9, I was a huge fan.

[Geoff_T]

Originally Posted by Jules

I was tagging along with some pals of mine who were demoing some gear at Konk studios, London, today. (I hadn't been in there since the early 80's and was curios to see it again) Its owned by Ray Davies of The Kinks.

Anyhow, one old Neve desk, 2 Fairchilds and about 4 Pultecs later, I was enjoying the visit when the 60's songwriting genius walks in and says "I'm Ray, who are you?"

Quick as a flash I reached for one of the (now legendary) Gearslutz pens I carry for just such a moment and handed it to him.

He took the gift with good grace and didn't immediately have me thrown out.

So I am declaring my visit a total victory!

(I didn't hang around long in case it was one of the ones that doesn't work..)

The inhouse engineer Ben (Yo Ben!) seemed to know about Gearslutz so that was cool

Found this footage of the studio on YouTube YouTube - Cat the Dog Konk Studios London

Hi Jules

They still have that ex-Utopia Neve console there? I've done so much work on that console in the past... is Steve still the tech there?

I haven't been there in over 10 years but it was a great studio!

[Factory101]

I love a good laze on a sunny afternoon.

[joelpatterson]

Better story: you met him in a club down in old Soho.

[Steffmo]

My sister and I openned for thm on a college gig in 1972.

They had unlimited beer in their rider.........

And were ////tremendous.

[PRobb]

Green with envy here.

[Digitar]

Wow! Jules,

Simply fantastic!

One of the original British Invaders.

The Kinks, The Beatles, The Stones, The Who

Which one will you run into next? A Yank in King Arthur's Land. You lucky man!

[princeplanet]

Yes, but at his best, Ray Davies was the better songwriter ...... there I said it!

[henryrobinett]

Originally Posted by princeplanet

Yes, but at his best, Ray Davies was the better songwriter ...... there I said it!

I missed it. He was a better songwriter than who?

[Kiwiburger]

His latest album is rather good too ...

But Waterloo Sunset and that 60's stuff is pure magic ...

[mdme_sadie]

Hell that's all kinds of awesome Jules. Congrats!

So er anyone want to tell me... Ray who? j/k

[True North]

Originally Posted by joelpatterson

Better story: you met him in a club down in old Soho.

Hey I heard of that place, isn't that where you drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry-cola

My very first , honest to goodness Rock concert was to see the Kinks after their big comback album 'Give the People what they want'

Thanks for sharing Jules, say hi to Ray for me if you see him again, I was the guy with the red shirt in 33rd row centre floors at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1981

[Whitecat]

Very cool. I live in Muswell Hill, that's about as close a connection as I've got.

So when's the Q&A then?

[Savernake]

Hang on... so giving someone a pen will diffuse any situation? This is somewhere between funny and confusing. Even better that it's happened other times before!

[Jules]

Not just any pen, it must be a Gearslutz.com pen. Then it works. Oh and the dignitary must be a studio owner, and songwriting legend..

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by Digitar

Wow! Jules,

Simply fantastic!

One of the original British Invaders.

The Kinks, The Beatles, The Stones, The Who

Which one will you run into next? A Yank in King Arthur's Land. You lucky man!

I used to work round the corner from Pete Townshends house in Twickenham and met him several times.

I also met Roger Taylor (Queen) when I worked in the hi-fi business and had to go and install gear in both his London and country houses

I also had to sort something out at Joan Armatrading's studio once.

Oops - better stop here..........

[aeonsound]

awesome

Originally Posted by terminal3

Very cool. I live in Muswell Hill, that's about as close a connection as I've got.

So when's the Q&A then?

hah, sweet - we live just down the road! should meet up for slutz-drinkz sometime

[dbbubba]

While sitting at LAX waiting on our flight to Lihue, Hawaii I noticed a fellow who looked familiar, but I couldn't place him. I know that many celebs live on Kauai , so I figured he was someone that I knew of, but just couldn't place.

I had lots of upgrade points, so I treated the family to first class for that leg.
Who were we sitting right across from? Same guy... who was he?
Graham Nash.

I sat with our three year-old in the row directly behind him and my main goal was for her to not kick the seat too much and bother him. She is VERY active and a six hour flight is WAYYYYYY beyond her level of endurance.
For some reason having her not disturb HIM instead of any other person who might fly first class in that seat seemed more important. He was Graham Nash after all!

Our only conversation was me saying, "Sorry if we're bothering you back here."
He said something to her on one of her MANY trips to the bathroom and she stuck her tongue out at him. He got out lucky.
She can tell her grandkids.

[FFTT]

Well if that old pen trick gets him here as a member
a rousing Hi Howdy Ray from a whole bunch of peeps!

[joelpatterson]

Ray-- to avoid the crush of fandom that you would find obnoxious, use a devious screen name-- something like "Dave Ravies," "David Ray," "Day Raver," or you can PM me for other suggestions.

[Schaap]

Ha, great!! I was in the Konk Studio in '76 (?). The Kinks had just finished the "Ducks on the wall' album (afair) and the bar/lounge room was not ready yet. The things that impressed me then was a beautiful electric 12-string guitar(from Dave I guess) and the huge snookertable.
Now I would be more interessed in the Neve, preamps, mic's etc.

Ray "This is the master...../nice and sweet/.... fa fa fa faa fa fa fa fa."





Henk

[nickolo]

Nice one Jules!!Nice to hear about a classic studio thats around and working!!

[David R.]

Super cool!

Jules, you might leave a better impression next time when you hand the person the Gearslutz pen instead of thrusting it into their mid-section.

You get the 'point' accross either way.

I always thought the Kinks never recieved their due. They were right there with the Beatles, Stones and Who.

Any chance of Ray being a guest moderator?

[James Meeker]

Awesome man, the Kinks don't get the kind of respect they deserve.

Man I wish I lived in Britain. Sigh. One day.

[Jules]

Back in 83 on my first visit I dropped in on a session where the toms sounded HUGE - they were using Neumann 87's on em.. which I thought was the height of luxury..

Great sounding room too obviously..

Damian Corner was engineering, (his father, Alexis, ran the extremely influential Blues Breakers band back in the 60's)

[rob S]

something else, face to face and village green are incredible.
they are never very far from my hands.
thats awesome you got to meet him.

[preben]

I play quite regularly with RD's drummer. He's a cool customer - in fact, they both are

Jules, I love the pen-thing. Great! I might have to get MY personal GS pen out as well now... In fact the only proper connection I have with the Kinks is that we've both been presented with Gearslutz pens by Jules. Don't think it made quite the same impression on Our Great Internet Leader when I was given mine though

Jules, how about a Garlic & Shots pre-summer or summer meet-up? It's been a while. Can anybody think of a good excuse?

[doorknocker]

A great story about the new Ray Davies album:

Some guys here in town that perform as an out-of-tune 'Guggemusig' brass band during the annual 'Fasnacht' (= carnival) were planning to record a new album (yes, there are albums like that ) and by some connections and conincidences they ended up doing it in London at Ray Davies place!

So the story is that the boss was around when they were there, liked what he heard, and decided to use them for his album! Pretty awesone I'd say but it seems that Ray always had a knack for salvation army/marching band-type sounds like mayb efirst heard on the Kinks' 'Muswell Hillbillies' album.

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