The Kinks - Waterloo Sunset

An interview with ex-bassist Peter Quaife

Martin Kalin interviews Pete Quaife at his home in Ontario, Canada, June 1998.

It's 1998. Mention the Kinks to a casual music fan and he'll most likely respond with: "Are those guys still around?" This should be considered an acceptable reaction as the band hasn't released a CD of original material since the disastrous Phobia back in 1993. Compound this lack of contemporary originality with the fact that live Kinks concerts over the last decade have remained - for the most part - both sporadic and nostalgic.

The Kinks - Sunny Afternoon

Biography

The Kinks (1963–1996) were a British rock group that came out of the British R&B/Garage Rock scene of the early 1960s.

Formed in 1963 in London, UK, they first gained prominence on the heels of the well-received and highly influential single “You Really Got Me” (1964). The group originally consisted of lead singer/guitarist Ray Davies, his brother lead guitarist Dave Davies, drummer Mick Avory and bassist Peter Quaife. Quaife left (twice) in the late 1960s, and Avory finally left in 1984 due to a long-running dispute with Dave Davies, leaving only the Davies brothers as the core of the original group.

With Ray’s splendid songwriting skills and unashamedly English voices, Dave’s impressive guitar work and Avory’s tight and steady drumming, the band became one of the best and most influential groups of British rock and the “British Invasion” of America, lasting longer than any of their competitors, apart from The Rolling Stones, as they broke up in 1996. Their impressive back catalogue of songs have been covered by Van Halen, The Pretenders, The Black Keys, The Stranglers and Queens of the Stone Age to name but a few.

the kinks- you really got me