Legendary Ray Davis for city gig in June

Ray Davies, the former front man of The Kinks, will be playing in the Róisín Dubh on Friday, June 22.

His musical career goes back almost 50 years to 1963 when he formed The Ramrods with his brother Dave before they changed their name to the Boll Weevils.

At the end of the year, the band recorded some of their earliest material including I Believed In You and One Fine Day and again changed their name – this time to The Ravens. In 1964, Ray finally took over lead vocals and the band signed to Pye Records with a final name change. It was at that moment the Kinks were born. Mick Avory joined the band shortly after an audition at the Camden Head while Shel Talmey became the Kinks in-house producer and they released their first single, Long Tall Sally.

Later in 1964, You Really Got Me was released and topped the UK charts .Their debut album The Kinks charted at number four. They concluded the year with All Day and All of the Night getting to number two, which really put the band on the map.  

Subsequently their guitar sound was copied the world round, spawning garage bands and eventually to laying the groundwork for punk and heavy metal. Davies meanwhile, went on to write the classic Waterloo Sunset.

Though The Kinks broke up in 1996, Ray Davies went on to enjoy a successful solo career, playing his own songs as well as classics from The Kinks era. Fans can expect to hear plenty of both when he comes to the Róisín. Tickets are €40.