Ray Davies To Tour Kinks Khoral

Band's hits recast for choir arrives Nov. 10 followed by a tour.

By Blurt Staff

As you've no doubt heard, some time agao Kinks frontman Ray Davies  adapted songs from his extensive back catalog for choir, re-recording key tunes with brand new choral arrangements. The collaboration with the the 65-strong Crouch End Festival Chorus at the 2007 BBC Electric Proms in London has now yielded The Kinks Choral Collection, due November 10th on Decca. A nationwide tour is scheduled to coincide with the release. (U.S. dates below.)

Produced by Davies himself and with arrangements by David Temple, Steve Markwick and Davies, this union casts a fresh light upon Kinks klasssics via new versions of "You Really Got Me", "All Day And All Of The Night", "Waterloo Sunset" and many more.
Davies said of his Crouch End vocal colleagues; "With a song like 'Waterloo Sunset', I feel as if the people I wrote it for are singing it". He added that they display "an ingenious palette of choral techniques" - for example, "See My Friends' recast as an a cappella gospel hymn to illuminate life-after-death lyrics.

There's also a six-song suite from the 1968 album The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society. Although not as well known as some of the bigger hits, this collection is now widely regarded as The Kinks' masterpiece, with songs like "Do You Remember Walter?" which is a poignant memoir of a vanished childhood world.

Already got the Kinks katalogue? Decca predicts the album "offers so much to explore and admire from fans who own it all, or to complete newcomers... a great introduction to Davies' idiosyncratic, delightful world."

Well, all right then. Let's hear it for delightful worlds!

Tour Dates:

Thursday, 11/12  San Fran, CA            Warfield Theatre with The Vox Society Choir

Saturday, 11/14   Los Angeles, CA      Orpheum Theatre with The Vox Society Choir

Tuesday, 11/17    Boston, MA             The Berklee Theatre

Thursday, 11/19   New York, NY        Town Hall with The Dessoff Chamber Choir

Friday, 11/20        New York, NY       Town Hall with The Dessoff Chamber Choir

Saturday, 11/21    Philadelphia, PA       Tower Theatre

Monday, 11/23    Albany, NY             The Egg

Tuesday, 11/24    Montclair , NJ          The Wellmont Theatre