A terrible touring experience for The Kinks led to them being banned from performing in the United States.
The ruling was a death knell for the band’s popularity in the US, where Americans were going wild for other British acts like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Lead vocalist Ray Davies has since reflected on the tour, which he says was mired by performing in “dreadful places.” The You Really Got Me songwriter confirmed the tour was such a mess that he would never perform a “package tour” again. It was not their performance which had the band banned from the States, though, with their offstage behaviour a cause for contention. Tensions between the touring unit were running high, with a fight between Dave Davies and Mick Avory reportedly leaving Davies in the hospital.
Further struggles were reported when the band decided to cancel a show in San Francisco because they would not receive their pay for the show in advance. It proved to be the final straw for promoter Betty Kaye, who had been left unable to pay the band in cash as first promised due to the low ticket sales. Those low ticket sales threw the tour into chaos from the very beginning.
The Kinks began reacting to their lacklustre sales on stage, performing shortened sets or strangely extended versions of You Really Got Me, according to Far Out Magazine. Ray Davies has since reflected on the band’s time in the US, and suggested he would never tour like that again.
He said: “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.”
It didn’t get much better for the tour either, with an appearance on The Dick Cavett Show leaving the band feeling alienated to their American audiences. Davies, in his autobiography, recalled: “Some guy who said he worked for the TV company walked up and accused us of being late.
“Then he started making anti-British comments. Things like, ‘Just because The Beatles did it, every mop-topped, spotty-faced limey juvenile thinks he can come over here and make a career for himself. You’re just a bunch of Commie wimps’.
“When the Russians take over Britain, don’t expect us to come over and save you this time. The Kinks, huh? Well, once I file my report on you guys, you’ll never work in the USA again. You’re gonna find out just how powerful America is, you limey bastard!’ The rest is a blur. However, I do recall being pushed and swinging a punch and being punched back.”
The wild encounter did lead to The Kinks being banned from the US for four years by the American Federation of Musicians. By the time The Kinks were allowed back in the United States, there had been a huge change in style and audience expectations.
Davies says the ban hindered the band from achieving their true potential across the pond, saying in 2014: “That ridiculous ban took away the best years of the Kinks’ career when the original band was performing at its peak.
