Dave Davies - Hold My Hand
Beat Instrumental - February 1969
In terms of actual appearances, the Kinks have wound down almost
to a halt. They've been doing cabaret work, plus an occasional concert on the Continent,
but mostly their view is that the opportunities for theatre and cinema work in Britain
is "almost at a stand still".
Which leaves Dave Davies in an interesting position. His fourth single as a solo
singer, Hold My Hand has just come out. He's pinning his hopes on it making the charts
- and if it does, he'll be almost certainly lining up work for himself in London
clubs, as a solo cabaret attraction.
Let him explain for himself. "My last record, Lincoln County, was a bit of a
mix-up. It was put out, then withdrawn, then it was put out again, and withdrawn
again! By the time it really DID come out, third time lucky, it was unlucky. It was
too late - no television, no radio, no nothing. The problem hadn't been with the
record ... but the difficulty was over when exactly a new Kinks' single was due out.
We didn't want the two to clash.
"But recently I've been writing furiously. I'm supposed to have my first solo
album out in February and so far I've got six or seven tracks completed. All my own
material - I've got a bug about this writing business. Quite a few groups have asked
me for special material to suit them, but, that's not as easy as it might seem to
other writers.
"I find it difficult to write when I want to. Some people can sit down and just
write - I could never do a whole musical, for instance, because I doubt if I could
write the songs to fit the story. I try to feel a song and do what I want to with
it, but it's not easy doing some thing specially tailored for somebody else. My way
is just to keep playing, just fiddling around, and wait and see what comes out of
it.
"But at least writing and playing around helps get a more individual sort of
thing going. This is happening to all the group. Ray has a hand in just about every
side of the business right now, and Pete has started writing. And Mick, I think,
wants to do some drumming with other groups. We remain very much a group - we rehearse
at least twice a week, for instance - but we have time to do our own individual things.
"So if Hold My Hand does click, I'll be free to do my own cabaret act if I want.
I would use all new material, except maybe, a couple of the Kinks' hit records, but
given a different treatment so that it suited a solo voice. Probably work with a
small group. I'd love to have a go at this sort of act, but you know how things get
talked about, then flop off.
"Ray has wanted to do some solo singing, too. But he wrote a song for the Alf
Garnett movie and they naturally wanted him to bring out a record on it because it
would be a good seller. But he somehow just didn't want to do it. I think he's a
bit afraid of being typecast as a solo singer.
Personal freedom
"No, this personal freedom within a group seems to be a very good thing. Maybe
it's becoming a new trend, but I hope not because I hate to be involved in anything
that is trendy. I think there's a lot of good stuff coming out of today's group scene,
mind you, but all the same, just looking at the charts makes you feel a bit ... sort
of insecure. More insecure now than a couple of years ago.
"The Scaffold getting to number one with Lily The Pink, for instance. I mean,
it's hardly a predictable number one, is it? The way I see it, there is a chance
of anything at all making the charts, just so long as it comes out at the right time."
Dave paused momentarily. "I suppose this is a very good thing, really. Anything
stands a chance of registering, so it makes everybody work that little bit harder
to do what they can to stay in the charts. It's just that I find it strange - you
look ahead at what might happen during 1969 and find out that it could be anything
at all. No distinct pattern anywhere.
"I'm very much the sort of person who'd rather live for today than tomorrow,
so I don't find myself looking ahead very far. But I'm so excited about this new
single. If it goes well, I'll probably get such a boost to my ego that I'll go out
and develop some startling new talent to unleash on the world.
"Anyway, just writing songs takes up a lot of time. Do you realise I've not
even played football for a couple of months? I'm forced to play the odd game of table-tennis
in order to keep even slightly fit."
Beat Instrumental, February 1960
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