Dave Davies and Mick Avory have ruined The Kinks for everybody. That is what Ray Davies claims, anyway. The 70-year-old lead singer recently told the U.K.'s Telegraph that he is not the one holding up the group reunion.
"I really can't play with my brother as that name, The Kinks, and not have Mick in," Ray said. "Mick will work with him but Dave doesn't want to work with Mick. Sibling rivalry is nothing on their rivalry. I have no idea what's wrong with them."
Is this beef impossible to pasteurize?
"Yeah," he said. "This week it is."
In August, Ray Davies told Mojo he was prepared to tour in 2015 without his brother Dave Davies.
"He's invited to the party, but if he doesn't want to do it, [the reunion] will happen anyway," the story quoted Ray as saying. "He's very welcome to turn up if he wants. I'd much rather work with him than without him ... If somebody can't or won't play, there are other players out there. [Drummer] Mick [Avory] and I want to do it."
But the band's camp quickly backtracked via Facebook.
"Mojo is wrong," they wrote. "There will be NO Kinks reunion without BOTH Ray and Dave Davies. Ray Davies claims to have never said this."
In September, Rolling Stone sat down with Dave Davies to clarify what in the world is going on.
Last year, he told the magazine that touring in 2014 was a 50/50 proposition — it did not happen — but he is apparently ready to commit to 2015.
"It would be a shame if Ray and I didn't do something next year," he says. "I'm prepared to talk. If Ray's got some great ideas, let me hear them. I have my own ideas about how it should be presented. But I don't want it to be a Ray Davies show where he lets his little brother stand in the corner, which he likes to do. It has to be done properly and respectfully. We have so much great music that goes back so many years. We both want to do something next year."
That being said, Dave was not willing to go too far.
"A world tour is out of reach," he says. "But maybe we record an EP or something and do a few shows. I would love to do something. But there has to be an element of joy involved."
