The Kinks

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The Kinks were on the same bill as the Beatles on August 2, 1964.

From The Beatles and Bournemouth – Bournemouth Beat Boom (wordpress.com):

The Sunday 2nd August shows were part of a short seven date UK tour coming off the back of their first visits to Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong and prior to their first full concert tour of America. On the night, they were joined by The Kinks, who were about to release their breakthrough single and first number one, “You Really Got Me”. According to Ray Davies autobiography X-Ray, there was a tense rivalry between Lennon and the author and a spot of one-upmanship. The Kinks front-man alleges they went down so well in the first show in the slot just before The Beatles that they were relegated to closing the first half in the second show. His brother Dave, goes further by stating that they closed the second show going on after The Beatles, but that sounds highly unlikely and has never been substantiated. It sounds more like a case of Dave Davies re-writing history. The remaining acts included The Hearts who had just dropped the Purple from their name due to adverse publicity, the singer cum actress Adrienne Poster before her name change to Posta in 1966, Mike Berry and The Innocents and compere Tony Marsh. They played two shows at 6.15 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. and charged a top price of fifteen shillings to sit in the front stalls.

We’d played with The Beatles in Bournemouth and John Lennon made a remark that we were only there to warm up for them, but we got a great reaction to You Really Got Me,” recalls Davies. “It was an early validation that we had something that stood up for us, like being bullied in school and having something that was bigger than the bully, it was that sort of feeling.

Ray Davies – From The Kinks – Interview with MOJO, 2013

There had been bad blood between the Kinks and the Beatles since they played together on the same bill in 1964. John upset Davies backstage by saying, “We’ve lost our set-list, lads. Can we borrow yours?” implying that the Kinks, who had only released two singles at that point, were mere imitators. Paul was more respectful. When the Kinks released “See My Friends” in 1965, a track now widely regarded as one of the first pop songs to use Eastern scales, Paul played it over and over at the apartment of John Dunbar and Marianne Faithfull, and when he saw Ray’s brother Dave at the Scotch, he reputedly joked, “That ‘See My Friend.’ I really like that. I should have written it,” to which Dave retorted, “Well, you didn’t. You can’t do everything.” Ray Davies later commented, “Paul McCartney was one of the most competitive people I’ve ever met. Lennon wasn’t. He just thought everyone else was shit.

From “Beatles ’66: The Revolutionary Year” by Steve Turner

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