An Interview with Ray Davies on ‘Sunny Afternoon’

Celebrating the raw energy and timeless sound of one of Britain’s most iconic bands, The Kinks, the four-time Olivier Award winning musical Sunny Afternoon returns for a UK tour, coming to York Grand Opera House on 11-15 November.

Featuring an original story and music and lyrics by The Kinks frontman, Ray Davies, the musical charts the euphoric highs and agonising lows through their catalogue of chart-topping hits, including “You Really Got Me,” “Lola,” and “All Day and All of the Night.”

We caught up with Ray Davies ahead of the tour to talk about taking his story to the stage, the legacy of his music and the next generation of fans.

Sunny Afternoon has been such a success on stage—what has it been like for you seeing your songs and story come to life on stage?
Daunting at first. I was working on the storyline on and off for three years, but in many ways the story is contained within the songs. The songs were written in such specific moments of my life and now they’ve been reinterpreted, given new context. It’s humbling, and sometimes a bit surreal, to see the audience connect to those moments as if they’re happening now. It’s proof that the music still has a pulse.

You were closely involved in shaping the show. How did you approach revisiting your own past and turning The Kinks’ history into a musical?
With caution at the beginning so I pretended it was about somebody else. I didn’t want it to be just another jukebox musical. I wanted Sunny Afternoon to have heart, to show what it really felt like to live through that madness. We approached it as a piece of storytelling, not nostalgia. I went back to the songs and the memories behind them and tried to weave them into something honest. It wasn’t about polishing the past, it was about exploring it with the rawness that inspired the songs in the first place.

Did collaborating with director Edward Hall and writer Joe Penhall challenge your version of events in any way?
When you’ve lived something, you think you know the story inside out, but Edward (Hall) and Joe (Penhall) held up a mirror to it. They’d ask questions I hadn’t thought about in years and that made me reassess a lot of things. They didn’t rewrite my version, but they did expand it.

image: Phil Tragen

The show captures both the highs and the struggles of The Kinks’ journey. What memories stand out most vividly for you when you look back on that era?
The contrast, I think. One day we were scraping by in Muswell Hill, the next we were banned from America. There were moments of absolute chaos, and others of beautiful clarity. Although we didn’t appreciate it at the time, the band celebrated being at the height of British culture, everything felt bright and exciting after coming out of the darkness of the Second World War.

Many of the themes in Sunny Afternoon – youthful ambition, creative freedom, the turbulence of the 1960s – still feel very timely today. Why do you think this story continues to resonate with new generations?
Every generation goes through its own version of rebellion. For us it was a turbulent time of change, the class system was still there, but it began to feel that working class kids could also start to move up the social ladder. The 60s were our revolution, but the spirit of that time – questioning authority, chasing authenticity – that never really disappears. I think people see themselves in that struggle, whether they’re forming a band or just trying to figure out who they are. That’s timeless.

Putting so many of your hits into a musical must have been quite a process. What has it meant to showcase your back catalogue all in one place?
It’s been a gift. Songs like ‘Lola’ or ‘Days’ have their own lives, but when you hear them alongside ‘Dead End Street’ or ‘Sunny Afternoon’ you see the full picture. The musical gave me the chance to connect those dots for people, to show how the songs talk to each other. And it reminded me too, why I wrote them in the first place.

The production returns to tour the UK, following its previous sell-out run. What do you hope people will take away from the experience this time around?
The hope is that audiences will be able to see a glimpse of our history while enjoying a great night out. If people walk out humming the songs, that’s lovely. I hope they leave with a sense of joy, but also reflection. It’s a story about resilience, really, about keeping your head when the world’s spinning too fast.

More info thekinksmusical.com
Top image: Phil Tragen