Ex Kinks and Hollies
Legends of the Sixties
History
Back in the 1990's Pete Barton played alongside Eric Haydock, one of the founding members of The Hollies. The band at that time was The Mindbenders. Towards the end of the 90's The Animals was having some personell changes, this was when Dave Rowberry, the third Animal keyboard player rejoined The Animals alongside Hilton Valentine and John Steel.
One of Daves longest friends was co founder of The Kinks, Mick Avory. This is how Pete Barton met Mick. In 2004 when The Animals was planning their 40th anniversary tour Rock Arist Management put together a band with both Eric Haydock and Mick Avory. Legends of The Sixties was born.
Without doubt The Hollies and The Kinks are two of the most influential bands of all time, and this band includes two of the original founding members. The lineup is complimented with Love Affair 20 years veterans Martin Lyon and Ted Tomln along with Wayne Fontanas former Mindbender Graham Pollock.
Mick Avory
When Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones first got together in a London club in 1962 to form the seeds of the Rolling Stones, Mick Avory was their drummer.
Jagger and company's first gig as the Rolling Stones, at the Marquee Club, marked the beginning of Avory's tenure with the soon-to-be-giant band. Around the same time, art school student Ray Davies joined his brother Dave's band, the Ravens. Switching his career interest to music, Ray took over the band, which he renamed the Kinks. The Davies brothers completed their lineup with bassist Pete Quaife -- and Mick Avory on drums.
The Kinks released one of the signature songs of the British Invasion, "You Really Got Me," which topped the U.K. charts and hit #7 in the U.S. in 1964. Its pounding drums and slashing guitar chords were to have a profound influence on the development of '70s hard rock and heavy metal.
That cut and others notwithstanding, Ray Davies composed ballads about British middle class life; those works, "Well Respected Man" among them, also formed part of the band's identity.
The Kinks made the U.S. top 10 again with "All Day and All of The Night" and "Tired of Waiting" in 1965, before settling into a decade of modest success in that country. But the band's output of this period was noteworthy for its detailed depiction of those English customs against which the Stones and other groups railed. The Kinks began issuing concept LPs, such as 1969's The Village Green Preservation Society, and made one of the first rock operas, Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire.
Avory remained with the Davies brothers. The Kinks broke out of their commercial slump in the U.S. in 1978 with "A Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy" from 1978's Misfits. The next year's Low Budget became the band's first gold record in a long time with the minor hit "(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman."
The Kinks began a period of filling arenas in America as such new bands as Van Halen and the Pretenders covered their old hits. Around this time, the Kinks had hits with a live version of one of their older songs, "Lola," as well as such new records as "Better Things" and "Come Dancing." They also enjoyed success on Album-Oriented Rock radio stations (now categorized as Classic Rock stations) with tracks such as "Destroyer."
Avory went behind the scenes with the band when he stopped performing, and works in a business role to this day at the Kinks' Konk Studios along with touring with Legends of The 60's.
The four original Kinks reportedly are entering the studio soon to record new tracks for possible release.
Mick Avory Kinks Discography
You Really Got Me (Aug 1964)
All Day And All Of The Night (Oct 1964)
Tired Of Waiting For You (Jan 1965)
Everybody's Gonna Be Happy (Mar 1965)
Set Me Free (May 1965)
See My Friend (Aug 1965)
Till The End Of The Day (Dec 1965)
Dedicated Follower Of Fashion (Mar 1966)
Sunny Afternoon (Jun 1966)
Dead End Street (Nov 1966)
Waterloo Sunset (May 1967)
Autumn Almanac (Oct 1967)
Wonderboy (Apr 1968)
Days (Jul 1968)
Plastic Man (Apr 1969)
Victoria (Jan 1970)
Lola (Jul 1970)
Apeman (Dec 1970)
Supersonic Rocket Ship (May 1972)
Better Things (Jun 1981)
Come Dancing (Aug 1983)
Don't Forget To Dance (Oct 1983)
The Days EP (Jan 1997)
Eric Haydock
Eric Haydock was the original bass guitarist with The Hollies from 1962 until 1966.
Originally Haydock played bass guitar with The Dolphins, where he played alongside future Hollies guitarist Tony Hicks and drummer Bobby Elliott. He became a founder member of The Hollies.
Haydock became one of the most admired of the Merseybeat bassists, coupling the Merseybeat style of root note in fourths and fifths, as played by Paul McCartney with the hard-driving style of Jet Harris.It gave the early Hollies records a distinctive sound in the rhythm section. He was one of several British bassists of the early 1960s to regularly use a Fender Bass VI.
Without doubt one of the better bassists on the early British beat scene, Haydock and drummer Bobby Elliott (who replaced original Hollies drummer Don Rathbone after a couple of recordings), were one of the tightest, hardest rhythm sections in British pop/rock of the period. Clarke and Nash's singing and Hicks's guitar dominated the group's sound, but Haydock and Elliot made it rock -- and rock hard it did. From "Ain't That just Like Me," their debut single, in May of 1963 right up through "I Can't Let Go" in February of 1966, Haydock laid down a solid foundation to one of the most distinctive sounds in British rock & roll.
Eric Haydock Hollies Discography
Ain't That Just Like Me" (1963)
"Searchin'" (1963)
"Stay" (1963)
"Just One Look" (1964)
"Here I Go Again" (1964)
"We're Through" (1964)
"Yes I Will" (1965)
"I'm Alive" (1965)
"Look Through Any Window" (1965)
"If I Needed Someone" (1965)
"I Can't Let Go" - (1966)