Music

1973 wasn’t a great year for Ray Davies. On June 20 hIs wife of nine years Rasa left home, taking their two kids. He responded by taking an overdose of downers, and was admitted to hospital. Two weeks later, with Ray still not having heard from his wife and kids, The Kinks headlined a mammoth rock festival at White City stadium, a bill that also featured Sly And The Family Stone and Edgar Winter. While on stage Davies interrupted a rendition of ‘Waterloo Sunset’ to announce that he was ‘fucking sick of the whole thing’. He left the stage to down a bottle of vodka and a handful of uppers. Feature continues

On his way home to Muswell Hill, he suddenly realised that he didn’t want to die and checked himself into the Whittington Hospital, near Archway. He was still dressed in his clown-like stage costume, complete with full-face makeup, when he went up to the reception and announced: ‘My name is Ray Davies and I’m dying.’ As the triage nurse asked him to write the names of his next of kin, he blacked out and was dragged into a ward to have his stomach pumped. ‘I woke up on a bed next to a real junkie,’ recalls Davies. ‘I felt like a complete prat.’

Ray, as always, rejoined the group within a week of quitting, although brother Dave, who cared for him after the overdose, ended up leaving The Kinks, not returning for another two years. The Whittington has, as yet, no plans to commemorate the event with a plaque.