Ray Davies has a new album out, See My Friends. This no doubt accounts for the extensive Kinks coverage at the moment. Before Christmas I watched Ray Davies – Imaginary Man, a film by Julien Temple. I found this madly irritating; a needlessly arty film which did the greatest British songwriter of the 1960s no favours. Even I got tired of endless shots of him wandering around London singing to himself.



Far better (or more accessible to people with low tastes?) was yesterday’s radio programme: Johnnie Walker with The Kinks, We’re Not Like Everybody Else. Johnnie really knows the music. He spoke to Dave as well as Ray. Above all, there were plenty of songs, including some of the covers. It was interesting to hear what it was like appearing on the same bill as The Beatles. That John Lennon was an arrogant bastard.

Part of this video was used in Imaginary Man. They look like something out of The Wrong Box.



Coming up: the 1950s on TV.