Find a new home for Kinks items

14 March 2007

MY friend Mike Kraus (who passed away in 2003) initiated the Kinks Korner in the Clissold Arms, Muswell Hill. The items there probably belong to Konk, Ray Davies' production company in Tottenham Lane, Hornsey.

Mike was a professor in the US, and a lifelong Kinks fan. He initiated serious discussion of the music of The Kinks for the Institute of Popular Culture. It is sad to see his heritage being so poorly thought of.

If the items should go anywhere, they ought to be offered to the Queen Alexandra pub opposite the Clissold Arms as Ray and Dave Davies used to drink there, while their dad went to the Clissold.

Every year the Kinks fan club has a meeting in November, and the night before it became a tradition for the Kinks fans to meet in the Clissold Arms.

Then it generated into a sing song, and developed further into the musicians among us bringing in their instruments and playing for about three hours for everyone in the pub. John Dick, the last manager of the pub, enjoyed us coming in and singing our hearts out!

The year before, because of a double booking, we used The Boston Arms, Tufnell Park, and the Bald Faced Stag, East Finchley, was last year's venue, but it's not the same as they don't have the Kinks ambience.

It is sad that The Kinks, one of the greatest bands of the 60s era, who were inspirational to so many of today's younger bands are treated with such disrespect by the new licensee.

If the items are auctioned, where is the money going to? I don't think it should fill the pockets of the new owner. The items were left for Kinks fans and should be returned to Konk, offered to the Queen Alexandra ...or at least to the fan club, where they can be auctioned for charity.

- Olga Ruocco, Kinks fan since 1964, via e-mail.