BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Full Name: Michael Charles Avory
Description: Drummer, UK
Known For: Long time member of”The Kinks”.
Instruments: Drums
Music Styles: Rock
Location: United Kingdom
Date Born: 15th February 1944
Location Born: East Molesey, United Kingdom
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BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
Mick Ivory
An English drummer.
Michael Charles “Mick” Avory (born 15 February 1944) is an English musician, best known as the longtime drummer and percussionist for the British rock band The Kinks. He joined them shortly after their formation in 1964 and remained with them until 1984, when he left amid creative friction with guitarist Dave Davies. He is the longest-serving member of the band, besides the Davies brothers.
Before he joined The Kinks, Avory was asked twice to rehearse on drums at the Bricklayers Arms pub in London during late May/early June 1962 for a group of musicians who were later to become The Rolling Stones. It has been said that he also went on to play at their first show at The Marquee Club on 12 July 1962, yet Avory himself says “I think Tony Chapman did the gig at the Marquee. I didn’t. I just rehearsed twice in the Bricklayer Arms in the Soho”.
Avory joined The Kinks in January 1964, after their previous drummer Micky Willet left the band. Avory was hired to replace him after their management saw an advertisement Avory had placed in the trade magazine Melody Maker. Despite his ability, early Kinks recordings (including hits such as “You Really Got Me”) commonly did not feature Avory on drums; producer Shel Talmy hired more seasoned session drummers (most notably Clem Cattini and Bobby Graham) for studio work well into 1965, but with Avory often providing supporting percussion. Mick Avory played drums on the vast majority of Kinks material.
Avory was always considered the quietest and most easy-going member of The Kinks lineup and was Ray Davies’s best friend. However, his turbulent working relationship with guitarist Dave Davies resulted in many legendary onstage fights. In the most notorious (and widely mis-reported) incident, at the Capitol Theatre, Cardiff, South Wales, in 1965, Avory hit Davies with his drum pedal (not the cymbal stand, which, according to later interviews with Avory “would have decapitated him”), in reprisal for Davies kicking over his drum kit as revenge for a drunken fight the previous night in Taunton, apparently won by Mick. He then fled into hiding for days to avoid arrest for grievous bodily harm. On other occasions, fuming, he would hurl his drumsticks at Dave.
Ultimately, the relationship between Avory and the younger Davies brother deteriorated to the point where Avory left the band. By agreement with Ray Davies, he ceased performing and recording with the band in 1984, but accepted an invitation to manage Konk Studios, where the band and the Davies brothers record most of their records – a position he has held ever since.
Above: With The Kinks in 1965. From left: Pete Quaife, Dave Davies, Ray Davies, Mick Avory.
Ray explained the situation:
The saddest day for me was when Mick
left. Dave and Mick just couldn’t get along. There were terrible fights, and I got to the point where I couldn’t cope with it any more. Push came to shove, and to avoid an argument I couldn’t face….we were doing a track called “Good Day” and I couldn’t face having Mick and Dave in the studio, so I did it with a drum machine. Dave said he wanted to replace Mick, and […] I took Mick out, and we got very, very drunk. We were in Guildford, and after about five pints of this wonderful scrumpy, Mick said if any other band offered him a tour, he wouldn’t take it, because he didn’t want to tour. And I remember him getting the train back – because he was banned from driving; it was a very bad year for Mick – and he walked to the station and disappeared into the mist.
Avory was replaced by Bob Henrit, former drummer with The Roulettes , Unit 4 + 2 and Argent.
Later on, it would seem that Dave Davies and Avory settled their differences, as Avory subsequently played the drums on “Rock ‘n’ Roll Cities”, a track on the Think Visual album written by Dave Davies. Avory was asked to rejoin by Ray Davies, but he declined as he wanted a rest from the non-stop touring, working and performing schedule of two decades.
Personal life
Avory lives in Kew, west London. Avory also has a daughter, although he has claimed that she wasn’t “terribly musical.”