News about Ray Davies

RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: They were the original bad boys of British pop and turned sibling rivalry into an art form. No, not Noel and Liam Gallagher. Thirty years before Oasis released their first album, Ray Davies and Dave Davies of The Kinks were already at each other's throats. Fisticuffs on stage were not uncommon, often involving drummer Mick Avory - the 'third Davies brother', according to Dave. A concert in Cardiff came to an abrupt halt when Dave ended up in hospital after Avory hit him on the head with a cymbal.

Locals in the quaint village of Monxton near Andover are locked in a furious row with a neighbour after an overlooked decades-old planning law gave him rights to build on their cherished green. Mike Cleugh, chair of Monxton Parish Council fumed: 'One of my big fears is he just puts a fence around it. This could even be the garden of some nice executive home, all bad outcomes for us.'

Ray Davies of the Kinks was getting all maudlin about it, more than 40 years ago - 'They put up a bowling alley,' he sang in Come Dancing, 'on the site that used to be the local Palais.' Nostalgia for Britain's lost Palais dancehalls supplied the bittersweet twist in the last of a triple bill of short dramas by new writers, part of the On The Edge series. The Final Countdown, by Natalie Burt, depicted the ravages of dementia on a marriage that began on the dancefloor, back in the Sixties. Dora (Eileen Davies) could no longer feed or dress herself - but, as her grandson Terry told a social worker, she wasn't the problem.

CRAIG BROWN: In the late 1990s, I found myself standing next to Margaret Thatcher's husband Denis in the gents at the old-fashioned restaurant Simpson's in the Strand. I wasn't going to say anything, but out of the blue, he said, 'Raining cats and dogs out there', so I said something suitably weather-based in reply and then we parted company. 12. In the early 2000s, in Waitrose in Marlborough, I spotted Charles Ingram, better known as the Coughing Major, forlornly looking at the ready-made salads. I felt sorry for him and wanted to tell him that his misdemeanour on the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? didn't merit all the vitriol he was receiving. But I was feeling sheepish, so said nothing. 13. Christmas 1973 and I spotted Ray Davies of The Kinks through the connecting window of a Tube train. With the confidence of youth - I was 16 at the time - I got out at the next stop, went into his carriage, and told him how much I had enjoyed his concert at White City Stadium in London that summer.

Mark Ray Haydon was not charged with murdering any of John Bunting, Robert Wagner, James Vlassakis' reported victims, but he was closely involved in one of Australia's most horrific string of crimes. In May 1999, eight dismembered bodies were discovered in insets (inset) of a disused bank vault in Snowtown (inset), about 145 kilometers north of Adelaide. Bunting (right) and Wagner (left) were arrested with four other murders and sentenced to life in jail. Haydon, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for assisting with the cover-up of the notorious 'bodies-in-the-barrels' murders, is set to walk free in May at the end of his term.

Sixties rock stars are set to reunite this week to discuss the band's future almost 30 years after their last public appearance. After seeing a decrease in their commercial success, several lineup changes, and ongoing controversies, they disbanded in 1996.

Charting the development of pop music from the 1950s to the present, with a fascinating event for every day of the year, a diverting new book reveals the strange twists and quirks of musical history…

John Gosling, a keyboard player for the Kinks, died at the age of 75, bringing the band's 'deeply sad' by the news. They expressed disappointment with the announcement of John Gosling's death in a tweet shared on the band's official social media pages.' We're sending our condolences to John's wife and family.' 'Condolences to his wife Theresa and his families,' Ray Davies, led singer Ray Davies. 'You will be in peace,' he says.' Dave Davies, Ray's younger brother, expressed the dismay with John Gosling's death.

RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Elvis has left the building?The last raven has left the Tower?How else to describe the shocking news that Ken Bruce is on his way out of BBC Radio 2? It's another one of those 'day they knocked down the Palais' times,' from which I regress every time some fantastic,'modernizing' vandal takes a bulldozer to what remains of Littlejohn's Lost World. Despite record audience figures, I had no idea when I was writing yesterday's column about Radio 2's demise of millions of loyal viewers on Monday afternoon that Ken, Britain's most popular DJ, was gone the next day. By the time I'd turned on my computer yesterday morning, the sad news was out, and my inbox was flooded with outraged emails from Daily Mail readers who promised never to listen to Radio 2 again.

Keith Waterhouse, columnist, author, playwright, and late of this parish, is best known for his insightful Billy Liar, Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell's, and his twice-weekly reflections on the madness of modern life. Office Life, a satire on the state of Britain in the 1970s, was published in 1978 by Keith. It was based on a fictional company where everyone seems to be busy doing nothing. A newly hired employee sets out to find out what the company really does, while the staff are in endless meetings, not answering phones, going for lunch, organizing whip-rounds, and other such things. The answer, it turns out, is, er, absolutely bugger all. British Albion Ltd's entire purpose is to keep people employed. Keith's book was released in the Seventies as a sharp reminder of a nation in terminal decline. Today, it could be a model for just about every aspect of government endeavour. Never heard of Human Resources, diversity leaders, or wellness coordinators, let alone Working From Home. But if he'd been writing Office Life now, the book would have been brimming with them.