Breaking Kinks News!

Wonderful news for Kinks fans! No, not a reunion tour announcement, but in my book just about as good -- a new Ray Davies album is supposedly due out next month! The title of the album is Working Man's Cafe. The announcement was posted on the Swedish version of the V2 Music web site, and if you can read Swedish click here to access it. If you don't have a command of Swedish, a member of the fan club approximates a translation:

Kinkslegenden Ray Davies slapper ett nytt album "Working Man's
Cafe" i slutet av oktober. Forsta sparet heter "Vietnam Cowboys"
och ar bland de starkare sparen han skrivit. Vi ser skarpt fram
emot att aterse honom pa svensk mark tidigt 2008.

Kinks legend Ray Davies comes with a new album "Working Man's Cafe"
at the end of october. The first track is called "Vietnam Cowboys"
and it's one of the stronger tracks he wrote. We look forward to (??
aterse honom??) on Swedish ground early 2008.

The latest reports from the German V2 web site confirms the release of the new Ray Davies record for 26th October 2007 (in Germany). That means that the album will be released
29th October in the UK and 30th October in the USA.

Fans only recently found out that a new album was in the works. After waiting decades for the first ever Ray solo album, we finally got the brilliant "Other People's Lives" in 2006, and may have not had it at all had the gunman in New Orleans raised his weapon higher. In July of this year, we learned that the Ray did not show up at the trail in New Orleans and the case was consequently dismissed. It was reported on the Kinks Preservation Society listserv that Ray was in the studio working on his next solo album and was given too little notice to cross the Atlantic for the trial. Ray also said the guy in custody was not the shooter, but rather the driver of the getaway car.

Some fans were not happy with Ray's choice. Personally, I don't blame him for not wanting to go to New Orleans for the trial of a hapless criminal associate, especially while in the middle of a recording session. Regardless, all fans are thrilled to hear that the album is ready for release sooner, rather than later.

In celebration of this Major Breaking News and Reason To Go On Living, here's a bootleg clip from Ray's appearance at the Supper Club, NYC in November of 2005. Yours truly was in attendance! Am I still obsessed after all these years -- uh, yeah!