Dave Davies - guitar, vocals
Ray Davies - lead vocals, guitar
Ian Gibbons - keyboards, background vocals
Robert Henri - drums
Jim Rodford - bass, background vocals
Opening with a show intro that incorporated tapes of previous Kinks material built around the classic guitar riff for "You Really Got Me," the Kinks blast through an hour and a half set of newer songs and British Invasion classics, in what was one of the band's most musically memorable tours. After embarking on several tours with an inflated stage set-up of five horns and several back-up singers, the band was indeed on a "low budget" and kept the line-up to the core four-piece band with Ian Gibbons on keyboards.
Founding member and longtime drummer Mick Avory had departed at this point, and Rob Henrit replaced him. With Jim Rodford on bass and vocals, the Kinks now had the rhythm section from the U.K. band Argent. Of course, co-founder and brother of Ray, Dave Davies was on lead guitar. This was arguably the tightest version of the band to ever tour and the enthusiasm on the older material made it sound as fresh as it did in the year those tracks were originally recorded.
The band had switched over to MCA Records and was promoting its Think Visual album during this show, the first of two recorded at the Riviera Club in Chicago for the King Biscuit Flower Hour. The Kinks were almost regulars on the show, and tracks from this 1987 show eventually were released as a live album.
In addition to the material from Think Visual, Ray and the band offer a wide spectrum of songs that dated back to the origins of the band in 1964. Mid-to-late'70s tracks like "Do It Again," "The Hard Way," "Celluloid Heroes," and "Superman" work well alongside the older band classics such as "Lola," "All Day And All Of The Night," and "Till The End of The Day" Aside from extensive banter from Davies, the show is as solid as you can expect from the never-know-what-you're-gonna-get Kinks. They close with the one-two punch of "You Really Got Me" followed by "Victoria."
The Kinks would stay active for another five or six years, doing a few more studio albums and playing their last public show at the opening of the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland in September, 1995. Dave Davies suffered a stroke in 2003, and although he has made public appearances, he has not toured with his solo band. Ray Davies continues to tour playing his own new material and old Kinks standards with the same band.
