Mick Avory playing with The Swinging Blue Jeans in 2013
- Birth name: Michael Charles Avory
- AKA: Mick
- Born: February 15, 1944 East Molesey, Surrey, England
- Genres: Rock, pop
- Occupation: Musician
- Instruments: Drums, percussion
- Years Active: 1962-present
- Labels: Pye, RCA, Arista
- Associated Acts: Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Kast Off Kinks, The Class of 64, Legends of the Sixties
- On the Web:
Highlights
Mick Avory is an English musician who is best known as the longtime drummer and percussionist for the English rock band The Kinks. He joined them shortly after their formation in 1964 and stayed with them until 1984, when he left due to creative friction with guitarist Dave Davies. Mick is the longest-serving member of the band, apart from the Davies brothers. Mick is also one of few drummers to have played for twenty years on twenty studio albums for a single band, also featuring in all of the compilations and making many live-performances with The Kinks.
Pre-Kinks (1962-63)
Before he joined The Kinks, Mick rehearsed twice 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.
The Kinks (1964-84)
Mick joined the Kinks in January 1964, after their previous drummer Micky Willet left the band. He was hired to replace Willet after their management saw an advertisement Mick 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 Mick 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 Mick often providing supporting percussion. The first single A-side Mick played on was Everybody’s Gonna Be Happy, and he went on to play on the vast majority of Kinks material after that.
Mick was 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, Mick hit Davies with his drum pedal (not the cymbal stand, which, according to later interviews with Mick “would have decapitated him”), as retaliation for Davies kicking over his drumset 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 Mick and the younger Davies brother deteriorated to the point where Mick 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.
Ray Davies 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.”
Mick was replaced by Bob Henrit, former drummer with The Roulettes , Unit 4 + 2 and Argent.
Later on, it would seem that Mick and Dave Davies settled their differences, as Mick subsequently played drums on “Rock ‘n’ Roll Cities“, a track on the Think Visual album written by Dave Davies. Mick 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.
1985-present
In 1996, Mick started playing with The Kast Off Kinks, along with John Dalton, Dave Clarke (no relation to the Dave Clark of “The Dave Clark Five“), and John Gosling. He has performed with them ever since.
In the 1990s, he also formed Shut Up Frank with Clarke, Noel Redding and Dave Rowberry of The Animals. They toured extensively and recorded several albums.
Avory was inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005, with original bassist Pete Quaife and the Davies brothers.
By April 2004 at the request of The Animals, who were about to do their 40th anniversary tour, Chip Hawkes (formerly of The Tremeloes) was asked to form a band to tour along with them. Chip brought together a true beat-era supergroup. The band featured former original members of British 1960s groups, including Avory, Eric Haydock (The Hollies) and Hawkes, who have now combined to perform as The Class of 64 (referring to the actual year the British Invasion took America by storm), also featuring guitarists ‘Telecaster Ted’ Tomlin and Graham Pollock. The band has toured around the world and recorded an album of their former bands’ hits.
In 2007, Mick left The Class of 64 and, with other former 64 members Haydock, Pollock, Tomlin, formed a new band called The Legends of the Sixties, which also features Martin Lyon. Mick made a special guest appearance onstage at Ray Davies’ Royal Albert Hall performance on 10 May 2007 playing tambourine. Also guesting was Ian Gibbons, the former longtime Kinks keyboard player.
Mick also currently plays in The ’60s All Stars’ band, featuring members of British 1960s groups: John Dee (The Foundations), Alan Lovell (The Swinging Blue Jeans) and Derek Mandell (The George Harrison Band). The band can be seen playing regularly at the Cardinal Wolsey pub in Hampton Court in Mick’s native East Molesey, Surrey. In 2009, Mick was selected to drum for From The Jam following Rick Buckler‘s departure.
