From pretty much the moment they broke up in 1996, rumors have swirled suggesting we might someday see fractious siblings Ray and Dave Davies of The Kinks hop onto stage together once again. But despite the occasional hints at some sort of reunion tour—and collaborations between the separated Davieses and their other former bandmates—it never seems to happen. That’s at least partially owing to problems of health (Dave Davies had a stroke in 2004), but it also probably has something to do with the brothers’ seemingly unavoidable delight in occasionally talking shit about each other—as when Dave Davies was asked about a reunion in 2011, and responded with, “About an hour with Ray’s my limit, so it would be a very short reunion.”
But last night—and for much less than an hour—that fabled reunion finally happened: As part of a concert held by Dave in London, he brought his brother on stage, and the two rocked out to the band’s 1964 hit, “You Really Got Me,” with both the brothers and the crowd apparently having a pretty damn good time.
Obviously, one brief on-stage team-up doesn’t mean we’re about to see The Kinks storm the festival circuit once again, but it is kind of nice to cross one more item off the “When Pigs Fly” list of musical impossibilities. (Given how consistently they’ve cited The Kinks as a major influence over the years, we can only assume we’ll be hearing about Noel and Liam Gallagher surprising fans with a duet of “Wonderwall” soon at some upcoming, quasi-mythical gig.)