Rare photos and memorabilia marking the release of a classic Kinks album 50 years ago are to go on show at a London gallery this week. The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, the band’s sixth studio album, failed to spark commercial fireworks at the time, but has since become a landmark of pop culture.
A musical valediction for a vanishing way of life, it was the final album made by the original quartet: brothers Ray and Dave Davies, Pete Quaife and Mick Avory.
Photographer Barrie Wentzell, who took many of the images used to promote the album, remembers hearing its themes explained by the band’s frontman: “As we were speeding up the Edgware Road, Ray told me about the album idea. The old pubs, houses, steam trains, village greens and old London were disappearing before our eyes – very sadly romantic and nostalgic and true!”
The exhibition, at Proud Central, features a photoshoot on Hampstead Heath, with Kenwood House behind: “Ray’s favourite location”. The show opens on Thursday, with a reissue of the album due at the end of October.
