Long regarded as one of England’s finest songwriters, Ray Davies will be taking his insuperable talents to the stage at this year’s Hard Rock Calling festival.The former Kinks frontman will join Rod Stewart and Adam Ant for the all-star line-up for the event, which takes place at Hyde Park, London, from Friday June 24th.
Davies has been billed by organisers as the second headliner on the Main Stage on the Saturday night, where he will be supporting US rockers Bon Jovi.
Other acts already confirmed for the three-day festival include The Killers, due to headline the main stage on Friday and Rod Stewart, who will take to the stage on the Sunday evening, closing the event.
Adam Ant is also preparing to step up his return to touring with a slot on the main stage on Sunday and Stevie Nicks and the Lighthouse Family will also be performing.
Although most famous for his formative years with The Kinks, Davies has been performing and recording as a solo artist since 1985. In this time he has released a total of six solo albums, the most recent of which, See My Friends, featured collaborations with Bruce Springsteen and Mumford and Sons. It peaked at number 12 on the UK Album Charts.
Last year, Davies played a slot on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival 2010.
Davies’ compositions for The Kinks’ early recordings of 1964-65 ranged from chiming, melodic beat music to the more distinctive and influential proto-metal, protopunk and powerchord-based rock and roll.
However, by the mid-to-late 1960s, this raucous early sound had gradually given way to more sensitive and complex songs.
Back in 2004, Davies won the Mojo Songwriter Award, which recognises “an artist whose career has been defined by his ability to pen classic material on a consistent basis”.