The Kinks legend Dave Davies, 76, makes a rare public appearance
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Jason Chester Jason Chester for MailOnline www.facebook.com
London-born Dave, 76, was on hand to read extracts, sign autographs and pose for selfies at the event, which served as a celebration of his life and extraordinary career.
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Mail Online
With The Kinks he filled venues across the United Kingdom, but Dave Davies welcomed a rather more exclusive audience as he promoted his tell-all autobiography in New York City.

The legendary guitarist, who formed the band with elder brother Ray in 1963, made a rare public appearance while discussing 2022 publication Living On A Thin Line for a small group of fans at the city's Rough Trade.

London-born Dave, 76, was on hand to read extracts, sign autographs and pose for selfies at the event, which served as a celebration of his life and extraordinary career.

The musician appeared to be in good spirits as he arrived wearing a wide-brimmed hat over shoulder length grey hair and carrying a floral patterned satchel.

Living On A Thin Line - named after The Kinks' 1985 single - details Dave's rise to fame during the frenetic sixties, his raucous behaviour with the band, an unorthodox passing interest in the occult and his debilitating 2004 stroke.

Dave was 57 when a stroke left him with temporary paralysis across the right side of his body, but he eventually regained full mobility and has since released three solo albums.

Born in North London suburb Muswell Hill, Dave and elder brother Ray became spokesman for a younger generation of socially conscious teenagers throughout the 1960s after forming The Kinks with bandmates Mick Avory and Pete Quaife.

But the brothers have a famously fractious relationship. The professional harmony turned out so many classic hits, but it wasn’t so smooth in real life.

Perhaps the moment that best sums up their relationship came at Dave’s 50th birthday bash, during which Ray threw Dave's birthday cake on the ground and stamped on it.

‘I think he probably paid for the cake, too, but that was Ray all over,' Dave told the Daily Mail in 2017.

'He’d want me to have something like that — but then he couldn’t bear to see me with it.’

'He wants me to have things, but can’t stand it when I do. I love him. He loves me, but when we’re in the same room, it doesn’t work.'

He added: ‘It’s worse when other people are around — when others are there Ray needs to perform, he needs to be the centre of attention.

‘I like to say Ray was only happy for the first three years of his life — until I came along. But he’s still my brother.’

He is now matter-of-fact about the reality of living in his big brother’s shadow. That Ray seems to despise him is just something that he accepts.

‘There is something about me that irritates him,' he said. 'I don’t know what it is. It’s a toxic thing. It’s vampirism. Ray is a bit of a control freak. That may be a good thing sometimes — it’s probably helped his writing

‘In any creative work — whether you are a writer, painter, musician — there are times in life when a lot of crazy stuff goes around.

'The music stirs all sorts of things and for us there were definitely periods of madness, that’s even before the drinking and the drug-taking and the getting exhausted.’