THE 70s brought us Lola, Apeman, Wish I Could Fly Like Superman and the darkly festive Father Christmas, and the 80s were enlivened by Come Dancing and Don’t Forget To Dance.

Ray and the band were also responsible for some great albums and Ray readily became a pioneer of concept albums as far back as 1968 with The Village Green Preservation Society, then Schoolboys In Disgrace, Stamaker and Preservation Acts One and Two in the mid- 70s.

The Kinks as a band was active between 1964 and 1994, but their legacy lives on and Ray has produced some astounding solo recordings such as Working Man’s Café, The Storyteller and See My Friends on which he collaborates with a host of musicians on reworkings of his classic catalogue.

But Ray’s songwriting was not just an outlet for his creativity as he tells me.

“I started writing songs because I was an insomniac as a child and there was no all-night television.

“I did not like the radio except Radio Luxembourg, so I wrote songs to keep insomnia away and it wasn’t until I started playing with the band that I decided to use some of these songs to play in the set.”

The Kinks’ first hit, You Really Got Me, was a Ray Davies composition, and he was surprised at the success that his writing had.

“It surprised me that people could identify with the same things that I was thinking in my head.

“When you’re an adolescent and starting out to communicate with the world you don’t think that anybody understands.

“I still don’t think anyone understood Waterloo Sunset. It was a very personal song to me.”

After years of success, the pressure built up and in 1973, Ray left The Kinks in spectacular fashion after a show at the White City Stadium in London. Ray tells me the reason behind this bombshell, which many thought was a cry for help after years of relentless touring and recording.

“I felt at the time I had done enough with The Kinks and after the White City concert I spoke to my brother Dave. He agreed to do the concept albums I had developed.

“I wanted to get into more theatrical things and do albums rather than just a string of singles.

“It wasn’t a cry for help so much as a demand to have the say in what things I did rather than follow the record company ethos.”

These days Ray, who performed Waterloo Sunset in the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, still writes songs and is also looking to the future generation.

“No one can teach you how to have talent, and when I teach writing I emphasise that I don’t teach people, I coach them.”

“Encouragement is the most important thing and you have to help an artist bring out their natural talents rather than impose a set of beliefs that are alien to them.”

The tour, which has Ray playing with a four-piece backing band (which features ex-Kinks member Ian Gibbons on keyboards), promises to be an overview of an astounding career.

However, celebrating his songs is not the only reason he tours.

“I go on the road to communicate with people and find out how they are thinking – that’s why I started out touring and that’s why I will continue to do it.

“I won’t decide what to play until I walk on stage,” he says.

“I work very closely with the audience.

There will be a selection of songs, but I won’t decide until we go on stage.”

“I like doing Kinks’ songs and there are some songs from Working Man’s Café I really like.

“Songs like Imaginary Man and In A Moment are very close songs to me and I was as proud of these songs as I was any other of my Kinks records.”

Any proposed reunion of The Kinks suffered a setback some years ago when Ray’s younger brother Dave, the guitarist with the band, suffered a stroke. Given that the two siblings have had a volatile relationship in the past, Ray has only good things to say these days.

“Dave is doing very well, he is very communicative and very articulate. He’s got a good brain and that’s the most important thing.

“I never rule out working with The Kinks again.”

Watch this space.

n Ray and his band will be appearing at Southampton Guildhall tomorrow night.