Ray Davies: 'Simon Cowell should save 100 Club'

Ray Davies thinks that music mogul Simon Cowell should help to save London's 100 Club.

The basement venue on Oxford Street, which has seen performances from the likes of The Kinks, The Clash, Oasis, David Bowie and Bob Dylan, could soon be shut down due to spiralling overhead costs.

"Simon Cowell should underwrite the money needed to save the 100 Club," Davies told SpinnerMusic.co.uk. "That would be a real payback. The amount of money he takes out of pop music he could put some back in."

"I'm very concerned about the 100 Club," Davies continued. "The Kinks played there and it's such an iconic venue we shouldn't allow things like that to close down. Everything is being overrun by the chain stores and the conglomerates and it such a pity that the 100 Club has to suffer like that."

The legendary songwriter also revealed that his own Konk Studios are facing closure due to decreasing recording budgets and increasing overheads.

"The running costs have gone up and recording budgets from record companies have gone down and people record in a different way now," he explained. "Whereas people would go into record for six weeks, now they'll go in for maybe two days to lay down the drums and then do all the rest on recording programmes in their bedrooms at home."

Despite such potential closures and reducing budgets, Davies still believes that there is a way for bands to break through on their own.

"Even with X Factor and Britain's Got Talent there's a little band rehearsing in a garage somewhere waiting to break through on their own without any of that stuff," he said. "That's what I'm looking forward to hearing."