Thursday 29 August 2013

Brother of Kinks co-founder Peter Quaife to stage fund-raising gig for dialysis machine users

The younger brother of one of the founders of The Kinks is staging a special gig and dialysis fundraiser launch at a Covent Garden club.

David and Peter Quaife used to get on scooters and ride to the Seven Dials Club, in Earlham Street – scene of next month’s launch – in the 1960s.

David, a 59-year-old army veteran, said: “We were a close family. I was 12 or 13 when he [Peter] started off with The Kinks. I went on tour with them.

“The Seven Dials Club was a great place back in those days. There were a load of characters there and it had a local pub feel.

“I was too young but they’d let me in. I had Cuban heel boots that made me taller.

“It was a great place for us to escape from the police because there were seven roads leading off it. We’d go down there on Friday nights on our scooters – Peter had a Vespa 180 – and a whole crowd would turn up. Then we’d go off to the 100 Club or Ronnie Scott’s if we had the cash.”

In later life Peter suffered from renal failure and spent four or five hours a day on dialysis machines for 16 years before his death in 2010.

David said that, because of new sterilisation rules, for the last six years of Peter’s life he was not allowed to take anything to pass the time into the clinic with him.

He said: “Pete used to like to draw cartoons or read a paper. But then he wasn’t allowed to do anything for six years.”

This was still happening today, he added. “They just plonk you down in front of a TV,” he said. “That’s no life for a child.”

David, who runs the Peter Quaife Foundation, is raising funds to buy children on dialysis units things to brighten up their lives. “Like PlayStations or X-Boxes but whatever they want really”, said David.

A new CD of The Kinks covers, called Pass It On, is launching at the Seven Dials Club on September 21.

There will be a full meal and old-style DJs playing vinyl. To find out more, go to www.petequaifefoundation.com

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