Ray Davies, composer and PRS for Music Members Benevolent Fund chairman, has sadly passed away, aged 89.
As one of the UK’s foremost musicians, arrangers, conductors, composers and lyricists, he worked with top drawer artists including The Beatles, Tony Bennett, Liza Minelli, Bing Crosby, Rolling Stones, Burt Bacharach, Shirley Bassey, Henry Mancini, Quincy Jones and Ella Fitzgerald.
He also regularly conducted the BBC Radio Orchestra, and recorded and broadcast with Serendipity Strings, Button Down Brass and the Peppermint Park groups.
Joining PRS for Music in 1967, Ray was an active member of the society for many years before going on to sit on the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) Songwriters Executive Committee from 1987 until 2015.
He also joined BASCA’s Gold Badge Awards Committee in 1995, chairing it from 2004 until 2010. In 2011, he won a Gold Badge Award himself for his services to British music.
John Logan, general secretary of the PRS for Music Members Benevolent Fund, told M: ‘Ray joined the Fund’s Committee of Management in 1994 and was elected chairman in 2002. I have had the pleasure of working with Ray throughout his time with the charity.
‘He worked ceaselessly to ensure that those PRS members – his fellow writers – who were in difficulty and required some support received it. It was during his chairmanship that many of the wide ranging support schemes now available from the Fund were introduced. We have a lot to thank him for.’
Picture credit: Al de Perez
As one of the UK’s foremost musicians, arrangers, conductors, composers and lyricists, he worked with top drawer artists including The Beatles, Tony Bennett, Liza Minelli, Bing Crosby, Rolling Stones, Burt Bacharach, Shirley Bassey, Henry Mancini, Quincy Jones and Ella Fitzgerald.
He also regularly conducted the BBC Radio Orchestra, and recorded and broadcast with Serendipity Strings, Button Down Brass and the Peppermint Park groups.
Joining PRS for Music in 1967, Ray was an active member of the society for many years before going on to sit on the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) Songwriters Executive Committee from 1987 until 2015.
He also joined BASCA’s Gold Badge Awards Committee in 1995, chairing it from 2004 until 2010. In 2011, he won a Gold Badge Award himself for his services to British music.
John Logan, general secretary of the PRS for Music Members Benevolent Fund, told M: ‘Ray joined the Fund’s Committee of Management in 1994 and was elected chairman in 2002. I have had the pleasure of working with Ray throughout his time with the charity.
‘He worked ceaselessly to ensure that those PRS members – his fellow writers – who were in difficulty and required some support received it. It was during his chairmanship that many of the wide ranging support schemes now available from the Fund were introduced. We have a lot to thank him for.’
Picture credit: Al de Perez
