Pete Quaife dies at 66; original bass player for the Kinks

Pete Quaife, the original bassist for the Kinks who played on such early hits as “You Really Got Me,” “All Day and All of the Night” and “Tired of Waiting for You” before leaving the British band in 1969, has died. He was 66.

Quaife died Wednesday of kidney failure in Herlev, Denmark, according to British news reports. He had moved to Denmark in 2005 after having lived in Canada for many years.

“Without Pete there would have been no Kinks,” Dave Davies, an original band member, said on his website. “He was a great musician. You could always trust his playing, creative input, intuitive response to musical ideas.”

“The Kinks were never really the Kinks without you,” Davies added.

Growing up in north London, Quaife was a schoolmate of Ray and Dave Davies and began playing rock ‘n’ roll with the brothers in 1961. “We drew lots to see who would play bass guitar, and Pete lost,” Dave Davies wrote in his 1996 memoir “Kink.”

With Ray Davies as guitarist, lead singer and songwriter, his younger brother Dave on guitar, Quaife on bass and Mick Avory on drums, the Kinks officially formed in 1963. Their third single, “You Really Got Me,” quickly rose to No. 1 on the U.K. pop charts in 1964 and set the standard for the band’s driving hard-rock sound.

While helping to power the British invasion of pop music, the band had a string of hits, including “All Day and All of the Night,” “Tired of Waiting for You,” “Dedicated Follower of Fashion,” “Sunny Afternoon” and “Waterloo Sunset.” But it was a contentious group whose troubles could be traced to the Davies’ intense sibling rivalry.

Quaife had taken a break from the band in 1966 after breaking his leg in a car accident and, weary of playing peacemaker in the brothers’ disputes, left for good in 1969. John Dalton replaced him on bass.

Quaife briefly joined another band, Maple Oak, but quit after about a year.

Born Dec. 31, 1943, in Tavistock, England, Peter Alexander Greenlaw Quaife studied commercial art before the Kinks became a success, and returned to art after leaving music. He worked as a graphic artist and a few years ago published a book of cartoons called “The Lighter Side of Dialysis.”

He rejoined the Kinks for a single concert in Canada in 1981 and appeared with the band at its 1990 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Quaife is survived by his partner, Elisabeth Bilbo, and a daughter.

claire.noland@latimes.com