2009-07-29 13:42:05 -
THE KINKS came close to striking a deal with notorious London gangsters REGGIE and RONNIE KRAY - the twins wanted to manage the hit 60s band.
The Waterloo Sunset hitmakers were approached by the British criminals asking if they could look after the group's affairs during its heyday.
The Krays even tried to set up a meeting to discuss the possibility but it never came to fruition, according to the group's frontman Ray Davies.
The singer says, "Our managers at the time were stockbroker types. They had a visit from someone in the Kray organisation saying they were interested in managing us. They also asked if Mick Avory (the band's drummer) would be available for a date. It wouldn't have been beneath our managers to strike a deal. The mind boggles." Reggie Kray also contacted Davies from jail after he mentioned the siblings in his solo track London Song in 1998.
Davies adds, "I received a phone call from Her Majesty's Prison saying how much he liked it." The Kray twins ruled the London underworld in the 1960s before they were sentenced to life imprisonment in 1969 for the murders of two fellow gangsters.