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Peter Alexander Greenlaw Quaife (born Kinnes; 31 December 1943 – 23 June 2010) was an English musician, artist and author. He was a founding member and the original bassist for the Kinks, from 1963 until 1969. He also sang backing vocals on some of their records.
Quaife founded a group known as the Ravens in 1963 with brothers Ray Davies and Dave Davies. In late 1963 or early 1964, they changed their name to the Kinks. The group scored several major international hits throughout the 1960s. Their early singles, including "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night", have been cited as an early influence on the hard rock and heavy metal genres. In the band's early days, Quaife, who was generally regarded as the best-looking member, was often their spokesman. The Times obituary, 26 June 2010 He departed from the Kinks in 1969 and formed the band Mapleoak, which he left in April 1970.
After retiring from the music business, Quaife resided in Denmark throughout the 1970s. He relocated to Belleville, Ontario, Canada in 1980, where he worked as a cartoonist and artist. He was diagnosed with kidney failure in 1998 and moved back to Denmark in 2005. Quaife died on 23 June 2010 of kidney failure.
For the next two years Quaife played on albums such as Something Else by the Kinks and The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, and helped rehearse some songs on the album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire). Quaife left the Kinks permanently in April 1969, but the others did not at first believe him, and only realised his intention when they saw an article in a music paper revealing Quaife's new band. Ray Davies asked him to change his mind and stay, but without success. He was again replaced on bass, this time permanently, by Dalton.
Quaife had contacts in Denmark, so the group concert heavily there and in the UK during most of 1969 and early 1970. Cook left the band in June 1969, and was replaced by another Canadian: Gordon MacBain, who would write most of the group's original material.
Mapleoak released their first single, "Son of a Gun", in April 1970 but it failed to record chart. Quaife then left both the band and the music industry. He subsequently moved to Denmark, and did not appear on Mapleoak's only album, which was released in 1971.
Quaife was an active amateur astronomer and was known as a capable astro-photographer who enjoyed the dark skies of The Bay of Quinte area in Ontario, Canada. He was a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) and encouraged many people in the science of astronomy.
Quaife was diagnosed with kidney failure in 1998. During Kidney dialysis sessions, he drew a series of cartoons based on his experiences. Following their enthusiastic reception by other patients, they were subsequently published in book form as The Lighter Side of Dialysis (Jazz Communications, Toronto, 2004). Though he was invariably known as 'Pete' during his time with the Kinks, Quaife's books are published under the name 'Peter Quaife'.
In 1996, in an interview for Goldmine Magazine, The Who John Entwistle was asked who his favourite bassist was, he responded: "I'd say one of my favourite bass players was Pete Quaife because he literally drove the Kinks along". Entwistle was not the only musician that thought well of Quaife. Thomas Kitts writes that in early 1966, Eric Clapton invited Quaife to join a band that would eventually become Cream.
Quaife lived in Canada for more than two decades, but he moved back to Denmark in 2005 after his marriage ended in divorce, to live with his girlfriend Elisabeth Bilbo, whom he had known since she was a 19-year-old Kinks fan. At the time of his death, they had become engaged to marry.
In 2005, Quaife was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame with the Kinks, marking the final reunion of the four original band members. In December 2007, Record Collector published an interview with Ray Davies, in which he was quoted as saying, "I spoke to Quaife about a month ago and he dearly wants to make another record with me". The tabloid press picked up on this quote, and turned it into a story saying that the Kinks were reforming for a tour in 2008. However, in an interview aired on the Biography Channel in December 2008, Quaife flatly said he would never participate in any type of Kinks reunion. In March 2009, Quaife released a statement that he was permanently retiring from the public eye.
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