locations, including a Canadian show, probably for Vancouver on 11July. By 16June – the day before the Kinks departed for the tour – five of 16 finalised shows were cancelled, prompting the addition of five hastily arranged concerts. The Kinks signed contracts for the tour on 16June at Denmark Productions, the London offices of Page and Kassner. Among the forms were applications to join the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), the US musicians' union, a requirement for working in America. Other touring British Invasion groups found the US union's regulations overly complicated. Ray initially expressed reservations about signing the necessary paperwork; after working a union job as a teenager, he had come to see trade unions as needlessly corrupt and militant. Page instead ascribed Ray's hesitance to his tendency towards prima donna-like behaviour. While each of the Kinks had held romantic notions about the United States since they were young, Ray was apprehensive about visiting the country, having become more cynical of it after the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy in November1963. He worried in part how American police would respond to the Kinks' sometimes violent inter-band disputes, especially since only a month had passed since the incident in Cardiff. He was further disappointed by the poor financial returns of the band's February visit and was unhappy about leaving his wife at home with their first-born child, who was born weeks earlier in mid-May. Arrival and issues with promoters The Kinks departed London at midday on and arrived in New York City early that afternoon. The same day of their arrival, the band appeared on The Clay Cole Show to promote their latest single "Set Me Free", which entered the Hot 100 the week before at number 83. The tour's first show occurred the following day at the Academy of Music, a cinema in New York City. The appearance was beset by numerous issues; the band were disappointed by the old venue's facilities and the theatre's employees, who showed open contempt to those in the rock and roll business. The venue's marquee initially incorrectly advertised "The Kings", while dispute arose when the Kinks, the Supremes and the Dave Clark Five realised that promoter Sid Bernstein had promised each group that they would be topping the bill. Problems continued at the following day's performance in Philadelphia, where Page was arrested and briefly jailed for failing to pay a local