[Spiv]

I caught him on BBC 4 last night - absolutely incredible! One classic after another and barely paused for breath! Loved it, reminded me how great The Beach Boys were and what a truely amazing composer Brian Wilson is. His band were awesome, Brian is a bit of a shell but its a miracle that he's up there at all. Highlight of the festival for me

[Manko]

When I saw this title I thought: 'Yeah, I saw him too. What a state! Terrible.'

You liked that? I thought it was embarassing.

[sally1978]

Originally Posted by Manko

When I saw this title I thought: 'Yeah, I saw him too. What a state! Terrible.'

You liked that? I thought it was embarassing.

Totally agree.

He just didnt look as`if he wanted to be there

[Spiv]

Originally Posted by Manko

When I saw this title I thought: 'Yeah, I saw him too. What a state! Terrible.'

You liked that? I thought it was embarassing.

Oh! Well I suppose I have seen stuff about his background and clips of his recent concerts so am looking at it from a different perspective, he is a shell of a man but as far as I know is loving it - due to mental, physical and drug related problems he is like he is.

[getty]

Well I enjoyed him and so did the crowd, he got a fantastic reception and the scenes of the crowd really enjoying themselves were great.

[metafis]

He was fantastic. So what if his voice is shot a bit, he still pulled it off and it was great hearing all those old songs again. he went down extremely well with the crowd.
He is a legend and delivered the goods in spades.

[Smoo]

Originally Posted by Spiv

I caught him on BBC 4 last night - absolutely incredible! One classic after another and barely paused for breath! Loved it, reminded me how great The Beach Boys were and what a truely amazing composer Brian Wilson is. His band were awesome, Brian is a bit of a shell but its a miracle that he's up there at all. Highlight of the festival for me

I totally agree, Spiv.
I've only gotten into the Beach Boys/Brian Wilson in the past year due to a friend, but I think their music is incredible.
I recently read Brian Wilson's book 'Wouldn't It Be Nice', so like you, I know something about his background, and it was very sad in places. I can't believe what he went through and the book made me cry several times.
When I saw him at Glastobury, I thought the whole performance was sheer joy and just looking at Brian made my heart both sad and warm at the same time, knowing what he's been through.

[trotwood]

Dont be so shallow,he obviously has health problems.The music was fantastic and his band was incredible-thats all that matters.

[Spiv]

Originally Posted by metafis

He was fantastic. So what if his voice is shot a bit, he still pulled it off and it was great hearing all those old songs again. he went down extremely well with the crowd.
He is a legend and delivered the goods in spades.

Yep, that echoes my thoughts, I do think the band were to be commended though, they were great with the harmonies, helped fill in the gaps and were really rocking - looked like they were having the time of their lives too!

btw, the guitarist who was doing a great job looked familiar to me - anyone any ideas on who he was - couldn't place him. Also, was that Bobby Keys on Sax?

Smoo - I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought he was great I must read that book.

[Spiv]

Originally Posted by trotwood

Dont be so shallow,he obviously has health problems.The music was fantastic and his band was incredible-thats all that matters.

To be fair to the detractors and without wishing to sound patronising, if you are of the younger generation and don't really know the background of the BB's and of the massive impact their music had on a generation then all you would probably see is some old geezer sitting very still, looking a bit odd and not singing that well..

[Urban Bassman]

Originally Posted by Spiv

Yep, that echoes my thoughts, I do think the band were to be commended though, they were great with the harmonies, helped fill in the gaps and were really rocking - looked like they were having the time of their lives too!

btw, the guitarist who was doing a great job looked familiar to me - anyone any ideas on who he was - couldn't place him. Also, was that Bobby Keys on Sax?

Smoo - I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought he was great I must read that book.

I saw Brian last year on the 2nd SMiLE tour and it was one of the best, if not the best gig's I have ever been to in my life (and I've been to a few in my 47 years), and I think the crowd at Glastonbury also showed that he is a Rock God. I did hear that he had a bigger crowd than Coldplay.

His band is basically based around a California outfit called The Wondermints, plus a couple of others, who he used when he toured Pet Sounds about 4 years ago - and basically they have stuck with him. The line up is:

Jeffrey Foskett (vocals, lead guitar), Darian Sahanaja (vocals, vibes, keyboards), Probyn Gregory (vocals, guitar, keyboards, horns), Nick Walusko (vocals, guitar), Nelson Bragg (drums), Jim Hines (drums), Bob Lizik (bass), Paul Mertens (flute, saxophones), Scott Bennett (vocals, keyboards, percussion), and Taylor Mills (vocals)

Sahanaja tends to be his main musical director these day and helped him get SMiLE back into a working, perfomable piece of music.

There have been a couple of Documentaries in recent times both of which are really worth checking out for a history of the man and where he is at today - Beautiful Dreamer has been released as part of the recent SMiLE DVD and the Alan Yentob documentary (not sure if this on the SMiLE DVD) is also worth checking out.

And on top of all that isn't Taylor Mills (the female vocalist) gorgeous!!!

[Spiv]

Thanks for all that UB - I am going to follow your recommendations as soon as I get time!

Yeah and that was one foxy lady