Music review: The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys ****
Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow
There was a business-as-usual momentum to their opening salvo of hits, all early odes to the joys of Californian beach life, lovingly recreated by their band of young(er) bucks under the musical directorship of Scott Totten.
But there was space among the standards to take a couple of scenic diversions into the lesser performed corners of their catalogue. There were welcome outings for the kitschy prom night fun of Be True to Your School and Johnston’s superior Disney Girls from Surf’s Up, while the 50th anniversary of their Wild Honey album was marked with the joyous power pop of Aren’t You Glad and the glorious Darlin’, led by their trusty wingman Jeffrey Foskett.
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Hide AdER actor and occasional dabbler John Stamos was also unexpectedly along for the ride, contributing guitar, percussion, rousing speeches and a passable stab at Dennis Wilson’s Forever. Brother Carl was remembered using an archive vocal on the spine-tingling God Only Knows. But the air of remembrance extended too far with Pisces Brothers, Mike Love’s mawkish tribute to George Harrison, which was the one blatant bum note of the set.