Fat Mac predicted that at The Beach Boys concert in the Royal Albert Hall I’d get over-excited, be attacked by toilet doors, be threatened by Jeffrey Foskett (lead guitar) with eviction for over-exuberant dancing, and lose my false teeth – like what happened when I took him to a SMiLE concert some time ago – but nothing untoward occurred at all, apart from waking up with terrible cramp in my leg in the middle of the night after all the foot-stomping.
The capacity crowd of 5,000 people really enjoyed a fantastic concert. It was strange for me to be in a place with so many other Brian-heads, most of whom were constantly on their feet dancing to an almost relentless progression of wonderful pop sings. They performed nearly sixty songs during the three hour concert – each one welcomed with sighs of appreciation once the crowd recognised the first catchy few bars.
Not bad at all for a bunch of guys, some of whom are the wrong side of seventy. There were fourteen members of the band – five of the original Beach Boys (Brian, David, Mike, Al and Brucie), plus various Wondermints and other members of the Brian Wilson backing band and Mike & Bruce’s backing band.
I was surprised how strong Bruce and Al’s voices were, after all these years. Nearly all of the big hits were included, in fact just about everything on their new 50 Big Ones: Greatest Hits double CD.
Three hours of awesome music, by the best band in the world.
My hotel room in Bayswater was a bit pokey, but perfectly adequate.
On the bus out to Edinburgh Airport, the commentary voice that describes the stops is the same one that we once used for the Heriot-Watt Library orientation video. I was expecting him to say, at any moment, “Welcome to the library. For many of you this may the the first time you’ve set foot in a university library, and you may be wondering where to start. Well, this presentation will help you. It will show you…”
At Heathrow, I was standing behind a chap with a very smart green jacket and pink check shirt, and in a day dreaming way for some reason I started to think that this is not the sort of person you could trust – too well turned out, too smooth, etc. Then, on the plane, he sat over from me and opened his book to read. It was this one.
How weird is that?