THE BEACH BOYS

The SECC
Glasgow

Friday 26th May 2017

We travelled all the way to Glasgow to catch The Beach Boys - the incarnation that is Mike Love and Bruce Johnston. Years ago, this outfit was the act that just rocketed through the back catalogue of the hits. Since musical director Scott Totten and former "CEO of Falsetto" from Brian Wilson's band, Jeff Foskett have been firmly implanted in the band, the performance has expanded to include more obscure Beach Boys songs, to the extent that The Beach Boys now give a performance, that for the casual fan, could almost rival Brian Wilson and his touring band.

It was a great show. Mike Love is the quintessential front man, who dazzles the crowd with his gold rings and sparkly eyes. His voice is not as strong as it has been in the past, and in his defence we feel he does recognise that he cannot sing every song anymore, which also gives the great opportunity to include the songs sung by others in the set. Both Jeff Foskett and Scott Totten stepped up for many leads, and drummer John Cowsill did a fantastic "Wild Honey". Bass player and former member of (a recent version of ) The Four Freshman, Brian Eichenberger also added some superb lead vocals.

Jeff Foskett

All through the show, the big video screen at the back of the stage displayed loads of video, which was quite distracting at times because you can't watch the video and the band at the same time!!!

John Stamos was included in the UK leg of the tour. OK, he is nice Eye Candy for the girls, but he did prance about a bit too much, demanding the spotlight every time he was on the stage. Aside from adding vocals (he took the lead for "Forever"), and strumming the guitar, he was behind the drum kit a lot which we felt left John Cowsill a bit out in the cold. Cowsill is a brilliant drummer for The Beach Boys and we did miss his brilliant tom beat throughout the whole show.

Bruce Johnston sang lead on his signature song "Disney Girls" but other than that he seemed very quiet, and apart from joining in for the acapella nod to the Four Freshmen with "Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring", pretty much just kept behind the keyboard for the duration of the gig.

Bruce Johnston

With a dedication to the two Wilson brothers who sadly are no longer with us, Carl Wilson's vocal was used for "God Only Knows" to the backdrop of Carl videos. The same was done for "Do You Wanna Dance" with the vocal from Denny Wilson.

Tim Bonhomme

Overall the sound was very good, clear from where we sat. An addition to the sound on this tour was a Sax player and Tim Bonhomme on a second keyboard - this did make a difference.


The video backdrop was also used effectively for a break in the show for Mike to pay tribute to those who had been killed in the Manchester Arena terrorist bombing earlier in the week, with all the victim's names and photos displayed on the big screen. It was quite touching, but the cynics in us noticed that Mike and Bruce were reading verbatim off text taped to the floor by the microphones, so it was very scripted. All in all, this is a band who have improved greatly since we first saw them years ago. And despite his critics, kudos have to be given to Mike for still putting in a lot of physical effort keeping this show on the road, and doing so many gigs every year.

Mike Love

Mike Love & John Stamos

We were very fortunate, through a friend of the band, to obtain backstage passes, so after the show we had the chance to say hello to Jeffrey Foskett and Mike Love, who graciously posed for photos and signed memorabilia for everyone. We also met Mike's wife, Jacquelyne, who was an absolute delight and great to speak with.

With Jeff Foskett

Meeting Mike Love

The Beeb & Jacquelyne Love

One comment about the SECC - we had front row balcony seats as these usually give a great, uninterrupted view of the stage. What we did not know at the time of booking is that people have to walk across the front of the balcony to get to their seats so we had a constant stream of traffic!! Grrr