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Two Perspectives On John Stamos

2008-07-22T02:24:43Z

Two reviews of John Stamos' performance on July 4th.

First, the good news:

John Stamos has some amazing amount of energy. We mentioned that he was on the drums, well that wasn’t all. He also for certain songs, would leave the drums and move up to the front line near Mike Love where he sang and played the guitar. John sang “Good Timin’” and with his sensual sounding voice, he performed the song with great emotion.

Now, the bad news:

clipped from www.starmagazine.com

John Stamos is no guitar hero, claims a source who saw the 44-year-old TV hunk take the stage with the Beach Boys during a July 4 Hilton Casino Resort's Beach Party concert in Atlantic City. "John's been friends with the Beach Boys for years," says the source. "He's a terrific drummer, and often sits in with them, as he did on July 4. At that show, he also grabbed a guitar and played along in a number of songs. But his playing was sloppy, and it looked like he was more concerned with jumping around and posing like a rock god at the edge of the stage. One of the crew members said, 'We turned down the sound on his guitar!'"

Why Pacific Ocean Blue Was Finally Reissued

2008-07-22T01:46:35Z

Jim Guercio explains what finally brought POB back.

clipped from www.chicagotribune.com

Carl Wilson died of brain and lung cancer in 1998. Three years ago, at the wedding of Carl's son Justyn, Guercio made the decision to bring the music of Justyn's Uncle Dennis back into the public eye.

"I felt it was important to his children and to his family," said Guercio, who bankrolled the project as well. "From that day on, it was, 'Forget business. We're going to figure this out.' "

It wasn't a simple process, said Billy Hinsche, longtime Beach Boys sideman and a Wilson in-law who sang on both "POB" and "Bambu."

"Just getting 'Pacific Ocean Blue' re-released was very complicated. [One question was] who owns it? There are four different record companies on the cover."

Stan Love and the Pacific Ocean Blue Tour

2008-07-22T01:37:47Z

Is this why the Pacific Ocean Blue tour was canceled?

clipped from www.rollingstone.com

The album was widely praised by critics and Dennis hoped to launch a brief tour to keep the momentum going. It never happened. "We even had tour T-shirts printed," Jacobson says. "I don't know this for a fact, but many people swear that Stan Love, who was managing the group at the time, told Dennis that if he took POB on the road he wouldn't be a Beach Boy anymore. Whatever the reason, it threw Dennis into a tailspin." Dennis poured himself back into his music and planned to release Bambu, a follow-up based around songs cut for his debut. "The next album is 100 times better than Pacific Ocean Blue," Dennis told an interviewer in September 1977. "I have more confidence now that I've completed one project." Bambu remained unfinished, as Dennis' spiraling addictions kept him out of the recording studio. On December 28th, 1983 he drowned while swimming in the Pacific Ocean.

I Praise Loudly, I Blame Softly

2008-07-22T01:28:51Z

Brian Wilson sings the merits of Phil Spector.

clipped from www.contactmusic.com

BEACH BOYS star BRIAN WILSON has hailed accused murderer PHIL SPECTOR as the most important musician of all time.
Spector, 67, is accused of murdering actress Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra, California mansion, in 2003 but he has denied the charges - claiming her death was suicide. He is facing a re-trial in October (08) after a jury failed to reach a verdict last year (07).
But Wilson insists that despite all of the negative publicity - the legendary producer and songwriter should still be remembered for his massive influence on pop music.
The Surfin' USA hitmaker believes that without Spector - who famously pioneered multi-layer recording which became known as the Wall of Sound - many of the greatest pop albums would not exist.
He says, "The most important person in music of all time is Phil Spector.
"He was someone I'd admired from the start. I loved his records. His work was always better than everyone else's, and even now that's still true. There's no-one like him."

Brian Wilson Offers Refund

2008-07-15T19:42:22Z

KBS Radio reports Brian Wilson is offering a refund to disgruntled New York fans.

In response to several disgruntled fans, Brian Wilson and his wife and manager Melinda Wilson have decided to refund fans'tickets for his July 11th New York City concert at Hammerstein Ballroom.

Fans complained that the show, which was a benefit for the Stand Up For A Cure cancer benefit, ran up to several hundred dollars but had poor visibility for some seats, and only contained a 75-minute performance by Wilson. Wilson performed with a scaled-back band, and his setlist lacked Beach Boys or solo rarities.

Melinda Wilson chatted with fans on brianwilson.com and said that Brian wanted to refund the money to fans who were unhappy by having them send their ticket stubs to their publicist for reimbursement.

Melinda said in her various messages: "Brian saw the posts and asked me to respond. He's really sensitive to all of your feelings and doesn't want to offending anyone. He wanted to make this offer to keep everyone cool (as he said)... With the exception of the charity show, most of these ticket prices are less than they have been in the past. On (July) 17th, the show (in Brooklyn, New York's Coney Island) is FREE please take advantage of that. Hope this clears the air for you. Thank you for being Brian's fan."

It's Good To Be In Ottawa

2008-07-13T20:41:55Z

Homemade chocolate chip cookies are in my contract, as well.

It was clear to anyone watching Brian Wilson perform that the ravages of drugs and mental illness have left him impaired. While driving to the gig with Wilson on Wednesday, one of his entourage spotted a huge building on Wellington Street and asked his driver,"What church is that?"

"It's not a church," responded the driver. "It's our Parliament Buildings."

"Ah, yes, this is the capital isn't it?" replied the visitor. He then turned to Wilson: "Brian when you're on stage say 'It's good to be in Ottawa.' Got that. Now say it back to me Brian."

Minutes into his show, Wilson repeated the exact words.

Backstage, the writer of the Beach Boys' most memorable music was subdued, but clearly delighted by the homemade chocolate chip cookies that were requested in his contract.

Horrifying And Somewhat Humiliating

2008-07-11T10:16:34Z

NOT a five star rating for this Ottawa concert.

For more than an hour, Wilson seemed pretty out of it, at least as far as fronting a band at Bluesfest goes. He spent virtually the whole 75-minutes perched on a stool, staring blankly out at the audience and singing occasionally while his enthusiastic band pumped out lively party versions of old favourites...

Initially, I found Wilson's brief show horrifying and somewhat humiliating.

I thought he had recovered sufficiently from the paralyzing mental breakdown he suffered 35 years ago enough at least to perform. Instead, an obviously exhausted Wilson looked like he wouldn't be able to finish the show, saying nothing other than monosyllabic hellos.

Just when you thought things couldn't get worse, the sound system crashed into dead silence for almost two songs early in the set.

It's a credit to Wilson that the music he wrote 40 years ago still makes old foggies feel like teenagers. Eventually, the show lost some of its macabre polish, or we just got used to seeing him in a comatose state. By then, the fans were well into the music and the memories.

But there was something about the reality of seeing Wilson like this that makes the fantasy of The Beach Boys suddenly hard to take.

Al Jardine's Property Threatened By Big Sur Fire

2008-07-03T18:13:39Z

Per Steve Julian of KPCC, Al Jardine's property is being threatened by the Big Sur wildfire.

July 03, 2008 - The fire near Big Sur has forced nearly everyone out of town. The wildfire has charred more than 50,000 acres and jumped a fire line. One person who's staying put for now is Mary Ann Jardine. Her husband, Al, you might know, is a member of the Beach Boys. KPCC's Steve Julian spoke to Mary Ann, just as Al was driving away.

Julian: Al is leaving, why aren't you?

Jardine: Um, I'm staying with the property. Of course, I had a flight out, but my, we have 22-year-old sons, and they are staying with me, and we are getting the property more ready. We're making sure, we have gel that we purchased actually last Friday. Thermagel that we are putting out for the firefighters to use.

We're making sure the clearance is away, that the propane is off, out, turned off. And, you know, all that kind of stuff. That we just have the property ready, and since the fire is probably maybe three miles from our house, which doesn't sound very far, but, well, it depends. We do only have one road out towards the fire to go out, so we have to make sure that we do have a way out.

Julian: Who are you counting on to tell you when you must, absolutely leave?

Jardine: Yeah, that's kind of the problem, is if you get out of your property, then they can take you away or arrest you and tell you you can't get back, so to check on things, it's kind of iffy, you know. To get out of our canyon, to go look at it. But it would be better if we were up on the hill watching it, if you know what I mean.

But we're down in a canyon, so I guess we're gonna just watch it and hopefully, you know, today or tomorrow, we'll definitely leave. We're just trying to make the property ready for the firefighters to come in and make it a better, an easier access for them to work on. Make sure the vehicles are parked where they, you know, the ones that we're not taking; our tractor, and all that kind of facility, and all the windows are closed, and the doors are closed, and all the things that you're supposed to do in a fire.