Music

Brian Wilson & Al Jardine Fight Back Against Mike Love Over Beach Boys Reunion

View Comments
Provided photo/Guy Webster

Provided photo/Guy Webster

It’s never quite good vibrations with the Beach Boys, is it? Just as the reunited surf-rockers are wrapped their 50th anniversary reunion tour this week in London, band members are feuding over the future of said reunion tour. Firing back at Mike Love’s new tour dates without Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks, Jardine is urging fans to sign an online petition to Love.

The petition, which currently has nearly 2,000 signatures after a few days, was started by a fan and promoted by Jardine on his official Facebook. The petition reads as follows: “In order to preserve the validity of “The Beach Boys” as a whole, and not as a “money saving, stripped down version” that only contains 1 original member, and 1 member that joined in 1965, we ask you to re-instate the 3 other members to the touring group for your final years performing. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s what the fans want!”

Jardine is not the only Beach Boy to express his unhappiness with the reunion’s end. “I’m disappointed and can’t understand why he [Love] doesn’t want to tour with Al, David and me,” Brian Wilson recently said. “We are out here having so much fun. After all, we are the real Beach Boys.”

Last week, a formal announcement was made regarding the future of the reunited Beach Boys, at least from where Love stands. Wilson, David Marks and Al Jardine will no longer perform with the group, following the final two reunion shows in London on September 27 and 28. The “Beach Boys,” at least in a touring sense of the word, will return to its pre-reunion lineup, led by Mike Love and consisting of member Bruce Johnston.

“As we move on, Bruce and I look forward to performing live for Beach Boys fans everywhere,” Love said in a press release.

The release continues: “The 50th Reunion Tour was designed to be a set tour with a beginning and an end to mark a special 50-year milestone for the band.”

Love’s concerts have billed as the “Beach Boys” since 1998, when he licensed the name for his touring use. Love, Johnston and hired musicians have set out on numerous “Beach Boys” tours through the years, often doing it on the cheap and performing the band’s biggest hits almost exclusively.

As previously reported, Love went ahead and booked some October shows under his version of the “Beach Boys” this summer, while the reunion was still in full force. There was a bit of confusion over this: Wilson was caught off-guard upon hearing the news, and some promoters were under the impression that they had booked the reunited Beach Boys and thus canceled Love’s shows.

As for Wilson, he told us back in July that he’d be interested in touring more with the reunited Beach Boys. He even talked a bit about another album for the Boys, to follow-up June’s That’s Why God Made The Radio. “We’d like to capture the Phil Spector rock’n’roll beat,” Wilson said of the album. “Get that rock’n’roll going, you know?”

Right now, it’s just a struggle to keep the rock’n'roll going.

- Jillian Mapes, CBS Local

View Comments
blog comments powered by Disqus
Listen Live!

Music Videos

Battleships
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Thrill Is Gone
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Wish You Well
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Not Finished Just Yet
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Songbird
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Believe
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Which Way Home?
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Wash Me Clean
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Hope And Validation
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Sleeping Rough
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
The Strangest Thing
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Further Down The Road
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Down To The River
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Yesterday's Gone
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Watch Over Me
Bernard Fanning
VEVO
Long Way To Go
Andrew Stockdale
VEVO
Towers (On My Way)
Young Guns
VEVO
Scarecrows
One Bad Son
VEVO
Fuel To Fire
Daniel Wesley
VEVO
Freak Show
FruFru
VEVO
Demiurge
Meshuggah
VEVO
Fear the World
Sylosis
VEVO
Power & Volume
Free Fall
VEVO

@kearth101