Brian (and Bruce!) interviewed on tonight's Front Row

[harveyw]

Radio 4, Friday 21st, from 7:15. Should be available on iplayer a couple of hours later.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015ztlz

[Matt Bielewicz]

Driving home early this morning from town, I heard a plug in the middle of Radio 4's Today programme for a spot on the Front Row programme tonight about SMiLE. Front Row is the BBC's big cultural programme where all the latest high-brow arts, classical music and theatre are discussed and reviewed, and where the protagonists are interviewed, so this is quite a big deal in the UK. And to get a plug on the Today programme at around 8am (it's the major 'serious' morning BBC current affairs programme) is pretty big bananas! *Someone* is working the press channels pretty effectively to achieve that...

Anyway, the point is, the strains of Surf's Up emerged from my car radio (nearly causing me to fall out of my car with surprise), and there was a snippet of Brian talking where he sounded pretty 'up' and lucid. It might be good, this!

Just thought I'd 'flag' in advance...

MattB

[Matt Bielewicz]

Whoops! Can the mods merge these two threads? I posted mine just as Harvey was posting his!

Great minds, etc etc...! 

Anyway, it would be good to have a single thread where we can check back with reviews after the programme has aired...

MattB

[Aegir]

Was it a new mix of Surf's Up?

[Matt Bielewicz]

...oh, and I should point out that the Brian interview seems to be a 2011 one, not an archive one. But nonetheless, he sounded quite together compared to some interviews I've heard him give lately.

Who knows, come the programme itself, we might get surly quiet 'it was inappropriate music' Brian again. But on the basis of the 10-second clip I heard, I'll definitely be tuning in, at any rate.

REALLY hard to tell about Surf's Up, Aegir. It was just playing as background music while Brian and the programme's main interviewer, John Wilson, were talking. I think it was the instumental backing to Part 1 of the track, no vocals. And I only noticed that because they finished talking before the end of the clip and the last couple of seconds were 'un-talked-over'. If you see what I mean.

Oh, and yes, I did say Part 1, NOT Part 2...!    

[Jay]

Brian and Bruce is kind of an odd combination. You would think that it would probably be Brian and his "team", Mike and Bruce, or Al as a solo.  I think it would be cool if all four of them went on something like Jay Leno, or David Letterman.

[JohnMill]

Brian and Bruce is kind of an odd combination. You would think that it would probably be Brian and his "team", Mike and Bruce, or Al as a solo.  I think it would be cool if all four of them went on something like Jay Leno, or David Letterman.

Wow that would have the potential to be extremely awkward.

[Matt Bielewicz]

I don't think it IS a combination... the impression I got was that everyone was interviewed separately, then cut together. These Front Row interviews are usually heavily edited.

I'm not even sure it WAS Bruce... by the time I realised what I was listening to, and that it wasn't some old tape I'd somehow put on by accident, it was Brian talking, without a doubt. Did you definitely hear Bruce, Harvey? I heard a comment about 'brilliant little pieces of music' or something like that, which is definitely the kind of thing Bruce has said about SMiLE over the years, but my concentration was still only just coming into focus on the radio, and with the road noise, I couldn't tell who said that.

MattB

[harveyw]

I didn't hear Bruce in the trail that was broadcast on "Today" this morning, though he's mentioned in the page I linked to. Bruce was in London maybe three weeks ago promoting the Doris Day album; I guess the Front Row team interviewed him then; certainly it would be a separate interview from the one with Brian.

And yes, the backing music to the trail was the instrumental take of Surf's Up, but I guess this could have been taken from the Good Vibrations box set. Still, it was an unexpected thrill to hear it on Radio 4 at 8am. Brian sounded very together in the interview snippet too.

[buddhahat]

Thanks for the heads up! Looking forward to this.

[stack-o-tracks]

Brian and Bruce is kind of an odd combination. You would think that it would probably be Brian and his "team", Mike and Bruce, or Al as a solo.  I think it would be cool if all four of them went on something like Jay Leno, or David Letterman.

Wow that would have the potential to be extremely awkward.

No more awkward than Good Morning America or that one show with Joan Rivers. But those were uh. Being single i a lot like liking a Phil Spector record.

[John Manning]

BBC Radio 4 Front Row, 7.15 tonight:
BW: "It's like the greatest collection of little tid-bits of music I've ever heard in my entire life. I couldn't believe it. It took us 40 years to realise that we had a piece of art in the can."

More info from BBC R4 site:

Today, 19:15 on BBC Radio 4
Synopsis
With John Wilson, including interviews with Brian Wilson and Bruce Johnston of The Beach Boys, as the never-released 1967 album Smile is made available for the first time.
Producer Jerome Weatherald.

[mammy blue]

Again, it's nice to know that the UK gives a damn about this release. Hopefully things will pick up a bit here in the States at some point.

[Shady]

I believe this show just started now with Brian coming up soon

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/bbc_radio_fourfm

[Freddie French-Pounce]

they've started talking about SMiLE - by playing Surfin' 

[TerryWogan]

Bah! Technical problems interrupting the stream...

Seems to be working OK for the time being though.

[Freddie French-Pounce]

Our Prayer outtake!

[TerryWogan]

Apparently they didn't revisit the original tapes when recording BWPS? Hmmm. Sounds like one of Brian's less 'on' interviews so far.

[Freddie French-Pounce]

Now he says the first song they wrote was Heroes

[Freddie French-Pounce]

SURFS UP 1967!!!!!

...I've only heard the beginning and the end, and its beauitiful!

[Shady]

SURF'S UP DEMO 67

VOLUME OFFF

[TerryWogan]

SURFS UP 1967!!!!!

YES!!! 

[pixletwin]

SURFS UP 1967!!!!

[RONDEMON]

Finally glad other people can hear this stuff!
: )  Great interview too.

[Freddie French-Pounce]

CHILD SOUNDS AMAZING IN CLEAN