Al joining Mike and Bruce for Jones Beach show

[bryand]

It appears that most (if not all) of the  "negative" Facebook posts in response to Al's announcement have been removed. Mine was (I simply asked why he waited a month to clarify when people had been buying tickets to see him).

[feelsflow]

Long Island is one of the best places in the USA to be on a 4th of July, even when it falls in the middle of the week.  I've never experienced the fireworks frenzy that goes on anywhere else.  Regular (but rich) folks put on their own fireworks shows, that look just as professional as what you would see at a County Fair - night after night, not just on the 4th.  Being on Friday, it will pull in even bigger out of town crowds from the tri-state area.  I've never bothered to drive to the NYC fireworks, no need to.  Not when you can sit and party (drinking allowed) in your back yard (for me that's my brother-in-laws' in Centereach/Suffolk County) surrounded by explosions, some from the next block over.  And so much easier when you want to take a piss.

As for the Beach Boys concert, it is sad that the tickets are not selling.  They are expensive.  If you mouse over the seats, you will notice not one - but two VIP packages:  Club Kokomo @$229.50 and Warmth of the Sun VIP @$179.  The sections behind those are commanding top dollar too.  As RubberSoul13 says - what most folks are willing to pay is $75 (for good seats).  Whoever shows up at Mike's show will get their usual professional performance.  I've never seen the current Spoonful, but I hear they are very good, tho' I heard it the other way around - that Yester was doing most of the leads. Felix can still put on one hell of a show (I've seen him), and is coming off of the big Rascals tour and Broadway shows.  His local fans and the ones who missed the Rascals shows (how about if one or two of them show up, since they live in the area) will try to get in, especially if they bring the ticket prices down.  $200 and more is what they were paying for the Broadway shows, not the iffy weather on south beach.  Some of the Theatre shows, like Westbury, can get $150.  But most acts can only ask $50 - $75, if they want to sell out.  As we hit the date, many of these tickets will sell to "out of town" fans that will be staying for the weekend.  They will be looking for something to do on Saturday night.  This IS one of the bigger shows.  Mike's Beach Boys can draw a crowd, more than what we are giving them credit for.  Last time I saw them it was standing room only, and a big crowd looking in from outside the fences.  We might be picky that Al will be a no-show, but many concert goers can't tell or are comfortable with just hearing the songs.  Many of the old big acts are down to one original member, often one of the harmony singers.  

[Andrew G. Doe]

Let's examine the possible scenarios here.

Fact: the Jones Beach show with Alan & David taking part was first announced on May 5th. That's 48 days ago.

1 - Alan never agreed to do it...

OK, black mark to Mike for doing that, but also to Alan for not saying right away "no, I'm not", but rather waiting six weeks to set things straight when he knew tickets with his name on them were still on sale.

2 - Alan agreed verbally then changed his mind (for whatever reason)...

Again, why wait so long ? And btw, a verbal agreement is legally binding.

3 - Alan signed on the dotted line then changed his mind...

Be this so, and I have no proof one way or another, someone with the initials ACJ is in a deal of legal doo-doo.

That no-one has said anything until yesterday leads me to believe that (assuming #1 isn't the case), Alan's change of heart was very recent. Oh, and they weren't "rumours". Rumours aren't listed on your own website, or on Ticketmaster, or on the BBFC website. As ever, there's a cracking tale to be told here and, frankly, while no-one's covered in glory here Alan is arguably the most at fault for not saying right off "that's not true"... or for changing his mind at such a late stage.

Sometimes these guys make my hair hurt.

[Nicko1234]

GEE!!  Sure makes sense to me. As much as it seems a crime now to even suggest that Mike/ HIS management) is/was lying, how else does this play out? 

 WHY in the world should it be Al's responsibility to deny he's playing somewhere that he hasn't agreed to. Just because this happens to be Mike's BBs?!?

 If Steve and the Strumpets start advertising that Al Jardine of the BBs is playing with them,does Al have to deny it? If every/any band in the world announces the same thing, will Al be forced to spend all his time making announcements that "NO, I'm not playing with so & so" ? It's ludicrous. 

 The fault here is obviously with Mike Love/ the Jones Beach promoters.

NOT AL JARDINE

That Al said that he would play the concert but then decided to do the two shows with his son and Brian instead?

We are not talking about a pub band billing Al as playing with them. We are talking about his band, The Beach Boys and you would have thought he would have wanted to set the record straight to stop HIS fans from buying tickets under false pretenses.

[Dancing Bear]

After the last 16 years of Beach Boys activity - that is, Mike being extremely happy to tour as the Beach Boys without Al - why would Mike and his team make an effort to include Al in an one-off concert without Al's knowledge?

[Sheriff John Stone]

I have no idea what happened, I'm not siding with Mike Love, and if it appears I'm hammering Al, well, so be it.

After the advertisements were posted, and tickets were sold, and it appeared on the various social media, and it appeared to be a done deal until two weeks before the actual show....I believe that Al should've done everything possible to play the show. And, maybe he did, but I doubt it. By NOT appearing, everybody loses - the venue, the promoter, The Beach Boys, and, most importantly, the fans.

Again, I don't know what happened and maybe this wasn't Al's fault, but were circumstances so bad that he couldn't show up and play a 90 minute show with The Beach Boys, for all the reasons I mentioned above? Was that so difficult to do? Then, everybody would've been happy. I wonder how much Al thought about that? But, no, not in the world of The Beach Boys. And then rub salt in the wounds of the fans who bought tickets by going to play with Brian? I'm seriously starting to not like these Beach Boys. It's too much work to support them.

[bgas]

I'm seriously starting to not like these Beach Boys. It's too much work to support them.

Don't try to wean yourself off, just go cold turkey. Better for all involved

[Nicko1234]

I think this all confirms again though how lucky we were that C50 went off so well. The fact that the 5 of them saw it through to the end is a minor miracle.

[Pinder's Gone To Kokomo And Back Again]

These guys all need to be sent to "Beach Boys Prison Camp" where they do 8 hours of manual labor a day and then are forced to play in some "Beach Type" configuration the rest of the night.... They'd also be free to splinter off into as many rival "Beach Type" factions as they'd like.

..... Wait, isn't this basically what they've spent the last 50 years doing anyway?

[Wirestone]

I wonder if Al went into this under the assumption that the show with Mike would translate into some semi-steady work with the BBs -- and when that didn't materialize, he decided to cast his allegiance with the outfit that hired his son.

All that being said, I think it's foolish in the extreme to blame Mike for this. Brian's folks have exploited it a bit, but this has all the hallmarks of a classic Al Jardine clusterf---k.

[KittyKat]

I had forgotten that Al had Jones Beach listed on his own website as a future appearance, but yes, he did. I looked to see the listing when rumors started going around that he wouldn't play the gig. So, yes, Al does have a large share of the blame here, if not all of it. No one can put it all on Mike using Al for false promotional purposes.

[CenturyDeprived]

I feel fairly safe in assuming that this is in some way related to Al feeling like he was receiving a second-class citizen (or in some way feeling treated disrespectfully) by Mike.  Just the mere fact that the (far and away) best preserved BB voice remains so criminally underutilized is craziness in and of itself.

I think Mike probably recently put Al "in his place" over something (and maybe this is Al being too "sensitive"), but I'd be pretty shocked if this wasn't the case.

[Andrew G. Doe]

What is wrong with Al?  I'm sorry, but if you allow a promoter to use your name for a show, you should show up for it.

It's not like it's the first time Al has done this. He was announced as a "special guest" for Brian's European tour in, I believe, 2008. His name was even on the ticket I bought for the show in Amsterdam. But he didn't show up. After that, Al promised on his website that everyone who would send in a ticket stub would get a free copy of his solo cd once it was released. Never got that either.

I thought Brian's people kicked Al off the tour, not that Al left the tour. Or it was an equal type of thing where both decided that Al needed to leave the tour before it got to Europe. It was never made clear what the dispute was, whether it was over money or what.  In any case, yes, it does show that Al has had past problems playing with Brian, so this isn't the first time he had disagreements with fellow Beach Boys in regards to appearing with them.

The official reason was that Alan needed to finish up his solo album... which wasn't released for another two and a half years.

[RubberSoul13]

David has just re-confirmed on facebook that he is playing at Jones Beach.

So of course, this means taht he will not be in the UK with Brian & Al. Does this mean that we've seen the end of BAD?

[HeyJude]

Let's examine the possible scenarios here.

Fact: the Jones Beach show with Alan & David taking part was first announced on May 5th. That's 48 days ago.

1 - Alan never agreed to do it...

OK, black mark to Mike for doing that, but also to Alan for not saying right away "no, I'm not", but rather waiting six weeks to set things straight when he knew tickets with his name on them were still on sale.

2 - Alan agreed verbally then changed his mind (for whatever reason)...

Again, why wait so long ? And btw, a verbal agreement is legally binding.

3 - Alan signed on the dotted line then changed his mind...

Be this so, and I have no proof one way or another, someone with the initials ACJ is in a deal of legal doo-doo.

That no-one has said anything until yesterday leads me to believe that (assuming #1 isn't the case), Alan's change of heart was very recent. Oh, and they weren't "rumours". Rumours aren't listed on your own website, or on Ticketmaster, or on the BBFC website. As ever, there's a cracking tale to be told here and, frankly, while no-one's covered in glory here Alan is arguably the most at fault for not saying right off "that's not true"... or for changing his mind at such a late stage.

Sometimes these guys make my hair hurt.

I would guess it's somewhere between reason 1 and 2 if I had to guess.

As for "verbal contracts", that's an EXTREMELY grey area of law. The reason you get people to sign stuff is because verbal contacts are hard to enforce.

[Pretty Funky]

As someone put it on Al's site I would pick even if it was just verbal then some kind of agreement had been reached. That's confirmation enough for this bush lawyer. Not cool what ever has happened.

[Nicko1234]

I would guess it's somewhere between reason 1 and 2 if I had to guess.

As for "verbal contracts", that's an EXTREMELY grey area of law. The reason you get people to sign stuff is because verbal contacts are hard to enforce.

I don`t think it realistically can be 1 at all from those options. As already noted, it was on Al`s website and has been publicly known for weeks.

Probably just that Al changed his mind maybe because he fancied playing with his son and Brian more.

I think the comment on Al`s Facebook page is slightly disingenuous as well. Having his presence listed on the ticket sites, in respected magazines and even on his own websites does not gel with the, `Despite some reports to the contrary` line. It may be that Al has a good reason for not attending but he probably owes an apology to those who have bought tickets.

It`s not exactly the biggest disgrace in the history of popular music or anything but I don`t think should just brush it off by saying, `I`m not playing the gug I`ve been billed to play for weeks but I will be playing on the other side of the world on that day`. A bit of a p***take for the fans who have already paid to see him.

[Jim V.]

David has just re-confirmed on facebook that he is playing at Jones Beach.

And now there's another development. Because of the success that Brian has had with the "album based" tours like the ones for Pet Sounds and SMiLE, the legendary trio that that gave us the classic album Mike Love, Bruce "Beach Lover, NASCAR Lover" Johnston and David Marks of the Beach Boys Salute NASCAR have decided to come together for this one show to perform that album in it's entirety. Boy, am I excited! Grab your tickets now!

[Sheriff John Stone]

David has just re-confirmed on facebook that he is playing at Jones Beach.

And now there's another development. Because of the success that Brian has had with the "album based" tours like the ones for Pet Sounds and SMiLE, the legendary trio that that gave us the classic album Mike Love, Bruce "Beach Lover, NASCAR Lover" Johnston and David Marks of the Beach Boys Salute NASCAR have decided to come together for this one show to perform that album in it's entirety. Boy, am I excited! Grab your tickets now!

Actually, they are performing that album in its entirety. Well, almost. This is the album's tracklist:

01  I Get Around
02  Little Deuce Coupe
03  Little Old Lady From Pasadena
04  409
05  Shut Down
06  Little G.T.O.
07  Ballad Of Ole' Betsy
08  Little Honda
09  Fun, Fun, Fun
10  Don't Worry Baby

[Jim V.]

David has just re-confirmed on facebook that he is playing at Jones Beach.

And now there's another development. Because of the success that Brian has had with the "album based" tours like the ones for Pet Sounds and SMiLE, the legendary trio that that gave us the classic album Mike Love, Bruce "Beach Lover, NASCAR Lover" Johnston and David Marks of the Beach Boys Salute NASCAR have decided to come together for this one show to perform that album in it's entirety. Boy, am I excited! Grab your tickets now!

Actually, they are performing that album in its entirety. Well, almost. This is the album's tracklist:

01  I Get Around
02  Little Deuce Coupe
03  Little Old Lady From Pasadena
04  409
05  Shut Down
06  Little G.T.O.
07  Ballad Of Ole' Betsy
08  Little Honda
09  Fun, Fun, Fun
10  Don't Worry Baby

I know Sheriff! I was only half kidding. Although, it's probably pretty doubtful they'll do "Little Old Lady" or "Little GTO". I suppose "Betsy" is a possibility. It's a darn shame they won't have Adrian Baker there to reproduce his gorgeous vocal on "Don't Worry Baby" as well...

[Andrew G. Doe]

The more I ponder on this whole clusterf***, the more it looks like Alan is culpable. The bit about it being "rumors" and "reports" is just plain nonsense. If Mike wanted to take legal action, I think he'd win hands down, if only on the evidence posted on the net: Alan knew he was being promoted as appearing, even posted it on his own website but said nothing for six weeks, and if that's not tacit agreement then I don't know what is. I'm sure a look at the emails exchanged would be most illuminating.

[The Shift]

So Al appears culpable. But has Brian (or his WyfenManagers) also been maliciously manipulative in luring Al away from the MykenBruce show - and with what, money? The chance to play new music with Brian? The chance to perform with Matt and Jeff again?

I do believe - speculative as it is - that Al is far more motivated by the prospect of good music than Mike. That is, that for Mike it's a matter of belting out good songs for a living, while Al enjoys performing great songs and that happens to earn him a living at the same time.

Brian, I believe, plays live and continues to record because music is in his veins and he is music. But he's bein steered, and the motivations of his helmsman are politically driven - why else gather Al, Dave and Blondie together on the last tour with Jeff Beck other than to state to Mike that Brian can assemble more Beach Boys together on stage - four - than the Beach Boys?

And now this luring of Al away from Beach Boys gig has sunk Mike's shot at doing the same.

My head's all over the place just thinking about the implications, but the bottom line is that our band the good ship Beach Boys is now, well and truly, SCUTTLED.

[Alan Smith]

I'm seriously starting to not like these Beach Boys. It's too much work to support them.

It can be trying

[Andrew G. Doe]

So Al appears culpable. But has Brian (or his WyfenManagers) also been maliciously manipulative in luring Al away from the MykenBruce show - and with what, money? The chance to play new music with Brian? The chance to perform with Matt and Jeff again?

I do believe - speculative as it is - that Al is far more motivated by the prospect of good music than Mike. That is, that for Mike it's a matter of belting out good songs for a living, while Al enjoys performing great songs and that happens to earn him a living at the same time.

Brian, I believe, plays live and continues to record because music is in his veins and he is music. But he's bein steered, and the motivations of his helmsman are politically driven - why else gather Al, Dave and Blondie together on the last tour with Jeff Beck other than to state to Mike that Brian can assemble more Beach Boys together on stage - four - than the Beach Boys?

And now this luring of Al away from Beach Boys gig has sunk Mike's shot at doing the same.

My head's all over the place just thinking about the implications, but the bottom line is that our band the good ship Beach Boys is now, well and truly, SCUTTLED.

At Westlake Audio in March 1985, I told Alan "California Calling" was a good song and sounded like "California Saga". His response ? "Yeah, but that didn't make much money did it ?" I think that $$$ is as much of a motivating factor as it is with Mike (and Mike at least has an excuse).

[Alan Smith]

I do believe - speculative as it is - that Al is far more motivated by the prospect of good music than Mike. That is, that for Mike it's a matter of belting out good songs for a living, while Al enjoys performing great songs and that happens to earn him a living at the same time.

I('d like too) think Mike is equally motivated to make good music - ie perform with Brian and the guys, as the BBs - but Mike wants to do it on mutual agreeable terms, as he has stated since C50 publicly crumbled at the finish line.  In the meantime he's got gigs to honour, fans to please and bread to count.

Perhaps Al is a bit more flexible in the agreeable terms department and took advantage of a good offer.  I wish Al had just announced he was pulling out, sorry etc, rather than calling it this way; musical integrity: yes - business integrity: tbd