Please sign petition for Beach Boys to withdraw from performing on 2/5/20

[HeyJude]

I think it is embarrassing for Brian Wilson and Al Jardine to stoop to this level and ask other fans to petition 'their' band.  Stupid and petty.  Just like the media to pounce on a topic and target it before moving on to the next.  Its a freaking paid concert.    Like some big change has occurred or something.  Why would Brian allow himself to get sucked into the liberal trolls of the world.   So next time I attend a Brian Wilson concert, I'm sure he'll stop me before entering and make me answer political questions to ensure that I am correctly aligned with his causes and beliefs.   The same boycotting liberals want the Christian cake baker to align with the homosexual ceremonial requests.  Whatever.

Wait, are we on Reddit now? 

[harrisonjon]

To be fair to AGD, he's clearly sincere on this issue and has been very forthright on his own site. I doubt he would go back into the Mike/Bruce fold after the stance he's taken here.

OTOH I'm amazed that anyone who's being paying attention for the last 40+ years would be surprised at Mike and Bruce being hypocrites.

[HeyJude]

While I appreciate otherwise arguably overly-sympathetic Mike defenders standing up and calling Mike and Bruce out on this gig, I somehow doubt many of them are going to boycott anything going forward, and I say this in a completely neutral fashion. I'm not judging whether they should or not, I just think most of those most sympathetic to Mike who are opposed to this gig will still be attending Mike gigs, and probably not lingering on this event once it has passed.

[guitarfool2002]

To be fair to AGD, he's clearly sincere on this issue and has been very forthright on his own site. I doubt he would go back into the Mike/Bruce fold after the stance he's taken here.

OTOH I'm amazed that anyone who's being paying attention for the last 40+ years would be surprised at Mike and Bruce being hypocrites.

The difference is there were many discussions where people pointing out or even discussing the hypocrisy of the past were labeled "haters", "Mike bashers", "not a real fan", etc...and it was like a concerted effort to whitewash anything fans could be critical of toward Mike (and Bruce, and others...) from the conversations by putting the focus and criticism on the fans rather than the behavior. Like I said earlier, it's classic political hardball behavior 101, applied to the world of a rock band and their fans...if you have no defense for an action, turn the focus on and attack those pointing it out. We've seen already the guy who started this petition was "researched" to try to impugn what he was doing and why. As if that changes the actual event being discussed and people's objection to it.

In other words, as you said, it's not like there have not been numerous precedents and previous examples, but I think in this case (and perhaps others) it may be more of an unwillingness to accept that Mike could be behind something like this rather than an ignorance of the past 40+ years.

And it's still surprising yet pretty telling to see the "no comment" response from management.  

[SMiLE Brian]

I wonder if BRI was threatened by Mike’s lawyers already. Something seems off behind the scenes for Mike to have such power...

[harrisonjon]

While I appreciate otherwise arguably overly-sympathetic Mike defenders standing up and calling Mike and Bruce out on this gig, I somehow doubt many of them are going to boycott anything going forward, and I say this in a completely neutral fashion. I'm not judging whether they should or not, I just think most of those most sympathetic to Mike who are opposed to this gig will still be attending Mike gigs, and probably not lingering on this event once it has passed.

It would be harsh to expect AGD to do this given that his entire public profile is invested in the work. I would, however, hope that he might no longer give any space to any future concerts by Mike and Bruce's group. That ought to be a fairly obvious thing to boycott.

[HeyJude]

The question of what business/fiduciary duty the band members have to each other vis-a-vis the license/trademark/brand/reputation is an interesting one.

There are scenarios with other organizations where shareholders would try to (and/or would be able to) do something about this sort of thing.

As to whether Mike's lawyers could possibly be barking at Brian (or Al) or BRI, who knows. They'd have a tough time doing anything beyond sending a powerless angry letter. If they tried to argue that Brian is hurting the brand by supporting this call to cancel the show, Brian could just as easily contend Mike is hurting the brand by doing the gig in the first place.

I think Mike is operating on the basis of "it's my license and I can book any shows I want." Whether that's a realistic way to go about doing business is debatable, but it has seemed to work for him so far. However, Mike "it's all about free speech" Love certainly shouldn't have a problem with Brian and Al voicing their concern over the gig.

You'd think the rarity of Brian publicly calling out a Mike touring gig (which has more or less NEVER directly happened before) would maybe ring a bell with Mike that this is maybe a bigger deal than usual.

Ultimately, BRI is more a holding company than anything else, so in one sense it's not surprising everybody's kind of caught flat-footed; the band essentially is not active outside of archival releases and licensing the trademark. I'm not sure what Jerry Schilling's angle or attitude would be in handling (or not handling) this sort of thing. His quick quote in that Reno article certainly isn't the best look, that's for sure. But you have to remember, Mike's band/tour is not a BRI operation. BRI simply gives a license to Mike/Meleco. They have no control outside the hornet's nest that is trying to take the license away. One would hope Schilling could have brokered something here as far as Mike just canceling this one gig and doing a solid for his fellow shareholders. Nobody at this stage wants to just cut the revenue off and have everybody retire. It's about one gig, and I'm stunned Mike has gone out of his way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by not only not taking the simple step of canceling the gig, but actually defiantly going on with it.

[The LEGENDARY OSD]

I think it is embarrassing for Brian Wilson and Al Jardine to stoop to this level and ask other fans to petition 'their' band.  Stupid and petty.  Just like the media to pounce on a topic and target it before moving on to the next.  Its a freaking paid concert.    Like some big change has occurred or something.  Why would Brian allow himself to get sucked into the liberal trolls of the world.   So next time I attend a Brian Wilson concert, I'm sure he'll stop me before entering and make me answer political questions to ensure that I am correctly aligned with his causes and beliefs.   The same boycotting liberals want the Christian cake baker to align with the homosexual ceremonial requests.  Whatever.

  , WTF? In the meantime, can someone construct a plaque with Mike Love's head on it? I think it would, in this case, be appropriate. Looks like my description of him is holding more water than it was designed to do, but it's exhilarating to see Mike in the frying pan. Hopefully, this will be all that is needed to swiftly turn people away from this moron and what will be interesting is if he gets booed in future shows. Way past time to pull that license to save what's left of the legacy that this crumb could care less about.

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

His statement is a G-rated version of "F--k you, I'm doing the show." He couldn't even muster a rote "while I personally don't agree with trophy hunting, blah blah blah" type of statement.

In the past, going over other band political BS, it has often been posited that Mike must hate Melinda more than he likes being with Brian in the band. The same would appear to be true of this latest gig. He digs doing a Trump-friendly gig more than he abhors trophy hunting.

The only two unique factors about this gig are what the organization stands for, and the Trump keynote speaker connection. Anything else that would possibly appeal to Mike about this gig would be true of any number of other gigs. If he gets off on corporate/private gigs, he already does a bunch of those. If he really needs to feel like he's digging into conservative causes, he already has done fundraisers and other events of that nature. And so on.

Agree with everything you've said here. I love this band -- even Mike's current version of it -- and this is a depressing and awful situation on so many levels.

My exact thoughts

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I think it is embarrassing for Brian Wilson and Al Jardine to stoop to this level and ask other fans to petition 'their' band.  Stupid and petty.  Just like the media to pounce on a topic and target it before moving on to the next.  Its a freaking paid concert.     Like some big change has occurred or something.  Why would Brian allow himself to get sucked into the liberal trolls of the world.   So next time I attend a Brian Wilson concert, I'm sure he'll stop me before entering and make me answer political questions to ensure that I am correctly aligned with his causes and beliefs.   The same boycotting liberals want the Christian cake baker to align with the homosexual ceremonial requests.  Whatever.

Why are they not allowed to have their own beliefs? Just because they don’t align with your causes and beliefs?

[BeachBoysCovers]

Ignoring everything else, Brian('s PR people) have played a blinder here

There was always a risk this story blows up without him mentioning it, and then the headlines would be about the Beach Boys, and people less informed may think that includes Brian, etc.. But with Brian intervening, the headlines are about Brian being against it, and so isolating him from any backlash. It's a perfectly executed attempt to get ahead of the story.

[guitarfool2002]

The question of what business/fiduciary duty the band members have to each other vis-a-vis the license/trademark/brand/reputation is an interesting one.

There are scenarios with other organizations where shareholders would try to (and/or would be able to) do something about this sort of thing.

As to whether Mike's lawyers could possibly be barking at Brian (or Al) or BRI, who knows. They'd have a tough time doing anything beyond sending a powerless angry letter. If they tried to argue that Brian is hurting the brand by supporting this call to cancel the show, Brian could just as easily contend Mike is hurting the brand by doing the gig in the first place.

I think Mike is operating on the basis of "it's my license and I can book any shows I want." Whether that's a realistic way to go about doing business is debatable, but it has seemed to work for him so far. However, Mike "it's all about free speech" Love certainly shouldn't have a problem with Brian and Al voicing their concern over the gig.

You'd think the rarity of Brian publicly calling out a Mike touring gig (which has more or less NEVER directly happened before) would maybe ring a bell with Mike that this is maybe a bigger deal than usual.

Ultimately, BRI is more a holding company than anything else, so in one sense it's not surprising everybody's kind of caught flat-footed; the band essentially is not active outside of archival releases and licensing the trademark. I'm not sure what Jerry Schilling's angle or attitude would be in handling (or not handling) this sort of thing. His quick quote in that Reno article certainly isn't the best look, that's for sure. But you have to remember, Mike's band/tour is not a BRI operation. BRI simply gives a license to Mike/Meleco. They have no control outside the hornet's nest that is trying to take the license away. One would hope Schilling could have brokered something here as far as Mike just canceling this one gig and doing a solid for his fellow shareholders. Nobody at this stage wants to just cut the revenue off and have everybody retire. It's about one gig, and I'm stunned Mike has gone out of his way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by not only not taking the simple step of canceling the gig, but actually defiantly going on with it.

But isn't the job of managing a brand, in this case a legacy brand with a 55+ year presence and identity above all the licenses and "confusion", dependent on protecting that brand?

In this case there is a specific event that even a basic scan of reactions from the public would show some serious issues that are in effect harming that brand identity. Again, no matter if one agrees or disagrees with the event itself or Mike's "right" to play whatever he chooses etc, it is still putting the image of The Beach Boys in a negative light that has now been reported internationally.

It makes you wonder if there is a manager per se, or if it's just a custodial position with no hands-on managing on issues like this. And it also raises the question if social media tagged as "The Beach Boys" like their Facebook page is truly a Beach Boys operation or if it is Mike Love's team running that too. Obviously comments were being monitored and deleted, and all signs point to Mike on that one. Yet Mike has his own social media too.

It just makes you wonder what the structures really are when The Beach Boys Facebook page seems to be working for Mike, and the management of the brand who has been taking some pretty bad PR hits in the press over this seems to have nothing to say, and no control over what to do about it.

Silly me, I thought BRI had 4 votes.

[Jay]

I'm just hoping th a this whole thing will miraculously turn into a "Ha! We fooled you!" moment, and all the surviving members will show up, and the " gig" will just be each member giving a speech about the evils of trophy hunting. Unlikely in the extreme(understatement of the century), but....

[guitarfool2002]

It would be hilarious if the stage lights went dark at showtime for the Beach Boys, and a single dim spotlight shines on a figure with his back turned...wearing a baseball cap, khakis, and a Robert Graham blue striped shirt...and then that figure rips off the cap and shirt to reveal his true identity. It's Ted Nugent. Then Ted and his band rip into "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang".

Of course that won't happen. But it makes you wonder why they didn't tap Nugent for this gig.

[juggler]

I'm just hoping th a this whole thing will miraculously turn into a "Ha! We fooled you!" moment, and all the surviving members will show up, and the " gig" will just be each member giving a speech about the evils of trophy hunting. Unlikely in the extreme(understatement of the century), but....

LOL.  That would be funny, but Brian and Al (I assume) are on a 7-night cruise Caribbean cruise (i.e., the Cayamo thing).

I agree with BeachBoysCovers.  Brian and Al (or their "people") played it as well as possible.  They disavowed the event, said they had nothing to do with it and oppose trophy hunting.  Hell, they even threw their support to the poorly worded petition that included language that Brian and Al can't possibly really be fully on board with (i.e., it's unbelievable to me that Brian and Al truly want fans to stop buying or streaming their music because of Mike's ill-chosen gig).

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I just had to block a former co worker (I was his boss) who said some pretty crass things about Brian. The crazy part is he actually said that  Brian was an egomaniac by signing.


I blocked him because he was going off on another friend among other reasons but thought that was worth mentioning

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

I'm just hoping th a this whole thing will miraculously turn into a "Ha! We fooled you!" moment, and all the surviving members will show up, and the " gig" will just be each member giving a speech about the evils of trophy hunting. Unlikely in the extreme(understatement of the century), but....

That’d be the greatest thing ever

[CenturyDeprived]

It would be hilarious if the stage lights went dark at showtime for the Beach Boys, and a single dim spotlight shines on a figure with his back turned...wearing a baseball cap, khakis, and a Robert Graham blue striped shirt...and then that figure rips off the cap and shirt to reveal his true identity. It's Ted Nugent. Then Ted and his band rip into "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang".

Of course that won't happen. But it makes you wonder why they didn't tap Nugent for this gig.

I think "The BBs" (over say, Nugent) were asked to play this gig, and agreed to it for one or more of the below several reasons:

- the organizers literally want to be able to make a pun about "Surfin' Safari" and tie it into their organization. Seriously.

- the organizers literally want the fame in the BBs brand name

- friendship with the Trumps

- possible favors between rich, powerful people, where Mike and/or Bruce expects to get something in return at a later date (remember, Bruce's son almost married Ginia Rinehart, daughter of one of the richest billionaires in the world - I'm sure purely for love and not for money - these are people who are trying to get their families set up for generations in the highest of elite rich circles, so who knows how much creepy rich person favor stuff between families might be being bartered behind the scenes, and backing out of a gig could be a sign of "weakness" and disrespect, so no boat-rocking is desired - would not surprise me at all)

I think it is NO accident that Mike is SO SO very hardcore unapologetic and willing to endure this much mainstream media hate, and major criticism by people who would normally not criticize him... doing this gig must mean something to him more than most. I can't just think it's about the money to be made from just this one gig. I think it must run deeper. I think there's something big picture happening here. The Trumps deal and barter with dirt/blackmail, and expect FULL loyalty without exception. Look at what has happened to anyone disloyal to the Trumps. Blacklisted by them.

And I also don't think Mike is some big trophy hunter. There's some untold stuff here, I'll just bet, that would gross us out even more if we knew the real reasons. Think about it, and it doesn't seem like such a farfetched stretch.  Gross as f*ck.

[guitarfool2002]

Just FYI - This Cayamo was a concert cruise gig booked in advance, and with a pretty cool lineup of musicians to boot: https://www.cayamo.com/  including Brian, Lake Street Dive, Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples, etc...

Just to dispute any attempts to suggest Brian was somehow made "unavailable" on a cruise out of convenience as all this blew up, he is in fact on the high seas as part of this concert cruise as we speak.

But of course, don't let that stop those who know better from sharing and spreading info that doesn't exist...

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

And THIS is the garbage that gets tied in to The Beach Boys name

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

Just FYI - This Cayamo was a concert cruise gig booked in advance, and with a pretty cool lineup of musicians to boot: https://www.cayamo.com/  including Brian, Lake Street Dive, Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples, etc...

Just to dispute any attempts to suggest Brian was somehow made "unavailable" on a cruise out of convenience as all this blew up, he is in fact on the high seas as part of this concert cruise as we speak.

But of course, don't let that stop those who know better from sharing and spreading info that doesn't exist...

Lake Street Dive’s on the Bill? I think you just made Jay happy ! 😎

[guitarfool2002]

Just FYI - This Cayamo was a concert cruise gig booked in advance, and with a pretty cool lineup of musicians to boot: https://www.cayamo.com/  including Brian, Lake Street Dive, Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples, etc...

Just to dispute any attempts to suggest Brian was somehow made "unavailable" on a cruise out of convenience as all this blew up, he is in fact on the high seas as part of this concert cruise as we speak.

But of course, don't let that stop those who know better from sharing and spreading info that doesn't exist...

Lake Street Dive’s on the Bill? I think you just made Jay happy ! 😎

They are indeed! There are supposed to be opportunities for jam sessions between the acts on the bill, I'd love to see a guy like Tweedy or Lake Street Dive rip through some of Brian's tunes together and vice versa. Or Mavis Staples singing "Warmth Of The Sun", etc. One can dream LOL

[Jay]

Just FYI - This Cayamo was a concert cruise gig booked in advance, and with a pretty cool lineup of musicians to boot: https://www.cayamo.com/  including Brian, Lake Street Dive, Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples, etc...

Just to dispute any attempts to suggest Brian was somehow made "unavailable" on a cruise out of convenience as all this blew up, he is in fact on the high seas as part of this concert cruise as we speak.

But of course, don't let that stop those who know better from sharing and spreading info that doesn't exist...

Lake Street Dive’s on the Bill? I think you just made Jay happy ! 😎

They are legit  one of my favorite groups of all time. Man, an LSD and Brian/Am collaboration would be incredible.

[guitarfool2002]

So basically, if you see anyone suggesting Brian hopped on a cruise ship to get out of Dodge and avoid any follow-ups to recent events...just hit 'em with the facts, drop the mic, and resume normal life.

I'll tell you what, a cruise out of Miami sounds mighty nice right about now.    

[♩♬🐸 Billy C ♯♫♩🐇]

“Let’s go cruisin now, everybody’s learnin how, let’s get the f*** out of Miami with meeeeee”