The Smiley Smile Message Board

I can't believe it.  37 gigs in the US and not ONE in the UK? Six gigs in New York State alone compared to nine for the whole of Europe?
(And, for that matter, NO gigs outside the US and Western Europe?)
This is awful.

Normally I'd say "quit bitching and buy a ticket and make a trip of it", but this could just be a preliminary set of dates. More might be added. There may be a future tour. Who knows?

Calm down Andrew , old mate  :lol

That leaves a number of more dates to add ( to go to 50 ) for UK/Japan and Australias (which will no doubt be during our Winter)

Looking like ( based upon dates mentioned , and Olympics etc...) we are either on for early-mid July or Mid-late Aug , fingers crossed  

ha! the British shows always have more rarities, Brian premiered Smile in London... it's about time America got its due!

also, New York State is bigger than England.

They are America's band. I'm delighted to see they're giving their home country the attention it deserves.

But once the froth dies down, I wouldn't be surprised to see a second leg of shows, or an extension of the tour. (What Rob said.)

or maybe we should gear ourselves up for one gig at the sh*t shed called the o2 Arena  ???

It does say:
Tour Dates

(More dates to be announced soon!)


....just speaking as someone who promotes shows, its very hard to get venues/bands to commit to firming dates, and often you have to roll out event announcements in various phases. I'm sure this is what they could confirm at this point and all those days off in between are soon gonna fill up with more shows. Also, I'd be happy to bet you £20 you'll be seeing the BB at this years Olympics ;)

There is no way they are not going to the UK, not with how they, unlike the US, stood by them and still heavily bought their records after '67. The Yahoo article on the dates said there are more to come. It has to be the UK/Japan/Australia.

Oooh. It's on now!

Where does it say that about more dates being announced? Certainly not at http://www.thebeachboys.com/reunion/index.html . And it was initially announced as a fifty-date tour, and there are forty-eight dates on that list right now. I'm not at all hopeful. I'll be buying tickets for European shows, and I'm just thankful this is happening this year, the only year of my life I'd be able to afford to do that...

Well, to be fair, I'm American, but what I say is true. I'm very proud the UK still supported the Boys after the chips were down and things changed. Can't say that about my and their home country.

It says more dates to be added on Brian's website.

Yeah, Brian's facebook account also just said that in a comment. I'm less panicky now.

I've lost pretty much all hope for a Scottish date now though. Fingers crossed for London and it'll be the overnight bus journey down there from Edinburgh again!

f*** the British. Bunch of g*ddamned pussies.  :afro

That would mean that there are more than 50 dates still on the way. I really can't imagine them skipping the UK.

This is how I felt when the announcements of Smile's live premiere in the UK were made. Jealousy! Blasphemy! Major hurt and disappointment!

It all worked out eventually. :)

Where does that 100 dates figure come from? I don't trust it, anyway, given that they also say Blondie's on the tour...

Agree. A Briton worth his salt would swim the Atlantic. But the yoof of today..... weaklings. Always bragging, but when push comes to shove...

Does the afro emoticon mean some good old Phil Spector trash talking?

Spare a thought for those of us Down Under...  we're having a lousy time with exchange rates at the moment, so I'm really worried they won't be able to afford to make it down here even if they do extend the tour!

Gulp,
Jon Blum

No. He referred to Edwin Starr, and Mr Positivity himself just declared War on the Brits.

Here's proof:

(http://www.takepart.com/sites/default/files/styles/tp_content_wide/public/Edwin%20Starr_0.jpg)

I'm game.

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Bangers_and_mash_1.jpg/250px-Bangers_and_mash_1.jpg)

I'll have both a VIP ticket and a plate of bangers and mash waiting on the boardwalk at the Borgata hotel in Atlantic City for the first Englishman who dares to swim across the Atlantic to attend the May 19th show.

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/02/15/living/beach-boys-to-perform-on-bangor-waterfront/?ref=latest

Brian's website says more dates soon but doesn't include the Euro dates that are already on the BB site. Surely if more dates will be added they would specifically say this? If they haven't signed any deals yet, fair enough but at least let us know they should be coming. I can't decide whether to blow all my money on flying out to Europe as their tickets are now on sale. Shambles! Surely at least one date?!

I have no idea what's going on..

So annoying

The British wing of Anonymous has launched a string of DDoS attacks on the band's website in response.

For fecks sake calm down everyone! The tour schedule on Brian's site clearly states 'more dates to be announced soon!'. Do you really think that there won't be any UK dates? UK dates will surely be announced soon, in the meantime people need to stop throwing a Cohen.

cute.

Is that a line from Three Cohens In A Fountain?

I have no inside info, but I would wager there WILL be a British appearance!

Exactly.

Hee Heeeeeeeee!   Made my day with that one!  ;D

No, it's a reference to our resident doommongering naysayer!

Well to my count, they've only listed 48 dates...they have 2 more to go to make the even 50 they promised.  It's pretty obvious those dates are the UK dates......

Note that this thread was started based on the information at thebeachboys.com , not on Brian's site. On that site, it says nothing about any further dates, and lists 48 dates for what's been announced as a 50-date tour. Given that several times in the past Mike & Bruce's band have toured Europe and missed the UK altogether, because they couldn't get the right deals with the promoters, it's perfectly reasonable to worry.

I suspect, now, based on comments on Brian's facebook, that there will be at least one or two UK shows, but that information wasn't available when I posted this, and the tour information as presented on thebeachboys.com looks pretty final.

And even if they were going to announce two UK dates, bringing the total up to fifty, that still leaves the fans in Australia, Japan and so on without a show within several thousand miles.

That looks remarkably like something I left in the toilet this afternoon.

I am still quite shocked by this! Oh well, I can't afford to go around Europe seeing the boys, so I either see them in the UK or I don't. :(

The non-U.S. dates have been pulled off the official schedule at thebeachboys.com.

Curiouser and curiouser... a good sign, though, I hope...

What could this mean?! Weren't some of them already on sale? If someone jumped the gun and missed off the UK surely you would just add the UK ones?

I've got to tell you, this f***ed my day up pretty badly. They'll 'reannounce' a complete European tour (the removal of those dates says so), but [philcohen] Capitol or whoever should have said 'American dates!' or 'European tour to come' rather than jumping the gun and announcing what is an incomplete itinerary which happens to miss out Great fucking Britain.[/philcohen]


Ah, that feels better. No wonder why he does it....  :lol

CTV, I would wager they haven't been fully confirmed yet, hence their absence.

That seems very likely. What they should have just said when they released the confirmed ones was "UK etc summer dates to be confirmed". When you say nothing the only thing people are going to do is speculate and that doesn't help anyone! Telling people that they will be on their way but to wait a while will relieve a lot of stress for many of us!

You don't understand... they just used 'world' the same way they use it in 'world series' - to mean the USA plus a bit of Canada. They had no idea that anyone would take it to include anywhere else ;)

Anyway, I'm a lot happier now, but I'll still probably pick up an Italian ticket or two as insurance... still, it just looks like a c*ck-up rather than something more serious...

I live in Charlotte... they're doing Atlanta, 4 hours south of me and HELL to drive to or visit, on one night... then the next night, they're doing Raliegh, which is 4 hours NORTH of me, and hell to drive to or visit. 

Now.  They then don't have anything for like 4 days. 

So I'm hoping, maybe they'll add in the Queen City and I can just go watch the show after work or something since it's right down the street.

I mean hey, why should I have to go to THEM, they should come to me!

Cheers for talking about how many times you can see the beach boys in a thread where people are depressed because they cannot see the beach boys. you ass.

Kids in ethiophia can't see them either.  I'm just saying, I don't want to drive 4 fucking hours to see them.  I want them to come to my city instead, it's a huge city and it's possible they may play here.

There's no way they won't play somewhere in England, they just haven't scheduled it yet.

Who the hell are you to call me an Ass?  Have we met?  Did I f*** your sister or something?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC8nyBr9_-8&feature=related

See AGD's posts in the tour date announcements thread about tax issues. It seems entirely possible they'll miss the UK altogether, though I hope not.

Keep in mind London has the Olympics around the same time which although is for around 2 weeks, venues will be being prep'd for weeks in advance and for a period after. Also hotels will be booked up for a time before/ during and after the games. I have first hand knowledge of a well known band who had a tour party of 50 not so long ago. That is a lot of hotel rooms.

Lets also consider if lets say a band wanted to put on a free gig in Hyde Park during the games. Sure, the venue is not a problem but the police, security and general logistics would be massive at the best of times let alone during a major event.

I am thinking perhaps the London gig/ gigs are harder than thought but will happen. Imagine the concern if a UK tour with venues and dates had been announced on the 15th with 'London details to follow'. Much more professional to wait until the details have been locked in before making any kind of statement I would think.

Wonder why the tax issues didn't seem to affect Brian's tours here?  Unless he was genuinely here purely for the fans?

If nothing else, there's only one Brian. Mike & Bruce had to license the Beach Boys name from BRI, paying Brian, Al and Carl's estate a cut, and this tour will have to pay BRI plus Bruce & David (who one hopes will get more than the relatively small amount Brian's backing band get). I imagine that that will make the margins for a Beach Boys tour far smaller than for a BW one - and we've heard before that Brian's tours don't actually make a profit (though someone said in another thread that that was only true of his US tours).

Conversely, Brian's management seem to care about prestige - they book him into only a select few venues, and presumably they'd rather lose money on a gig at the Royal Albert Hall than make money from playing Freeborn County Fair in rural Minnesota (to name a gig I know Mike & Bruce did last year because my in-laws went to it).

Is four hours of driving really that much to see the band you love reunite onstage for (probably) one last tour? Heck, I drove 500 miles in the summer of 2010 to see Mike and Bruce. And gas costs twice as much over here as it does in the States.

Aye, c'mon Ron, I flew from Glasgow to LA in 2000 to see BW at the Hollywood Bowl, as I thought it was a one in a lifetime opportunity. Two years later Brian returned the compliment.

Put y'self out man!  This could be a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Life expectancy in California is 80 years, so in a decade most of these guys might not be there to entertain us. Seize the day!

You've got no excuse.  I've driven to/flown to concerts in Charlotte NC, Boulder CO, Hartford CT, Scranton PA, Peoria IL, Moline IL, Nashville TN, Fort Wayne IN, Las Vegas NV,  Indianapolis, and I live in Chicago!  4 hours is nothing.  Take a couple of days off and make an adventure of it and have FUN!  The memories truly last a lifetime. :-D

Chill out man. We all want them to come to our city - congrats, you don't need to be a dick about it. And yeah, 4 hours is nothing. If that's stressing you out then I feel bad for you. I'm flying to a few shows on the tour and its going to take a lot longer than 4 hours in travel time, which I'm completely fine with.

Heeeeyyyyyy now...I've lived in the US my whole life, and I ALWAYS bought their stuff after '67!

(And I mean that literally....I never bought a Beach Boys product until 1990.)

Any news about UK dates yet?

Ditto: I flew Bali, Indonesia to Chicago, arrived on the day of the concert to find the show wasn't actually in Chicago but about 3 hours outside the city so I paid a cab USD250 to take me there, wait and bring me back to the hotel in downtown Chicago .... and it was worth every cent!

Just get in the car and drive ... it's not like US roads are delapedated dirty tracks!

The UK sure wasn't nice to Dylan in '66.

In 2000, I rode a bus for 10 hours to see Brian play in a neighboring state.

Nine years later, he played literally three blocks from my house.

People really need to calm down, it's obvious an official announcement of European dates is coming sooner or later..

I was really taken aback at first too but we just got to be patient, they won't screw us over

I don't know. There has been some citing of "tax issues" in the air. I wouldn't be so sure anymore.

It seems strange to me, 'tax issues' don't stop every other top acts from touring the UK.

I really doubt that

They might stop a lot of them, and we wouldn't know unless we were particular fans of those acts. Ringo Starr, for example, tours the US every year, pretty much, but has only toured the UK once since 1998. I've also heard him say in interviews that he can't spend much time in the UK for tax reasons.

All we actually know for sure are the following facts:
Mike & Bruce have, in the past, tried to arrange UK tours, and then ended up not booking the tours for tax reasons.
There is a ten-day empty slot in the tour dates that were originally announced, right before the continental European dates, which coincides with the Olympics, which Al has spoken about wanting to play.
A few people who have some level of knowledge about the band have publicly said that they're not surprised no UK dates were announced yet, and are unsure whether any will be announced at all.

From this, my guess, based *only* on the above and with *no* other information, is that they have initially pencilled in July 16-25 for unannounced European dates (I'd guess London for the free festival at the Olympics, maybe three other British gigs (Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow or something like that) and then a couple in France and the Netherlands). I'd further guess that they haven't announced those dates yet because they're having problems sorting the tax details out.

Going even further into the realms of speculation, I expect that *if* they can't sort those problems out, and *if* none of the band actually murder any of the other members, and *if* the health of these 70-year-old men holds up, they might try rearranging dates for later in the year, because there are several anglophiles involved.

To be on the safe side, I've bought tickets for Italy, and think it probably a good idea for any British people who can afford to get to a foreign show to buy tickets for one, just in case. I don't think that's panicking, so much as hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.

Still no news for UK? >:(

No news, my earlier optimism is beggining to slip.

We ain't dead yet

Another week and still no news, they're not going to tour here are they?  :'(

They're probably scrambling to work something out for all the UK dates.  I mean, look at the US dates....look at how many shows they've added because of sellouts.  The demand has completely thrown them off so I'm sure they're just trying to figure out how to work out the UK dates in the same manner.  I would guess that the issue is how to pace the entire thing.  A few months ago, this was supposed to be a relatively quick 50 date worldwide tour.  Now, they're doing about 47 shows JUST in the US.  So obviously the original game plan has been thrown out the window...it seems like they're just trying to regroup and shuffle things around to accommodate for the change of plans.

Were playing the waiting game, it's gonna happen

"the waiting is the hardest part"

I want to be optimistic about UK dates but my inner Phil Cohen is insisting that it isn't going to happen.

I hope you're right.  I'm now banking on UK dates being announced, if I knew they wouldn't be coming to the UK I would've bought some abroad somewhere; it's too late now to get foreign tickets of any decent quality.
If they are working on it I wish they'd say somewhere, I'd rather know they were trying than continually hear nothing.  It's not like they're new to this gig!

I'd like to share everyone's optimism, really I would.

They *have* said they're working on it - Bruce said they're trying to sort something out. But 'working on it' doesn't mean it'll happen, and I strongly suspect it won't.

I don't know if tickets for the Italian shows have sold out (bought my tickets the day they went on sale), but they're standing venues, and travelling to Italy isn't that much more expensive than travelling from one end of the UK to the other (in fact it may work out cheaper for me to travel to Rome by plane from Manchester than to travel to London by train).

The other thing is that even if they don't announce UK gigs, they may well announce more mainland Europe ones, so you might still be able to get front-row seats for a show in Paris or Amsterdam, say. I'd be very surprised if there were *no* shows in the week before the Italian ones (I'd also bet on that week - the 19th-26th - being when any UK dates would happen if they do).

I was going to grab some German tickets but I refuse to sit anywhere but the first 20 rows

Wouldn't they have realized the UK was going to be an issue early on in the planning for this tour?  It seems to me that if the UK does get skipped, many will have to travel to get to see the show.  They would have to add a few more European shows for the Uk fans to travel to.  It would be unfair to lock them out and only offer the shows that have already been on sale as their only options.

Travelling isn't an option for me, it's all well and good saying 'well, at least you can travel to a gig if they skip the UK entirely', but I was preparing to break the bank on a £50+ ticket, not a couple of hundred pounds going on an unexpected holiday.

 CURSE YOU.....er.....WHOEVER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE UNDISCLOSED REASON!!!  ::)

Well yeah I hear ya...having to create a whole trip out of this was obviously not anyone's first preferred option! 

It would create such a stink if that's what they ended up doing though...with the amount of shows they're doing in the US...the scale is sure to be unbalanced when we see the entire itinerary.  Let's hope there's a happy ending here.

Nothing comes easy in BB world, but when it does come its always worth it

We can all agree on that

Yeah, I find it hard to believe they will futz it but the signs are not good. Oh well. Hopefully the mooted DVD is good.

Oh, absolutely. Hope I don't come off too smug when I tell people to try to get tickets elsewhere - I know that this is the first year of my entire life that I'd even be able to consider travelling abroad to go to a gig. But for those who *can* do it, it's definitely worth looking into.

well, that shouldn't be a problem for Monchengladbach: http://www.ticketmaster.de/event/The-Beach-Boys-Open-Air-tickets/FYJ0508

Zoom in on block S2, and you'll find a whole bunch of seats within that "first 20 rows" limit you wish for.

Btw, if you choose row 9 seat 4, we can shake hands.  ;D

No. I love America and the American people but, bless them, they can be outstandingly insular: a few of my US friends talked about visiting the UK this summer so I jokingly told them not to even think about London last week July/early August... and not one of them knew WTF I was referring to. Likewise the Jubilee celebrations in June. I'd say it's entirely possible no-one in the BB/BW organization knew about the London Olympics until they tried to book hotel rooms. I'm reliably informed that the coverage in the States has been all but invisible.

Aha! Andrew says that people in the BB/BW organisation have been trying to book hotel rooms in London! I think he knows something...

I know many things.

Do the people in charge of booking tours realise that London isn't the only city in the UK?

What d'ya say buddy? What part of London is UK in? Gee!

I got a friend in London - name's Jim, ya met him ?

My favourite is still the time I was hiking the PCT and was asked where I'd come from.

"Glagow."

"Where's that?"

"Scotland."

"Awesome - what part of Ireland is that in?"

Also the time I stood on top of Mount Baden Powell near Wrightwood in California, admiring all the monuments to the founder of the Boy Scout movement. "So," I was asked. "Do you have anything like the Boy Scout movement in Britain?"

But enough of this jingoism - when's the world's greatest group coming to England, North Yorkshire?

Should I make some cardboard cutouts? :D

Ah yes those little old Olympics!  True, the buzz has been pretty low key over here, still a bit early for it to be in the front mind but no doubt when the games kick off, it will be a daily topic of conversation as it was with the last summer olympics.   In the meantime, the BB's touring management have their work cut out for them!

Goes both ways.

Hired a rental car in Edinburgh once.

Stern faced grump behing the counter. 'Where are you from?'

Me. New Zealand.

Her. Oh..I have cousin who lives in Sydney.

Me. Really? We can walk there when the tide is out.

Her. Nothing...blank expression.

I have an unfortunate habit of asking Canadians/Kiwis where in the US/Australia they come from.  :(

When I lived in the States, I was frequently approached by delightful Americans (and one or two not so delightful) asking me things such as, "I have a cousin called John who lives in Newcastle!  Do you know him?"   and "Gee...you're from England.  Did you live in London?  And is that's right near Edinburgh, right?".

And yes, actually, I do think that all of these charming people were absolutely serious.

 :o

Well yes, but we "busted your backsides" in the 1780's!!!!!!!

 >:D

That's what we Americans do, alright. "My country can beat your country...nyah, nyah, nyah."

A minor detail!   I think Brits have better geography knowledge  :P

 

Indeed.

Except AGD it seems. (see above)

That's accents - even I know Canada is in Montana.

Sigh...you can tell a Canadian from an American by the way they pronounce certain words.

Anyway...this is a great digression from us Brits being "devastated", isn't it?  ;D

Val...38 posts in 5 1/2 years. Leave the yellow board and come over to the dark side.  ;D


You know what they say, once you've gone black!

Oh details, details. They can really pose a problem when left unattended.

If the Boys are finding a lack of appropriate London facilities, perhaps they can disassemble a suite of hotel rooms stateside, ship them across the pond at great expense, and reassemble them in a London highrise. We have the technology.

Oh, and to go completely full circle, have Jack Rieley supervise the entire operation.  :p

I know what you're thinking...Is Jack Rieley really superman?

Seriously though. Fly in- fly out trip. No hotel rooms needed London. ie Charter aircraft. Germany- London- concert- Germany. Done!

Hee hee!  I'm a bit like Andrew and tend to spread myself around  ;)  I also have "A Life"  :P
Love you all really.

That would be an option if they weren't all pensioners. I think Brian and Mike and lil' Al might need some decent sleep after a show...

David's a young'un and will be rocking out all night til the sun rises, he'll likely have the breakfast ready for the rest of them in the morning  :lol

So apart from all the US/UK bashing, there's still no news on any UK dates?!?

No bashing here, just lighthearted banter. In answer to your question - no news regarding UK tour dates.

This is more for Irish fans but a friend of mine who works for MCD promotions says The Beach Boys are in negations to play Phoenix Park, this isn't really a secret since it's been reported in major Irish Newspapers

If worse comes to worse and UK dates don't happen (which I doubt) this could be a safety net

I think i'll save up a little bit more and head to Berlin. I don't fancy seeing them in a field, much rather go to an arena.

It's not happening in the UK is it?

Who knows, there is still that 9 day gap between the Belgian festival show and the first Japan show but I don't think it's going to happen.

Hang on there Paulos, I thought you were Latin Amercian!

 ;D

Que?  :-D

Even more gutted now after hearing the new song today. I can't get to any Europe dates due to the Olympics and my job. Superb new tune, doesn't look like I'm going to ever see the boys together. Really gutted.   :(

Read the latest press release about more tour dates to be announced including new European territories.  (Actually, didn't the US used to be one of our territories?)  ;D

English guys, I'll chime in with an igorant american's opinion.

To americans, there are only about 4 countries.  America of course, then there's Mexico where all the mexicans are from, and we've heard there's a war over in Iraq, which Afganistan apparently is a part of.  Also, there's England, which sometimes is called the United Kingdom.  Those are about the first 4 that pop to mind.

So, with that said, I can assure you, there's absolutely no way they won't play ANY shows in England.  Even I, as an ignorant american, would find that to be a slight. 

Surely these new European dates include the UK? I would be so surprised if they announced others but not us! Anyone know if this new list might include anywhere in the British Isles?

If they don't and instead they have a French date I am rowing myself over there.......

Really? Anyone got a link to this news?
I'd be very disappointed if the UK got missed out completely, we did give them a load of support in the early days and all the BW concerts I've been to have been packed. Come on boys!

You forgot Russia. Definitely a country. Otherwise, you are more-or-less correct and yes, Iraq is a province of Aghanistan---the worst one.

DUH Ronald Reagan got rid of Russia.  I remember reading watching a show about 'egypt' on t.v. once too, but I think I saw on the news where they made Egypt illegal now.  So back down to 4.

Didn't America have a war with someone once, from 1942-1945? I think it was Canada, which as everyone knows is now one of the 50 states of America after it replaced Delaware.

We put our left-over food in Delaware containers, which we buy at Delaware parties. They're like tea parties, only not in Boston.

The state of Delaware itself was simply left to drift off the East Coast - it is rumoured to hit the coast of Portugal in the year 2019.

Any more news of any UK dates?

No, which is why I'm Berlin bound in August.

If they DON'T go to England, I think that will be strong, strong evidence that they're already planning another tour.  I mean they already pretty much know how successful (or not) this one is, they can tell early.... so they may have not scheduled anything in the UK because they already know they're coming back in the fall or something.  NO WAY they'd just not play the UK. 

Why not? They went eight years (1993-2001) without playing the UK at all at one point. Brian didn't come to the UK til three and a half years after he started touring the US. We're a major music market, but it's not like we're the only country they're missing out. A seventh of the world's population lives in China, and I don't see them going there any time soon, or Russia, or anywhere in Africa...

Yeah, I'm pretty much resigned to the fact I'm not seeing the band. Only way to see them would be if they make another record and tour that, I suppose. And I guess I've already seen B-Pain  ;)

...because the band has a long history of touring in the UK, and a very short history (or nonexistant) history for playing China or Russia or anywhere in Africa. 

Now is the time to be greedy.  Not democratic in where you let them play.  You should be greedy enough to expect they'll play England, because England's so cool. 

It's not a matter of being greedy, letting them play anywhere, or what our expectations are. My expectations and greed have less than no influence on where they choose to play.

And they have a much longer history of *not* touring in the UK. After 1975 the Beach Boys played Britain only *very* occasionally -- there was a brief cluster of tours between 1987 and 93, but in the twelve year period after the Wembley gigs with Elton John they only played Britain in 1980, and then for the eight year period after that none of the touring bands played here at all. Al Jardine hasn't played a British gig in 19 years.

In the last eleven years, Mike & Bruce have done two proper tours of the UK, in 2004 and 2008, did three shows as a support act for Status Quo in 2001, a handful of shows (I think two, possibly three) in 2003, and a single one-off show last year, when they tried to arrange a full tour but couldn't.

So a Beach Boys tour of the UK -- even one by the Mike & Bruce band -- has been a fairly rare event since 1975. I'm not saying that as a complaint -- I've managed to get to see Mike & Bruce every time they've come over here, and obviously Brian's been over here every five minutes for the last decade or so, but I think in the last 37 years there have been under thirty Beach Boys shows *total* in the UK

So when you keep saying, over and over, based on no evidence at all, that they will definitely play the UK, when everything points to the touring schedule being a pretty typical one for the Beach Boys for the last few years (just with a few of the county fairs and casinos dropped), the *very strong likelihood* is that you are setting some people up for disappointment, and that you're discouraging others from making alternative arrangements so that they might actually see the band.

You might think the UK is "cool", but the decisions on where to play won't be made on what places are cool, but on where they can make the most money for the least expense. If that means playing six shows in New York State but none in the UK or Ireland, that's what they'll do.

There's only a nine-day space left in the tour, which Bruce has said "has to" end in mid-August, and checking the press release, it said they're playing Singapore, Hong Kong (so they are playing China after all, albeit not mainland China) and Australia, which would all have to fit into that slot. While the press release did say additional European dates would be announced, some have -- in Spain.

Honestly, at this point, it seems *HUGELY* unlikely there'll be even a single UK date announced, and getting people's hopes up for one is more likely to upset them than anything else.

As an aside, reckon Al Jardine would sell out if he did a show at the Barbican or Union Chapel, or such? I would definitely keep it clean with Al Jardine. If VDP can do it...

I've argued for years that Al should do stuff like that. I could easily see him doing a solo acoustic show in a venue like that and being fantastic. Unfortunately, I think he's happier playing beach party shows with Dean Torrence.

I take it back!  The UK seems remarkably unextraordinary; you're right, they probably won't waste their time. 

I think the UK's cool. Cool and wet right now. Why would a band from California want to come to the UK, where it's still snowing into May.

Andrew, since a public UK date has been announced, I think you deserve me an apology for publicly attacking my optimism, and getting ALL OVER MY ASS for just trying to be positive about the importance of YOUR COUNTRY in the world. 

No, I didn't forget about it.  You chided me like a child because I could see the inevitability of something that eventually came true.  So stand up and take your licking. 

Yeah...

No, I don't. You were right that they booked a gig here, and I was wrong, but you were right by accident, based on absolutely no evidence other than your wishful thinking, and everything I said was true.

... but I was still right, because I was optimistic, and you were wrong, because you were negative. 

You had no evidence, I had no evidence, you just chose to look at it negatively.  When I was positive about it, you trashed me. 

All I'm saying is: you owe me an apology.  Be a man about it. 

I had no evidence *that I was choosing to speak about publicly*. If you report details of private conversations, people pretty soon stop telling you things. But I had very, VERY good reason at the time to believe there would be no UK shows.