The Smiley Smile Message Board

Dang, I always enjoy listening to (most of) that show.

The band really could bring it between Ed, Bobby, Mike Meros and Carl.

Dude, that statement (as true as it is) isn't worth opening a new thread. There already are a couple of Knebworth topics. ;)




The most important ones:

Good Timin': Live At Knebworth 1980 (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,78.0.html) (CD album discussion)

Good Timin: Live at Knebworth, England 1980 (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,512.0.html) (concert DVD discussion)

I can live with another Knebworth thread… that was the first time I saw the band live, as a 16 year-old exam-flunkin' music head. The gig means a lot in that context. With the benefit of bootlegs and hindsight I don't think the band were at their peak - that was between ten and six years earlier - but you only get to see a band for the first time once in your life and to me they rocked that night!

Firstly, February & March 2014 is pretty fresh. ;) Secondly, those are the topics to muse about the CD/DVD releases of the Knebworth show - however fresh (or rotten) they are. If that's not what you want to do - fair enough. :) But even for a 'new' Knebworth-related topic like the ass-kicking live band those days (I agree 100%!) I'd say your post isn't enough to justify a new thread. Either elaborate some more (that is a f*cking awesome band, after all!) or revive one of the many older Knebworth threads in the main section.




I'm sorry.. all work and no sleep makes Lowie cranky. Whatever. Knebworth rocks. It's a joy to see the 6 main guys on stage along with those insanely 'hot' back-up musicians. They've rarely rocked harder than in those days. Just listen to "Help Me, Rhonda" or "Fun, Fun, Fun"! Holy crap! Now, if it weren't for that nasty processing on Mike's voice..



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First warning.

I like Knebworth (and that period) a lot but it was perplexing. Side two of the M.I.U. Album was pretty laid back as was almost all of the L.A. Light Album. The next thing you know they came out blasting in 1980. Did they ever rock as hard?

Two things remain a mystery to me. First, why did Carl give so many (or any) guitar solos to Ed Carter? And second, what happened to Brian? He was really slim in 1979, playing a lot of bass, and his voice was drastically improved from the 15 Big Ones/Love You period. By the time of Knebworth, he was gaining weight, he was back behind the piano almost exclusively, and he barely opened his mouth in concert. Was it the drugs?

When someone has a little burst of Beach Boys related joy/emotion and wants to share it with us fellow geeks, why should they have to stifle the flame by slogging through old threads just to avoid irritating the Net police?

Multiple threads about Knebworth 1980? That's simply awesomeness quantified  :)

The Knebworth DVD is a godsend for us fans considering the scarcity of "classic era" live concerts on film/video .... As for now, it's the best we have and an important insight on a band at a sort of crossroads ..... It demonstrates just WHY the Beach Boys music effects us as it does. We see a bunch of guys in the midst of various forms of addictions/disfunction/strife/bullshit and we get to watch the joy of the music take it all over and shove it all aside! It is a wonderful thing to behold!

Well said! :)

If we are going down this road could someone direct me to the premium 'Pet Sounds' album thread one should post, and I will disregard all others.

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Is Carl's jacket too shiny?

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Al:  It's too shiny.  Right Brian?
Brian:  Yeah.

Dennis:  Let it go Al... let it gooooo...
Mike:  What if I let YOU go Dennis?  Would you be able to stand?

Denny: ***pause***   No.  Probably not.

They do sound pretty good on this DVD (aided by the overdubs).

However on some of the boots that I have heard from the period they sound pretty damn rough.

How many other UK fans (or visitors) who post here were at the gig?

And where were y'all standing in proximity to the campfire (as smelt by Al) to the left of the stage looking out towards the audience.  (John Manning, was the campfire your doing?)

I'm blown away that as this very thread was started, I was sitting in front of my telly watching the Knebworth DVD - in full for the first time.

.

So what are your favourite performances from the Knebworth gig? Personally, I could die for the respective renditions of "Surfer Girl", "Lady Lynda" and "God Only Knows" - as well as the pure rock 'n' roll on "Rhonda", "Fun, Fun, Fun" and the likes. "Darlin'" might just be the best released version of the song so far. Carl kills it. Honourable mention: Denny's solo spot on "You Are So Beautiful", accompanied by Mike Meros.



It really looks friggin' rad in the footage. Carl could pull it off.

I think Mike wore a similar jacket back in 1976. He might be wearing it on one of the photos used in the Ten Years Of Harmony album booklet and for the cover of the Byron Preiss book.

Knebworth favorites:

"California Girls" - love the organ intro
"Do It Again" - my favorite live version of the song; again the intro rocks
"Little Deuce Coupe" - a very underrated version
"I Get Around", "Surfin' USA", "Barbara Ann", "Fun, Fun, Fun" - they were able to capture on tape the way it feels to be there live; rock & roll doesn't get much better than that

Agreed, and I get bored with pompous thread-police officers.

Now that I got that off my chest....

Knebworth is one of my favorite dvd concerts to watch, even though Brian doesn't seem to be having much fun. I thought he sang the chorus to Surfer Girl amazingly. The song Keeping The Summer Alive is one of the highlights (in my opinion). Too bad they didn't continue playing that song live.

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The boys look on as security release Bruce from a locked Porta-Potty. Brian grins knowingly.  >:D

Does anybody know why Carl appeared to be very angry after the band finished performing Surfer Girl at the Knebworth concert? If you watch the DVD, or on Youtube, you can see Dennis pull Carl away from Mike (well that's what it looks like, I could be wrong). Carl has a look about him that just seems agitated. Obviously there was a little bit of instigating on Dennis' part during the song (is Dennis teasing Mike? It's rather humorous :lol)

I have heard other people say that as well. I never saw it like that. Carl doesn't really look angry - although clearly he meant to talk to Mike about something performance-wise. But that's what Carl did, he always had an eye on the musical performance. Dennis pulling Carl could just be to grab him for the collective bow. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong.

It looks to me like Carl was about to say something to someone in the band when Dennis pulled him away.

Carl didn't really give away that many guitar solos to Eddie, as was stated earlier in this thread...just "Rhonda" and "Barbara Ann", plus the closing solo on "School Days": Carl still played all the other guitar solos at that point: "Do It Again", "Catch A Wave", "Keepin' The Summer Alive" (I think he and Eddie may have soloed in tandem on this one), "I Get Around", "Surfin' U.S.A.", and "Fun, Fun, Fun", plus the first solo on "School Days".

If you look back a few years into the band's onstage history, the "Rhonda" solo had been played by someone other than Carl since they re-arranged it as a slow boogie back in '71: either by the horn ensemble, Daryl or Billy on piano, Blondie, or Charles Lloyd on sax. With all of those players gone from the band by early '79, I think Carl just made the decision to let Eddie have the solo 'cause he wasn't interested in doing it himself after being used to someone else doing it for so long. With "Barbara Ann", I think Carl was probably just getting bored with doing the song in general (even referring to it, smiling, as the "bane" of his existence at this point), and so he gave the solo away to Eddie around the same time.

So from '79 to '81, it was common practice for Ed to leave the bass and play lead guitar on those two songs, with Bruce taking over on bass for those two. In the spring of 1980 (including the U.S. tour they did right before heading to Europe), they brought in Joe Chemay to play bass so that Eddie could play guitar throughout; this was actually the record company's idea, according to Bruce in an interview at the Philadelphia Spectrum gig that April. For some reason, CBS thought the band's onstage sound needed to be a bit "heavier" while they toured in support of the "KTSA" album. That enabled Eddie to add additional lead guitar licks thoughout, similar to what he had done in '78 when Brian would play bass for most of the show. Following the 1980 Euro tour though, Chemay was gone and Eddie was back to playing bass throughout the show, except for "Rhonda" and "Barbara Ann". Carl picked up the closing solo on "School Days", as seen in the video of the July 4th show from that year. When Foskett came on board, Carl was of course out of the band and thus Jeff was doing all of the solos. When Carl came back in spring of '82, he resumed playing most of the solos, but gave Jeff the solo on "Surfin' Safari", as well as the two Eddie had previously had ("Rhonda" and "Barbara Ann"). And, Jeff did the solo on "Come Go With Me" for several years too, until Meros got a decent sounding saxophone patch on one of his keyboards. And Jeff would do the "Wipeout" lead guitar part in later years, but by the mid-'90s, Carl was doing that as well.

My own faves on the night included Some of Your Love and Keeping the Summer Alive - it was great to hear them play fast, full and furious versions of new songs among the old favourites. I actually hated You Are So Beautiful on the night - couldn't understand why they'd throw in such a soppy slow-down track among the adrenalin rush that the gig otherwise was, and is never heard the tune before.!my opinion was swung 180 degrees since then… and what would any of us here sacrifice to hear Dennis sing that live just once more?

Alan, I can honestly recall where I was in relation to the bonfire… there was some other smokey stuff being passed around but I didn't partake (I just inhaled from afar, and the railway carriage heading home the next day was so full of the stuff you couldn't help but take it in…!). Honk the bonfire was well over to my left. Still have a flyer somewhere, and suspec I've kept my ticket too. Programme is on the shelf with the ray of the collection.

Lindisfarne played in the afternoon and they were great, Beach Boy-rivalling harmonies that brought a tear to the eye. Santana and Mike oldfield were sleep-inducing, Elkie Brooks was ace, Blues band were fab.

Kestrel lager was a new product at the time; it tasted like piss to me; threw my can on the bonfire (but not that bonfire).

Think my ticket cost £9.50, including camping. There was a vole under the tent one night.

These things I remember…

I was at the Philadelphia show which opened the U.S. leg of the tour. I believe it was in May and without Dennis. Even so, it was a hell of a concert and they were a-rockin' that night as well. One of the very few times that I felt the Spectrum shake during a concert. Most of the show was like a sing-along. I remember not being able to hear to the band because so many in the audience were singing. As for fun and excitement, it was probably the best show that I ever attended. While there were some mistakes musically and vocally, I don't think anyone cared a lick. As it turned out out, it was one of the last arena sized shows that they played here. After that it was all small venue gigs for the next 30 plus years, except for the tour with Chicago in 1989 or 90.

April 18, 1980 - I was there, too. Do you remember when Mike said, "We have a special request....from Brian Wilson", and they played "Long Tall Texan"? And it was a pretty good version, too! I have a cassette recording of the concert complete with the post-concert interview with Bruce and Brian.

Yep, I remember, along with the big introduction of Goin' On. I also remember the audience going ape sh*t after Help Me Rhonda and Wouldn't It Be Nice. Out of the 40 plus shows that I have attended since 1969, that one was the most wild and exciting of them all. I had my sister record the show too, off of WIOQ 102 FM.

Edit: Don't think I have ever heard the interviews with Bruce & Brian. My tape ran out. :(

Didn't Brian eat his entire birthday cake by himself before going onstage at Knebworth?

Nice.  For me it's Lady Lynda.  I love the high falsetto throughout the tag.  Achingly beautiful.

He mowed through an chocolate one that was supposed to be for the tykes - according to Mr Mike Grant's CD liner notes:

"Back in 1980, Knebworth House had played host to the band, laying on a cold buffet and drinks for them prior to their performance.  When Brian, unimpressed by the spread, asked "Do you have any cake?", a chocolate cake was brought out which had been especially baked for the children of the house.  This was met a by a gleeful grin from Brian, who sat himself down on a nearby sofa and devoured it - then fell asleep, a cushion over his face!  The others did not have an easy time waking him from his slumber"

John, drbeachboy, Sheriff John Stone,

I can't tell you enough how great your recollections are  :-D - The few BB events I've been to in Australia have been pretty polite affairs - indoors, allocated seating, just the BBs, etc etc. 

While these Oz performances have been pretty enjoyable, I'm eternally envious of those who were able to see our boys during the '70s and can relate a deep connection to these events.  Those shots looking out across the Knebworth audience; or stuff like those scenes from the "Free" Washington Concerts (as per An American Band/EH) just blow me away how HUGE some of those gigs were.

There used to be something online, written by Lady Knebworth (whatever her name is… excuse me your Highness) in which she recounted the birthday cake tale firsthand. Can't find it right now… might have been taken down as they now sell a "scrapbook" recollecting the festivals, from the giftshop.

Interesting to note the slight audience decline, from the 200,000 for the previous year's 200,000 Led Zepellin weekend to the 45,000 for Beach Boys day.

Pretty sure I've recounted other memories from the gig here previously… like the live premiere of Santa Ana Winds, so new to the band that someone (Al) had to scuttle off to find a lyric sheet they could share; and a band member (Carl?) blaming Al for the Cotonfields/Heroes Medley. At one stage Brian was playing an entirely different tune to the rest of the band. And as Mike announced "the song you've all been waiting for…" the audience clamoured for Barbara Ann, only for the band to play Good Vibes!

On the DVD it's Mike who introduces the medley with "It was his fault, that guy over here. [...] He made us do it. [...] So anybody that has any complains after the show about this particular song we're gonna do, please direkt them to Mr Al Jardine." ^^

Many thanks… long time since I watched the DVD (but will make it bedtime viewing for my daughter tonight I think!)

  The Knebworth performance of "Surfer Girl" is interesting. Dennis comes to the front of the stage and Mike clearly has no interest interacting with him. At the end of the song, Carl seems to be heading Mike's way for a word but is stopped by Dennis. Then you see Al and Dennis shaking hands while taking their bows. What was going on with Carl and Mike? Was Carl angry?

I've watched this part many times, and my theory is that Carl (who was the last person to start trouble) was trying to get between Dennis and Mike to cut off any conflict between the two.  It looked like Dennis was trying to instigate Mike and he was probably hammered too.

I don't think Carl had any issues with Mike that day.  At the end of "Barbara Ann" he gives mike a bifg shout out.

If I recall correctly, the rumour was that Dennis had quit or been sacked and the drummer on the tour was going to be Scott Matthews from the Durocs.

I've written this before when the subject has come up on these Knebworth threads. The truth behind Mike's comment is covered in an old BB Freaks United news letter I still have. In Holland (from memory) Al had heard that the bands last 'hit' had been 'Cottonfields' and got the group to rehearse the song for that reason. They must have kept it in the setlist.

Me nothing, but I would sacrifice quite something it they were all still alive and their voices were all in the shape of Al's...

Sadly, can't even imagine what Dennis' voice might sound like today.

I've thought exactly the same thing - at this point in time they really played like true a rock and roll band - what suddenly made things different?  At this point Dennis was deep into his issues but even when he takes his songs on the kit, he's fantastic as a "driver."  There was always something special about Denny behind the kit even in his later years.

Prior to the first show of the 1980 European tour (June 2nd), Dennis hadn't played with the band since mid-November the previous year, and those three gigs were the only shows he played between August 12th 1979 and the 1980 Euro shows. Basically, he was kicked out and told not to come back until he cleaned up his act.

...Which raises the question, given what he was like over the next two years...  what made them think his act was still sufficiently cleaned up to stay in?  Why was he not out on his ear again basically the moment they got back to the States?...

Cheers,
Jon Blum

I`ve never looked at it like that. Doesn`t the booklet for this CD/DVD actually mention that Mike and Dennis smiling at each other and singing together is a beautiful moment or something like that?

And I presume that Carl wanted to talk about the performance for some reason. Doesn`t look angry to me.

Agreed.

Being a new fan at the time I read everything and anything and it was pretty much all bad between Mike and Dennis. When the DVD came out I thought one thing. Dennis was taking the p!ss.

Carl may be doing something simple as cutting a song due to time constraints.

I say there's definetely something going on with Carl and Mike after Surfer Girl. The way Dennis grabs Carl away from Mike and how Al comes straight after that to shake Dennis' hand. I agree that Carl doesn't look angry, but something definetely happened there.

Plus I'm pretty sure Mike was pissed for Dennis during the performance. That "get the f*** off-smile" Mike has during it is pretty funny.

That's fantastic, thanks for sharing your memories!  Very cool indeed.

I always thought Dennis and Bobby worked well in tandem and when Dennis was "on" he pushed songs the way they should have been.  I never liked the way the band went when Mike Kowalski was on the kit and it's such a damn shame Dennis completely fell apart as there could have been many more years and good times in that body had he slowed some things down a bit in his life, LOL.

KTSA was always one of my favorite tracks live and even with the wonky broken string solo, it represents well here.  I still think it's a great song.

The first time I saw the band was 1981 and it still was one of the most wild shows I have ever seen.  Dennis and Brian weren't 100% but as performers, this was a strong window of time for the band.

At leas they were doing better than 1978 when the setlist sucked, the rehearsals were bad and even Carl was falling over drunk. These guys really lost it after 15BO... LA could've been a better album but the production was generally quite slick and vocals were great as well!

Great point, I wonder what we can attribute that to?

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Wow -- Dennis had been out of the band for nearly a year?!  I never realized that.

'78 was a bad year.  I like MIU a lot, but it was not fun, family event.  The Brian is Back event was over.  And it must have seemed less than worth it to push Brian to write new stuff.  I don't think they wanted another batch of "Adult/Child" stuff.  So bringing in Bruce was probably a familiar face with a blast of levity -- normalcy and sanity.

Plus, Bruce was an "outsider" with regards to the latest skirmishes, yet a comfortable "old shoe" who could logistically bring everyone together, without feeling like they were reaching outside of the family.  I like LA, but the end was certainly nigh.

They were great live during this period.  But, the studio scene was probably hellish.

well put Bean .....

which begs the question: was the "Our Team" thingy staged for the most part? Too much of it comes off like mature adults working well with each other.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

is Our Team an MIU track?  Or after the fact.

I know it sounds crazy but this really seems to be - to me at least - the last time I see Brian really looking like "Brian"...  maybe it's the hair...

Recorded during the MIU seshs.