The Smiley Smile Message Board

Billy Hinsche mentioned during his facbook live that he was in dennis wilsons band the "few times he did those songs live"- was there really dennis solo performances? i did not know that-

I was wondering about that too, as had never heard about a DW solo show.

Per various timelines, on October 31 & November 1, 1977, Dennis held rehearsals at the Brother studio for a planned Pacific Oean Blue tour.  Several shows were booked for later that month but were ultimately cancelled.

Perhaps Billy was part of Dennis' band that rehearsed but ultimately never toured?  Maybe someone can ask him.

If I remember correctly Dennis did some solo songs before the Beach Boys show at a few venues.

They played two Dennis songs during the BBs show at this one:

http://members.tripod.com/~fun_fun_fun/8-77a.html


I seem to remember that there was also a show with Dennis and the band as an "opening act" so to speak.

I believe there were just a very limited handful of shows where Dennis and his band performed a few songs either during or before the main Beach Boys set. But there was never an actual tour. I always thought other than Billy there were mostly members of The Beach Boys backup band in Dennis's band but don't know that for certain. Would be a great question for Billy to address during his Facebook sessions

From my POB essay, found at http://beachboysarchives.com/page11 :

Dennis also planned a short concert tour behind Pacific Ocean Blue; by that time The Beach Boys as a group had also signed with CBS/Caribou, so the contractual prohibition barring Dennis from performing live solo was null and void. When POB was released in late August, Dennis actually opened a couple of Beach Boys shows (at Pine Knob in Michigan) with a short solo set following "official" tour opener Ricci Martin (a Wilson brothers protégé and Dean's son). According to Bobby Figueroa, there was no real rehearsal, just a quick run-through at soundcheck: "We'd do a half-hour set before The Beach Boys came on, but it didn't last very long. It was me, Carli Muñoz, Ed Carter, Billy (Hinsche), and Dennis was on grand piano the whole time." In addition to those musicians (all from The Beach Boys' touring ensemble), guitarist Ed Tuleja and bassist Wayne Tweed also played in Dennis' band for these performances. The half-hour set included not only selections from POB, but also the Carli Muñoz composition "Under The Moonlight", which would be recorded the following year for Dennis' followup album. By the time the tour hit Canada a few days later, Dennis' solo set had shrunk to just two songs ("What's Wrong" and "Friday Night") performed in the middle of The Beach Boys' show, and even that lasted for only a couple of more shows (in Hershey, PA and Saratoga, NY).

Yeah, any memories of that would certainly be welcome. And I would also love to know from Billy if there are any stories between the Beach Boys and Dean Martin (he was Carl's father-in-law after all) that he could share.

Thanks c-man for your post!

Shame that this show doesn't seem to be preserved on tape! Their Central Park concert from just a couple of days later circulates, but by that time, the Dennis mini-set had been dropped.

Aren't there supposedly recordings of the rehearsals for Dennis's solo tour, or was that a rumor?

There are - Alan Boyd provides a great track-by-track description in Ken Sharp's excellent POB book.

To c-man:

Those POB essays are amazing.  Read them countless times.  Thanks so much for doing that- it is appreciated.  I also enjoyed the essays for Summer Days/Summer Nights and Today- nice getting to see proof of Carl and the others playing their own instruments.

Regarding Ken Sharp's book- does anyone know if you can still get one?  Back when people were discussing it here I emailed him a few times to order but never got a response.

I’ll also take a copy if it’s out there in the universe somewhere.

I emailed him today and he said it was out of print, that he may do another printing later and he would let me know.

Good to know, thanks.

I bought the book when it first came out and it is fantastic