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Beach Boys In Concert On Fourth
Friday, February 8, 2008
The Record Online Edition
NorthJersey.com

The Beach Boys, who made history in 1983 when they drew more than
300,000 to a free July 4 concert on the Atlantic City beach, will
celebrate the 25th anniversary of that event with another beach show
this July 4.

Colony Capital, which owns Resorts Atlantic City and the Atlantic City
Hilton, has confirmed an agreement with the legendary band to perform
in front of one of the two properties.

The company wouldn't say which casino would host the concert.

"The concert will be part of a large-scale Fourth of July
celebration," company spokesman Brian Cahill said. "We look forward to
working with the city of Atlantic City to create a truly memorable event."

The concert would likely be free, although some reserved seats near
the stage may be sold, Cahill said, adding more details would be
released later.

Political overtones

The 1983 show was a hastily arranged booking with political overtones.
The Beach Boys had been scheduled to perform a free Fourth of July
concert on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where they had
performed the three previous years.

But several weeks before the show, then-U.S. Interior Secretary James
G. Watt abruptly canceled the gig. He said the band attracted an
"undesirable element," referring to some fans who smoked pot during
the shows. Entertainer Wayne Newton was booked to perform instead.

Keyboardist and singer Bruce Johnston, who joined the Beach Boys in
1965 as a replacement for guitarist Glen Campbell, said the band's
banishment from the nation's capital was a case of "guilt by association."

"[Watt] said rock-and-roll [musicians] were undesirables who attracted
the wrong crowd," Johnston, 65, recalled with a laugh during a 2007
interview.

But he said the band wasn't laughing in 1983 when the ax suddenly fell
on their Fourth of July gig.

"He fired us from a free show," the musician recalled.

Caesars Atlantic City quickly stepped in and signed the band. "We were
surprised when [Caesars] offered to host the show. We thought we were
damaged goods," Johnston said.

Within a couple of weeks, the casino arranged to construct a massive
stage on the beach on the east side of the former Million Dollar Pier,
which was then known as the Ocean One shopping mall and is now The
Pier at Caesars.

On July 4, an armada of private and charter boats dropped anchor just
beyond the surf line and more than 300,000 people crammed every inch
of sand between Arkansas and Tennessee avenues to watch the Beach
Boys. The show attracted worldwide media coverage.

'Sea of people'

Johnston remembered looking out from the stage – said to have been
constructed with boards used during the 1969 Woodstock music festival
– and seeing "just a sea of people" and the running lights from boats
anchored offshore.

"I didn't think they could fit that many people on the beach," added
Johnston, who's been surfing the beaches of Atlantic City and nearby
Brigantine since the band first began performing in Atlantic City in
the mid-1960s.

The show was also significant because it marked the last July 4
concert the Beach Boys played with its original lineup (minus Brian
Wilson, who hasn't toured with the band since 1965). In December 1983,
drummer Dennis Wilson drowned in a California marina.

This summer's concert will feature only one original Beach Boy – lead
singer Mike Love. Founding member Al Jardine left the band in the
mid-1990s following a dispute with Love, and guitarist Carl Wilson
died in 1998.

I get the print version of the Record and I was thinking of transcribing this article into type. Never even thought of checking online for it. Thanks for posting.

I hate that everyone says Brian hasn't played with the Beach Boys since 1965. That's about 30 years inaccurate.