The Smiley Smile Message Board

I read today in Badman's chronology book (I know not the very best source) that the BBs brought four backing musicians to play with them on their May tour of Europe.  Apparently the British Musicians Union wouldn't let the extra musicians play on the UK dates.  Badman lists them as the following:

Igor Horoshevsky (cello)
Frank St. Peters (sax, flute, clarinet)
Richard Thompson (flugelhorn, harpsichord, flute, organ, sax, clarinet)
Jim Carther (flute, sax)

A couple questions/comments come to mind:

Was this the first time the BBs tried to augment their live show with extra players?  Or did they do that in 1966 too and I just haven't caught it before?

Is there any recording or footage around of them playing in this 9 man formation?

It seems to me that Brian must have been involved in the rehearsal, arrangements, and personal selection for this stuff.  I haven't ever heard a thing about Brian helping get this live show together in April of 67, but I can't imagine the other BBs doing this on their own.  Also, this makes me feel like they would have been more ready than I previously thought to play the Monterey Pop festival (if they had the new material to play).  I think they could have pulled off Smile live with these multi-instrumentalists behind them.

First, I don't know the answer. (Let's be clear about that.) But I think you're making a false dichotomy: there are more than those two options of 1) Brian handling the arrangements, rehearsals and selection, and 2) the other Beach Boys doing it on their own. By "personal selection," I assume you mean either set list or which instruments (and musicians) were selected to augment the band. There is no reason Brian would have had to be the one to handle that.

Writing arrangements and rehearsing the group, even if outside the grasp of the band at the time could have been done by any hired, trained musician, including even one of those four people they hired. Presumably those guys were trained musicians (one could play keyboards, brass and woodwinds...which is more than Brian could do): if they were educated in music, any one of them could write arrangements and rehearse a group.

Sadly, Mr. Horoshevsky passed away the day after Christmas 2007,  Anyone have anything on how to contact the others?

Anyone in or up for contacting Professional Musicians, Local 47 for info on these guys?

Interesting topic, I don't have any insight to offer but am curious to see where this thread leads

I am very interested in when the BBs started  using various outside musicians as well.  I know that on the 1967 Europe tour-Mike was really angry with the UK musician's Union-because they prevented the group from using these outside musicians at any of the UK shows.  I also know that the short October 1967 tour was the first with Ron Brown.  I believe that Daryl Dragon joined up around the time of the Nov 1967 Thanksgiving tour (though no reviewer mentions anyone).  Ed Carter and Mike Kowalski joined for the July 1968 tour with the Union Gap.

Ron Brown must have not been with the BBs very long, because I never see him in any footage of BBs shows from the 70s...

For the European 1967 tour, did they book different backing musicians for those dates, or just them BBs themselves?

I can understand why they would be angry about that.

It is unfortunate that they couldn't use their  extra musicians on that May 1967 UK leg of the tour.  Some reviews of those shows are critical of the BBs not being able to pull off their on-record sound on stage.  The fact was they were trying to improve that situation, but most people probably had no idea about the situation with the UK musician's union.  The BBs just couldn't catch a break in early 1967!

As I remember it, Mike said back at this time the British musicians union put the stimey on this '67 tour, that the group had wanted to take this sort of augmentation group of musicians on their October/November/December 1966 tour but they decided that the scream levels they were experiencing in concert would make the investment a waste. Something like that....I hope....come on gray cells, remember, dammit.

That's pretty insightful. It would be cool to ask any of the survivors if they remember anything about that.

Certainly, it would have made it easier to support the Pet Sounds album, and maybe have allowed the group to keep up with the changing times on stage. It's surprising how many of the really early songs they were still playing on stage at that point.

Yes, I do believe this would've been the first occurrence of them using outside musicians on tour.  The live tapes that circulate from '66 (Japan in January, Michigan in October, and Denmark, France and England October/November) display the 5 Boys and no one else (Bruce played Vox or Farfisa organ on some of the newer stuff - meaning "Vibes" and "GOK" - while Carl took over the bass on those).  The summer '67 shows in Hawaii were just Brian and the other 4 pre-Bruce guys (Brian mostly on the big white Baldwin organ, with Carl and Al rotating bass duties, but Brian definitely on bass for "Sloop" and the instrumental "Hawthorne Boulevard").  The aforemetioned fall '67 shows with Ron Brown and Daryl Dragon would seem to be the next time they brought in hired hands.  I wonder if they continued on through the ill-fated Mararishi and "MLK" tours of early '68?  Ed Carter and Mike Kowalski both hit the Boys' stage for the first time at Atlantic City's Steel Pier in summer of '68.

Sad to hear of Mr. Horoshevsky's passing...he played on LOTS of Beach Boys string sessions clear into the '80s.   
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