The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've heard that when Bruce first came back to the BBs he actually played guitar, but I'd never seen it until now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBq3PU7ucbM

Two other fascinating things about this clip:  Brian's sharp dressing, and though I'm guessing the piano player is most likely Carli Munoz, with the blurry image it sure looks a lot like a clean shaven Dennis (see 2:17).

Looking at Eric's site for set lists from that period, the only unfamilair name was Tony Leo. Might this be the mystery keyboardist?

The guitar Bruce is sort of playing looks like Carl's ES-335.

I never even heard before that Bruce played guitar on stage. Since he checks the BBB message board sometimes, maybe someone can get him to elaborate on that change a little. Nice find!

Poor guy. There's not one instrument he looks cool playing.

In the November '78 edition of David Leaf's "Pet Sounds" fanzine, there's a shot of Bruce playing that guitar (which I've always assumed was borrowed from Carl) alongside Carl, who was playing a capoed Stratocaster, at a recent gig.  Because the Strat was capoed, the tune in question was almost certainly "Help Me Rhonda". 

The YouTube clip Adam posted a link to was the April '79 Easter Seals Telethon (hosted by Jack Klugman).  Dennis was absent.  The "mystery" pianist  was Sterling Smith (Carli Munoz is on organ, Phil Shenale is on Oberheim synth).  This is the same lineup that performed when The Beach Boys hosted the Midnight Special in April or May (however Dennis WAS present for that).

My feeling is that when Bruce returned to the band (late August/early September '78), there were so many keyboardists already in the band, even with Brian on bass, that he sometimes played the bass parts on one of Carl's guitars (especially when Brian moved back to the piano).  You'll note that Bri is playing the Wurlitzer electric (instead of the acoustic baby grand) here & on the Midnight Special...in the "Time Barrier Express" article from that year there's a shot of him & Sterling playing the grand together, side-by-side (I think that was from the Radio City Music Hall show in March).  By July of that year (when I saw them live for the very first time), they had pared down the keyboard ensemble to just Brian, Bruce, Carli, and Mike Meros.

Tony Leo was their drum & percussion tech.  He filled in on percussion from '79-'82 when Dennis was absent and Bobby or Mike K. had to play the drums.  Tony didn't play the entire set, but would run onstage when needed (for instance, the tympani part at the end of "Wouldn't It Be Nice").

I've seen worse pictures of Bruce playing guitar...


(http://i45.tinypic.com/rbbng7.jpg)


(http://i45.tinypic.com/sfcept.jpg)


(http://i50.tinypic.com/5ceexs.jpg)

Wow, hadn't seen that middle picture before...where's that from, SH?  And do you know for sure where the top photo was taken...the bottom one is supposedly Central Park (according to the Leaf book), but their clothes are different than what they wore at the Central Park gig that was filmed for TV.

Hmmm...wonder who the bearded keyboardist is in that first shot?

I think that middle picture popped up here before. The description says "1972 Carnegie Hall". But I'm not sure about that. (Blondie, Ricky and Bruce on one pic didn't happen too often)
No clue where the first pic was taken.

They did play Carnegie on the March/April '72 tour when those three dudes were all in the band, so it's possible.  From the instrumentation and configuation of the players, I'd say it's probably "Student Demonstaion Time" or maybe "Wild Honey".  Anymore shots from that show?

Yes, it was SDT being played, according to Bruce when he posted that picture from his own collection on the BBBritain message board. 

The youtube video shows Bruce on guitar. The three photos show him playing bass.

Bruce's hippie phase was short-lived but I think he looked pretty cool in the Central Park photo...

Bruce, Mike and Al were never convincing hippies.

(http://i351.photobucket.com/albums/q476/marcus1970/April1972.jpg)

Far out.   :hat

IIRC Bruce did play on the '84 4th of July concert too. There's been more times he could be seen with a guitar but I can't rememebr exactly which occasion I have in mind....

I dunno, I think Al and Mike worked as hippies when they were being themselves...Al is the earth dude, Mike as the yoga/meditating guy.  It was the trying to fit in with the crowd part that never works for anybody, basically.  I thought bearded denimy Al was cool as hell.

Agreed.  Just look how cool AJ is on the cover of Rolling Stone in '71.

Without digging out my DVD, doesn't Bruce play the guitar in the Knebworth show towards the end?