The Smiley Smile Message Board

I've found out that Mike did quite a number of solo shows (with the Endless Summer Beach Band in 1981 inbetween BB tours and I was wondering if anyone can help me plug in some missing shows.  Did anyone see any of these shows or know of any others? Also a new story about Mike's Sept 1981 wedding-says he was scheduled to appear on Love Boat with his band and that this would be filmed after the honeymoon in Mexico (did he appear? Anyone recall Mike on Love Boat?)
Dates I know of
Aug 4 and 5 1981 Hobey Baker's in Goleta, CA
Aug 8 1981-Country Club in LA
Sept 4 and 5 1981 Nepenthe Club in Fort Lauderdale
Sept 11 1981-Knott's Berry Farms
Sept 12 1981-Disney World, Orlando
Nov 4 1981-Agora, Atlanta
Nov 5 1981-Bayou, DC
Nov 6-Brandywine Club, Chadd's Ford, PA
Nov 7-Philadelphia show was canceled
Nov 8 1981-Savoy, New York City
Nov 9 1981-Toad's Place, New Haven
Nov 13 1981-Channel Club, Boston
ANY OTHERS?

Ian - the dates seem a little weird to me. Mike is in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on Sept. 4th & 5th and plays a show at Disney World (Orlando, Florida) on Sept. 12th, but he is in Anaheim, California to do a show at Knott's Berry Farm just the day before? Could he have actually played Disneyland in Anaheim on the 12th or did he and the band actually fly back to Florida the day after the Knott's Berry Farm show, even though they had been there just the week before?

I resided in Northeast Georgia in 1981 and I don't recall hearing about Mike Love playing the Agora Ballroom in Atlanta, but Carl Wilson played there in April of 1981. If Mike did play the Agora, it was likely a private show. I do have a memory of there being a non-performing ML appearance (signing) in the area that I missed to illness, it may have been around that time. There were other Agora Ballrooms in other cities, so it could be a different locale for your November date.

Mike played a public solo show in the spring (May/June -- I'll have to check the dates when I have access at home) of 1981 at Lake Lanier Islands, a golf resort near Buford, GA.

The dates of all the shows I listed are correct-I have ads for all those shows from the relevant newspapers-He was indeed scheduled to play the Agora in Atlanta and yes he was also scheduled to play in Florida on the 12th-so he flew there that day I guess (hardly impossible in this day and age).  Now-as to whether any of these shows were canceled I can't say-but they were scheduled.

Ian, what publication did the ad for the Atlanta show run in? I just checked my clippings collection and there's nothing for November, 1981.

Ahh yes,
      I saw the Lovester and Carl at the Agora in Atlanta!
Both good shows . The thing about the Carl show ,was after the performance he started helping pack up equipment! Im sure with the BB's his roady duties were few.
Where do those days go?

This is slightly off topic, but I have always wondered why Mike went on tour as a solo. Was it to "promote" his album? Or was it just a clever ruse to get away from Brian and Dennis?

It was considered a limited solo tour to promote the album.

Jeff Foskett remembered that Michael had seen his band in a bar and offered them a gig as his backing band for this tour. Then, of course, the Beach Boys snapped him up, and Carl decided he was the only member of the 1981-82 Michael-led band worth retaining.

Important to remember than Foskett had walked up to Brian's doorstep in 1976, was allowed in, talked to Brian whom he said wasn't in good shape but was lucid, asked Brian to jam (I think Brian played bass) and then left. Jeff said he wanted to play with either The Beatles or The Beach Boys and it was too late for the former.

According to a BB Fun interview with Mike's then manager-the Nov 1981 solo tour was to start on Nov 2 in Gainesville and conclude on Nov 15.  Since he was in Boston on Nov 13-clearly the plan was to go from South to North mostly along the east coast.  The BB tour concluded on Nov 1, but Mike's manager said Mike loved to work and didn't need days off-he'd tour 365 days a year if he could.  It is clear that Mike has no problems with endless travel and hotels-say what you will about the man-he has always been a very hard worker.

Mike did a solo appearance with 'Jingle Bell Rock' on a German TV big Saturday Family Show... don't know if this is relevant. He may have done more of these.

Not that I´m aware of.

There´s a clip on YouTube of a performance on Dutch TV - maybe that´s what you had in mind.

Well, I really seem to recall a programm like 'Wetten Dass...?', or that hidden camera show, where Frank Elstner, Thomass Gottschalk, or Wolfgang (...?) announce mr. Love as the solo member of the BBs with this song. I'll try some googling...

Sparks a "what if...?" thought:

What if Mike at the time had asked Foskett's band (or others) to be his backing band, then proposed to BRI that he license the name "The Beach Boys" way back in 1981? If BRI agreed, no SIP, Still Cruisin', BBs '85... the other band members (with the exception of Al, who I'm conjecturing would have stayed with Mike at that moment) could then have pursued their solo careers.  Wouldn't our fanboy world be a different place! Or would it!

yeah. Touring the whole of Pet Sounds under the flag: 'It Was My Album All The Way!'.

Michael singing God Only Knows...yeah, I'd definitely cringe. And then he'd throw in a honking sax solo during the break.

Ooofff... nice excuse to have one extra drink tonight, to drown my sorrow...

Michael singing God Only Knows is almost as embarrassing as Paul McCartney in the Beatles Anthology demonstrating the mellotron and singing a painful adlib of Strawberry Fields Forever with that trademark smoothness. Total burping up of puke there.

Yeah, didn't Paul start to high?  One of his few in-perfect moments.


speaking of Mike's solo tour, what kind of setlist was he performing?

Look on Eric's site-I believe Jeff Foskett himself contributed the Nov 6 1981 Chadd's Ford (Brandywine Club) setlist

The Chadds Ford, PA show from 1981 was recorded - basic setlist, the usual meat and potatoes hits, eight selections from Looking Back With Love, a couple unreleased tunes including California Beach, and the big rarity being Sail On Sailor, which had somewhat come back to prominence in Beach Boys setlists in 1981.

Just like the original studio take, that Brian produced. Hmmm....

Toad's Place was cancelled.   I went there that night and saw a sign on wall.   Did not have a ticket ahead of time. 

... but had the common sense to can when he realised it SUCKED!

...but suppose that we only knew this version? Would we still think it is awful? I doubt that very much.

Dunno... GOK is one of the foundation stones of the BBs' reputation.

Could be that:

1) a lot of us wouldn't even be fans today;

2) the band would have folded long before any member had to pass away;

and

3) Mike would have licensed the use of the name "The Beach Boys" back in the early '80s, and I'd be going Scunthorpe Working Men's Club tonight to see him, Johnston, Foskett, Dean Torrence and Steady Eddie play a slew of their hits including I Get Around, Help Me Rhonda, Rocking the Man in the Boat, Teach Me Tonight, and Paradise Found.  After which they'd throw their guitars and amps in the back of a Ford Transit and drive through the night to their next gig, at Burnley Trades Club.

Hehe... the third option sounds pretty workmanlike and lovely to me... sipping a Harvey's and listening to this lineup... pondering the passing of time... no Smile myth to worry endlessly about... the simple life is the good life.

Well, I looked the setlist up for July 1981, is this where the infamous recording of Imagine on the 'boots' comes from?
Also, I found Surfin' (Blues version), what's this? and California Beach was performed as well, interesting. and Calendar Girl was an encore? haha

Have to question those dates, as The Beach Boys played South Fallsburg NY on the 4th and Grand Rapids MI on the 5th...

No they didn't as it turns out...It's one of the updates you haven't gotten to yet. The tour ended on the 2nd.  Mike was interviewed in Florida-in the newspaper-when he arrived

Knew there'd be an explanation.  ;D

Mike did some dates with Dean in 1981 too.

Also in 1982, including one near Atlanta. Astroray, did you go to that show? I was traveling out of state and missed it.

I am probably mistaken, but I believe Randell Kirsch was also in Mike's solo band.

The 3 times Ive seen Mike solo here in Atlanta:
Promo concert for "Almost Summer"at a  Marietta softball field
The Agora for "Looking Back with Love"
That show at Lake Lanier the next year to promote uh,uh,uh, Mike I guess!
Do seeing the Beach Boys now count as Mike solo gigs?

Mike and Dean shows are a lot of fun. Totally disposable entertainment but good for an afternoon of summertime fun.

Hello Ian, here's one for you. From Billboard magazine dated 3rd October 1981 in the marriages section "Mike Love, of the Beach Boys, to model Catherine Martinez Sept 17 in Santa Barbara, Calif. Services were conducted by Wolfman Jack, who was ordained the same week."

any help with the date of the 78 Marietta show or the Lanier Lake show-I'm unaware of those-I'd like to add them to Bellagio (when AGD is able to update again)

Don't forget Bruce Johnston!

Emdeeh-the Atlanta Mike show at Agora is advertised in the U of GA Red and Black newspaper from Oct 29 1981

Thanks for the info, Ian. I wondered how I missed seeing that in The R&B back then. I must have been away when it ran, and missed seeing the paper. I would have at least cut out the ad and kept it.  ???

I did find my photos from the Lake Lanier Islands show, tho. No date other than May, 1981 on them. I don't have a printed ad for that either, found about the show from the radio.

Just to clarify-the Lake Lanier show was a Mike solo show with Endless Summer Beach Band right?
Ian

Ian, I'm not sure what Mike was calling the supporting band, but Jeff Foskett was definitely part of it. It was a solo show, not a Mike & Dean show. M&D played at Lake Lanier Islands in 1982.

Pretty sure Mike called the band "The Endless Summer Beach Band."

I think it's safe to say that the worst thing ever associated with the Beach Boys was Michael's theme song for the ESBB, titled, appropriately, Endless Summer Beach Band.

"We're the Endless Summer Beach Band and we have fun whenever we can..."

And it gets worse. I don't know if this recording was bootlegged though.

His stuff with Adrian Baker almost made me renounce my fandom.

Only the track, although there is a live boot.

Good point!

Randell and I both were doing The M&D tours. Actually Jeff brought us in. I didn't do as many as Randell. But I do recall recording that THEME song at a studio near the love foundation in Santa Barbara. I played with M&D For The spring break gigs in Florida and then again on south padre island in Texas. Farmer was also recruited for some of those shows(he was with Jan and dean prior to these gigs). I think the reason i was there was to fill in for Kowalski (who also played with the endless summer beach band) because there were conflicting BB shows. It was easier for Mike and Jeff to get in and out in time to do the BB. There was also Bo foxx before me and after me Paul Bershero(sorry for the spelling Paul). This is how I met Dean and he was gonna go back out as Jan and Dean again. (The Mike and Dean gigs were a wake up call for Jan to stop doing drugs). It worked. So I played with Jan and dean along with Randell, Farmer, Gary griffin and then a very young Phil Bardowell joined a couple of years later. I quit in 86 or 87 and called Dave Logaman who still sits the throne with that camp. Oh this was a fun thread.

Who was that masked man ? Plays a damn fine drum...  ;D

Heres a shot from a Mike Solo tour 1978 at a Marietta softball field in 1978
There is Ed Carter ,and some shots I got feature Charles Lloyd!
(http://i901.photobucket.com/albums/ac211/astroray/mIKElOVEALMOSTSUMMER1.jpg)

It's likely that was a Celebration peformance, as the bassist on the right is Doc Robinson, whose only association with Mike was in that short-lived group.  Lloyd also was part of the group.

For what it's worth, Mike, Ed, and Doc are wearing Celebration "Almost Summer" T-shirts. Wasn't Mike thin back in '78. Thanks for the photo, astroray!

I would pay good money to see a Celebration reunion.

I understand PBS is doing a "Celebration" American Masters Special ,maybe we'll see it,maybe we wont!