The Smiley Smile Message Board

*UPDATED*
Thought it’d be interesting to discuss concerts Brian, Carl and Dennis attended as audience memebers. I’ll start it off, see if you guys can add to anything:

Brian
-The Four Freshmen (during 50s)
-Beatles Hollywood Bowl (64 or 65)
-Andy Williams Hollywood Bowl (during 60s ?)
-Elvis Presley (69)
-Peter Frampton (76 or 77)
-Carl Wilson (1981)
-George Michael (during 80s)
-Moody Blues (during 80s)
-Stevie Wonder (1986)
-Dylan (88)
-Fleetwood Mac the dance (1997)
-McCartney
-Rolling Stones
-The Four Feshmen (during 2000s)
-Elton John (2007 60th birthday concert, can see Brian a few times in audience)

Dennis
-Elvis Presley (69)
-Wings (think it was the rockshow 76)
-Queen (70s)
-Fleetwood Mac (70s)
-Carl Wilson (1981)

Carl
-Beatles (65 or 66)
-The Flame (69)
-Elvis Presley (69)
-Rolling stones (think it was early 70s where Carl had a complaint that it was too loud)
-Queen (70s)

I was at a 1972 show in College Park, MD and Bruce asked the crowd if anybody was at the Moody Blues concert in Baltimore the night before.  I had been at that Moody Blues show.  They played the Surf's Up lp as the lead up to the Moody's appearance, so there must have been some interaction.

Brian saw the Four Freshman a second time, later in life, at Newport Beach. He talks about both concerts in his book.

There are pictures of Brian and Elton backstage at a George Michael concert in the late 80's.

I believe Brian saw Chicago once or twice in '80s.

All those BBs shows where BW watched and didn’t take the stage with them.... :bw

Carl was with Dennis at the Queen concert. I believe it was in Mike's book. Dennis was drunk and the members of Queen didn't want to meet him. I think it was 75 or 77.

Good one, SB! I'm sure I was at a few of those. Reportedly, he was backstage at one of the Carnegie concerts I attended. From what I understand, they were coaxing him to walk on for a couple of songs but failed to do so. If only, huh?

From what I've heard, the Beach Boys were invited to see one of Elvis Presley's 1969 comeback shows in Vegas and attended. So, Dennis and Carl saw him as well. Brian probably wasn't there.

Does Mike at the Trump rally count?

Brian was at the August 1969 Elvis show with his wife Marilyn. The guy that took them to the show was road manager jack Lloyd, who I interviewed for my book

Ah yes I remember, I think it was a new Four Freshmen band, none of the original members.

Yea Lloyd mentioned he took both to the yellow submarine premiere as well.

Good idea for a thread. I would bet between them they've seen 100's of shows, especially Dennis and prob carl. It's just too bad there isn't direct proof thats easy to find.
In Mike's book he talks about going to see Richard Pryor at the Troubadour at least a few times in the late 60s. Not sure if that counts since hes comedy not music.

Mike attended a Barry Manilow performance in the early '80s. He went there with Marvin Gaye (p100).

Oops! I now see it's a Wilsons-only topic. I do apologize.

Cool! I didn't know Brian was there (without the Beach Boys?). It's been said that Elvis introduced the Beach Boys but as of yet no recording surfaced. The August engagement were the very first Presley concerts since 1961 and they are probably among the finest Rock'n'Roll shows of all time. Some of the shows were recorded by RCA on multitrack for what became the live half of the double album "From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_in_Person_at_the_International_Hotel,_Las_Vegas,_Nevada) which was later separately released as "In person".
Through the years a couple of full shows were released both on the main label Sony/BMG and the Elvis collectors label "Follow that dream" and of course bootlegs with audience recordings.
All of them were dynamite. Here's but one example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ChCSPY2gpo

Is the exact show known that Brian attended? And was he introduced to the audience by Elvis? Here's a listing of all the '69 shows (http://www.elvisconcerts.com/concerts/dboutput.php?search_tourref=search_tourref&search_month=search_month&search_day=search_day&search_year=1969&search_city=search_city&search_state=search_state&search_suit=search_suit&search_musician=search_musician&search_song=search_song&search_pics=search_pics&search_cd=search_cd&search_vid=search_vid&search_aud=search_aud)

When I met Al in 2005, he mentioned he had just seen The Eagles in concert.

Al also in the last year or two posted a bunch of pics of a Moody Blues show he had attended.

Peter Frampton mentioned in a chat, when I prompted him if he had any weird Brian Wilsons stories, that Brian took Carnie and Wendy to a Frampton show circa '76 or '77 when they were kids. However, the twist in the story was that when Brian went back stage to meet Frampton, Frampton told Brian what a big fan he was, etc., and that he hoped he would enjoy the show, and Brian told him bluntly "Oh, I'm not here to see the show. I just brought my daughters to see you."

Jeez that was a pretty intense month for Elvis.

As a fan of both bands I love these tidbits  ;D

I would be surprised if Brian hadn’t just, or was about to, see Chuck Berry going by this shot.

I love that! :lol

I don't think Elvis knew they were there.  Allegedly when they tried to meet Elvis afterwards they were rebuffed by his people and no meeting took place

How about Dennis attending Carl's solo show in the early 80's! As the story goes DW had too much to drink and was a bit  rowdy!

Both Dennis and Brian were at the 1981 show

This is good thread, thanks to everybody.

Thanks guys didn't know about a lot of these, especially the Elvis one.
This isn't one that he went to but more recently Brian mentioned he had the chance to see the Doors years ago but didn't end up going and later regretted it.

All of the BBs have probably collectively gone to hundreds of shows over the years, especially in cases where members (Brian, Al) spent extended periods of time not on the road.

Even when they *are* on tour, they still go to shows. I think there was a pic of Mike and Foskett (Mike's new "attached at the hip" guy) last year in the audience at a Monkees show.

We know Dennis went to Fleetwood Mac Concerts but did Brian or Carl? They must of at least once

Was reading the Wilson project and Usher mentions Brian wanted to leave to go to a stevie wonder concert.

I read that Brian was in the audience for their 1997 reunion concert filmed for "The Dance" DVD.

Not sure, but didn't Bruce see Showaddywaddy at Butlins Minehead in '79?

Ah that's interesting thanks, my guess would of been late 70s

Don't know why but I can easily picture Bruce going

Found out Carl and Bruce both went to see the Beatles 

Don't think this one counts as much but Carl used to sit in rehearsals for Billy Joel's band when they toured together

As I recall, I remember reading somewhere that, right after Carl passed, billy joel dedicated Only The Good Die Young to Carl at one of his concerts. I believe he said that, even though he was a struggling no name when he opened for the Boys in the 70's, Carl treated him great,  like he was a tour veteran.

If you watch here and now you'll see a member of Billy's band talk about their time together as well

According to Tony Iommi in his book Iron Man/My Journey Through Heaven And Hell With Black Sabbath...on page 103....

The Beach Boys came to see us one night and I didn't know what they looked like. I was coming out of the dressing room and somebody walked up to me and said: 'Can I come in and see the rest of the guys?' 'No, no, there's nobody allowed in the dressing room.' It was a little embarrassing afterwards, when I found out he was a Beach Boy.

Just looked up and found this on mojo :

There’s the time the group threw the Beach Boys’ Al Jardine out of their dressing room in LA (“We all hated The Beach Boys,” says Butler).

http://www.mojo4music.com/24924/black-sabbath-last-testament/

This is probably the incident.

I guess you have to question how much their other stories are embellished if not letting someone into the dressing room somehow morphed into throwing someone out of the dressing room, and not knowing what they looked like turned into "hating" them.

Assuming this is Richie Cannata, it's worth noting of course that he's in that film because of his years spent touring in the Beach Boys' backing band (1992-ish to 1998-ish if I'm recalling correctly).

I haven't much heard Billy Joel talk about Carl or the BBs, beyond mentioning he had opened for them.

I do recall Mike (I believe it was Mike) complaining that Billy Joel turned down their invitation to appear on the 25th Anniversary TV special, as if he was too big of a star and didn't want to honor where he had started out, etc.

Yea think it was Richie.

I haven’t either other than the Brian tribute. Hasn’t he been playing surfin USA for years https://youtu.be/tUA9IMMf-Kc

That’s funny about the complaining I don’t remember that

Bruce, members of The Flame (and possibly Carl) attended a Gene Vincent concert at the Brass Ring, Ventura Boulevard, Sherman Oaks, in LA (20th May 1970)

Picture is here :

http://rockabillynblues.blogspot.cz/2014/04/great-vintage-shot-with-gene-vincent.html

Taylor Hawkins in Ken Sharp's new Dennis/POB book (http://smileysmile.net/board/index.php/topic,25582.0.html) (page 286)
" Roger Taylor from Queen...told me a great story. He was coming off stage at the Forum in L.A after a Queen show in1977 and this homeless-looking guy jumped all over him. Security grabbed him and he realised it's f***in' Dennis. He had the big beard and was probably wearing flip-flops. Just classic Dennis. Roger said they sat around and had a couple of drinks and spoke for 30 - 45 minutes and said he was lovely. He said he was so complimentary of the show and loved Queen and loved their harmonies. He said he was so sweet to him".

Not music but volume one of Michael Palin's diaries mentions Mike, Al & Dennis being around before & after Monty Python's performance at The Open-air Pop Festival, Bardney, near Lincolnn England (looks like's it was The Great Western Express festival Bardney . Lincolnshire. May 26th-29th 1972
http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/gwrecollections.html - eta: The Beach Boys were the next performers.)
Mike & Al were the co-organisers caravan where the Python's were meant to be having a drink & last-minute rehearsal.
"Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys came up to me and shook my hand and congratulated me, when only seven years ago I was packed in the Odean Hammersmith trying to catch a glimpse of him."

Aww, my two favorite drummers together  :love

This picture is credited to the Bruce Johnston Archives.  Someone needs to sit down with him and do his memoirs!!!

Richie was still touring with Al's band last I heard (I saw him with Al in 2010). Right after Carl passed away, I'd read that Billy Joel and his band dedicated "Only The Good Die Young" to him at a show.

Al hasn't done very many of his own gigs in the last several years, playing with Brian or as an "add on" to "Surf City All Stars" gigs. But he did a few of his own gigs in 2014 and indeed Richie Cannata is there:

https://youtu.be/pQKTtRgM3yU

IIRC the Keith Badman book mentions that Al and Brian attended a show by the Kingston Trio and were introduced to big applause. But regarding the source I'm not sure if this is factual.

Absolutely! Years ago I recall reading an interview with Bruce where he stated that during his tenure with the band he had saved tons of Beach Boys memorabilia.

I was told that he collects BB records, but when I asked him in 1993 he said no, not at all.