The Smiley Smile Message Board

You may know some of them, Papa Doo Ron Ron or Surf City All Stars, or whatever they choose to call themselves. Ex-members of old surf music acts. Dean Torrence or David Marks might appear in one of those line-ups, if you are lucky.

Personally, I am all for it. Many of the bands from the 1960s are history now, so for surviving members, it's perfect. They make money, we get to see them. Should Dean Torrence just have retired after Jan died? Of course not.

I've even got one or two CDs by such bands.

(http://www.djconcertproductions.com/TributeBands/SurfCityAllStars.jpg)

The "Surf City All Stars" usually have one or more of Dean, David Marks, and Al, so that would hold some interest for me, even if the resulting setlists are usually the meat and potatoes stuff.

"California Surf Inc." is all former BB/Brian/Al/Mike band guys, so I'd probably check them out.

I know Probyn Gregory has been in several different BB cover bands as a side thing. When these tribute bands can get people who played with the BBs, that certainly helps.

I've never heard of anybody having a problem with BB tribute bands. Some of them are pretty bleh, and I can't envision a reason why I'd see a tribute band with *zero* connections to the actual BBs, when there are 2-3 bands with actual BBs out there touring, and several bands with touring band members.

I've never been very impressed with Papa Doo Ron Ron. They do mostly corporate gigs; it's almost like their band has been for decades kind of a version of Mike's touring band, just with less authenticity and less interesting setlists.

Surf City All Stars are really good. Especially when you get to see them with Dean Torrence, Al Jardine, or David Marks. Dean has great chemistry with those guys.

I'm all for it! Would love to see them if they hit up the east coast!

In its heyday, surf music must have numbered scores of bands, maybe even more. Do any of you know of any other all star bands than the two we have discussed here? I don't mean tribute bands, but ones with ex-members from back in  the 60s. Challengers? Lively Ones? Rivieras? Anybody?

They are not an all-star band, but The Rip Chords are still on the go although how many of the originals remain I am not so sure. And aren’t a version of The Surfaris still going? As a huge surf music fan, the modern day lineups do not do it for me as nothing could possibly top the originals they recorded in the early 60s and anything done now is just a pale imitation and it doesn’t have the same vibe or feel from 50 years ago.