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I was lucky enough to be at Wembley that day and can confirm that the Beach Boys went down a storm there and certainly better than any other acts from Philly – although as I will explain they were in the right place at the right time. If I remember correctly, the first act ‘beamed in’ from Philadelphia was Bryan Adams (about 5pm British Summer Time). His set was beset by interference. The Beach Boys were next by which time the technical problems had all but cleared up. They came over great and the crowd were all singing along to California Girls, Good Vibes etc. Remember in 1985 seeing a gig projected on a large screen was still pretty rare! (I remember feeling really proud of ‘my band’ and the wonderful way they were ‘getting over’ at Wembley). After the BBs the scheduling started to go awry somewhat. What was supposed to happen was that UK and US acts would alternate so that there would be something for the Wembley crowd to watch while the next UK act was setting up for the stage, but pretty soon this all decoupled and the Wembley acts started to overlap with the Philly ones, making it much harder for the US bands to make an impact – or even to be seen of course if the performances were simultaneous. So in a way, the Beach Boys had the best slot of all (from the vantage point of the UK concertgoers). But this doesn’t detract a jot from what a great performance they put in (it was SUCH a thrill to see Brian etc.)
FWIW, it’s true what is often stated. Queen absolutely stole the show. It was a great day of course but a lot of it was actually rather tedious, with many perfectly good acts punching way above their weight trying to reach out to the whole stadium. For the record, my favourites (apart from the Beach Boys) were Elvis Costello, Sting/Phil Collins and Howard Jones – oh! and the Boomtown Rats – for obvious reasons).
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