No British dates?! Devastated

[hypehat]

Didn't America have a war with someone once, from 1942-1945? I think it was Canada, which as everyone knows is now one of the 50 states of America after it replaced Delaware.

The state of Delaware itself was simply left to drift off the East Coast - it is rumoured to hit the coast of Portugal in the year 2019.

[Gdraft]

Any more news of any UK dates?

[Paulos]

Any more news of any UK dates?

No, which is why I'm Berlin bound in August.

[Ron]

If they DON'T go to England, I think that will be strong, strong evidence that they're already planning another tour.  I mean they already pretty much know how successful (or not) this one is, they can tell early.... so they may have not scheduled anything in the UK because they already know they're coming back in the fall or something.  NO WAY they'd just not play the UK. 

[AndrewHickey]

If they DON'T go to England, I think that will be strong, strong evidence that they're already planning another tour.  I mean they already pretty much know how successful (or not) this one is, they can tell early.... so they may have not scheduled anything in the UK because they already know they're coming back in the fall or something.  NO WAY they'd just not play the UK. 

Why not? They went eight years (1993-2001) without playing the UK at all at one point. Brian didn't come to the UK til three and a half years after he started touring the US. We're a major music market, but it's not like we're the only country they're missing out. A seventh of the world's population lives in China, and I don't see them going there any time soon, or Russia, or anywhere in Africa...

[hypehat]

Yeah, I'm pretty much resigned to the fact I'm not seeing the band. Only way to see them would be if they make another record and tour that, I suppose. And I guess I've already seen B-Pain 

[Ron]

If they DON'T go to England, I think that will be strong, strong evidence that they're already planning another tour.  I mean they already pretty much know how successful (or not) this one is, they can tell early.... so they may have not scheduled anything in the UK because they already know they're coming back in the fall or something.  NO WAY they'd just not play the UK. 

Why not? They went eight years (1993-2001) without playing the UK at all at one point. Brian didn't come to the UK til three and a half years after he started touring the US. We're a major music market, but it's not like we're the only country they're missing out. A seventh of the world's population lives in China, and I don't see them going there any time soon, or Russia, or anywhere in Africa...

...because the band has a long history of touring in the UK, and a very short history (or nonexistant) history for playing China or Russia or anywhere in Africa. 

Now is the time to be greedy.  Not democratic in where you let them play.  You should be greedy enough to expect they'll play England, because England's so cool. 

[AndrewHickey]

If they DON'T go to England, I think that will be strong, strong evidence that they're already planning another tour.  I mean they already pretty much know how successful (or not) this one is, they can tell early.... so they may have not scheduled anything in the UK because they already know they're coming back in the fall or something.  NO WAY they'd just not play the UK. 

Why not? They went eight years (1993-2001) without playing the UK at all at one point. Brian didn't come to the UK til three and a half years after he started touring the US. We're a major music market, but it's not like we're the only country they're missing out. A seventh of the world's population lives in China, and I don't see them going there any time soon, or Russia, or anywhere in Africa...

...because the band has a long history of touring in the UK, and a very short history (or nonexistant) history for playing China or Russia or anywhere in Africa. 

Now is the time to be greedy.  Not democratic in where you let them play.  You should be greedy enough to expect they'll play England, because England's so cool. 

It's not a matter of being greedy, letting them play anywhere, or what our expectations are. My expectations and greed have less than no influence on where they choose to play.

And they have a much longer history of *not* touring in the UK. After 1975 the Beach Boys played Britain only *very* occasionally -- there was a brief cluster of tours between 1987 and 93, but in the twelve year period after the Wembley gigs with Elton John they only played Britain in 1980, and then for the eight year period after that none of the touring bands played here at all. Al Jardine hasn't played a British gig in 19 years.

In the last eleven years, Mike & Bruce have done two proper tours of the UK, in 2004 and 2008, did three shows as a support act for Status Quo in 2001, a handful of shows (I think two, possibly three) in 2003, and a single one-off show last year, when they tried to arrange a full tour but couldn't.

So a Beach Boys tour of the UK -- even one by the Mike & Bruce band -- has been a fairly rare event since 1975. I'm not saying that as a complaint -- I've managed to get to see Mike & Bruce every time they've come over here, and obviously Brian's been over here every five minutes for the last decade or so, but I think in the last 37 years there have been under thirty Beach Boys shows *total* in the UK

So when you keep saying, over and over, based on no evidence at all, that they will definitely play the UK, when everything points to the touring schedule being a pretty typical one for the Beach Boys for the last few years (just with a few of the county fairs and casinos dropped), the *very strong likelihood* is that you are setting some people up for disappointment, and that you're discouraging others from making alternative arrangements so that they might actually see the band.

You might think the UK is "cool", but the decisions on where to play won't be made on what places are cool, but on where they can make the most money for the least expense. If that means playing six shows in New York State but none in the UK or Ireland, that's what they'll do.

There's only a nine-day space left in the tour, which Bruce has said "has to" end in mid-August, and checking the press release, it said they're playing Singapore, Hong Kong (so they are playing China after all, albeit not mainland China) and Australia, which would all have to fit into that slot. While the press release did say additional European dates would be announced, some have -- in Spain.

Honestly, at this point, it seems *HUGELY* unlikely there'll be even a single UK date announced, and getting people's hopes up for one is more likely to upset them than anything else.

[hypehat]

As an aside, reckon Al Jardine would sell out if he did a show at the Barbican or Union Chapel, or such? I would definitely keep it clean with Al Jardine. If VDP can do it...

[AndrewHickey]

As an aside, reckon Al Jardine would sell out if he did a show at the Barbican or Union Chapel, or such? I would definitely keep it clean with Al Jardine. If VDP can do it...

I've argued for years that Al should do stuff like that. I could easily see him doing a solo acoustic show in a venue like that and being fantastic. Unfortunately, I think he's happier playing beach party shows with Dean Torrence.

[Ron]

I take it back!  The UK seems remarkably unextraordinary; you're right, they probably won't waste their time. 

[The Shift]

I think the UK's cool. Cool and wet right now. Why would a band from California want to come to the UK, where it's still snowing into May.

[Ron]

If they DON'T go to England, I think that will be strong, strong evidence that they're already planning another tour.  I mean they already pretty much know how successful (or not) this one is, they can tell early.... so they may have not scheduled anything in the UK because they already know they're coming back in the fall or something.  NO WAY they'd just not play the UK. 

Why not? They went eight years (1993-2001) without playing the UK at all at one point. Brian didn't come to the UK til three and a half years after he started touring the US. We're a major music market, but it's not like we're the only country they're missing out. A seventh of the world's population lives in China, and I don't see them going there any time soon, or Russia, or anywhere in Africa...

...because the band has a long history of touring in the UK, and a very short history (or nonexistant) history for playing China or Russia or anywhere in Africa. 

Now is the time to be greedy.  Not democratic in where you let them play.  You should be greedy enough to expect they'll play England, because England's so cool. 

It's not a matter of being greedy, letting them play anywhere, or what our expectations are. My expectations and greed have less than no influence on where they choose to play.

And they have a much longer history of *not* touring in the UK. After 1975 the Beach Boys played Britain only *very* occasionally -- there was a brief cluster of tours between 1987 and 93, but in the twelve year period after the Wembley gigs with Elton John they only played Britain in 1980, and then for the eight year period after that none of the touring bands played here at all. Al Jardine hasn't played a British gig in 19 years.

In the last eleven years, Mike & Bruce have done two proper tours of the UK, in 2004 and 2008, did three shows as a support act for Status Quo in 2001, a handful of shows (I think two, possibly three) in 2003, and a single one-off show last year, when they tried to arrange a full tour but couldn't.

So a Beach Boys tour of the UK -- even one by the Mike & Bruce band -- has been a fairly rare event since 1975. I'm not saying that as a complaint -- I've managed to get to see Mike & Bruce every time they've come over here, and obviously Brian's been over here every five minutes for the last decade or so, but I think in the last 37 years there have been under thirty Beach Boys shows *total* in the UK

So when you keep saying, over and over, based on no evidence at all, that they will definitely play the UK, when everything points to the touring schedule being a pretty typical one for the Beach Boys for the last few years (just with a few of the county fairs and casinos dropped), the *very strong likelihood* is that you are setting some people up for disappointment, and that you're discouraging others from making alternative arrangements so that they might actually see the band.

You might think the UK is "cool", but the decisions on where to play won't be made on what places are cool, but on where they can make the most money for the least expense. If that means playing six shows in New York State but none in the UK or Ireland, that's what they'll do.

There's only a nine-day space left in the tour, which Bruce has said "has to" end in mid-August, and checking the press release, it said they're playing Singapore, Hong Kong (so they are playing China after all, albeit not mainland China) and Australia, which would all have to fit into that slot. While the press release did say additional European dates would be announced, some have -- in Spain.

Honestly, at this point, it seems *HUGELY* unlikely there'll be even a single UK date announced, and getting people's hopes up for one is more likely to upset them than anything else.

Andrew, since a public UK date has been announced, I think you deserve me an apology for publicly attacking my optimism, and getting ALL OVER MY ASS for just trying to be positive about the importance of YOUR COUNTRY in the world. 

No, I didn't forget about it.  You chided me like a child because I could see the inevitability of something that eventually came true.  So stand up and take your licking. 

[Eireannach]

Yeah...

[AndrewHickey]

Andrew, since a public UK date has been announced, I think you deserve me an apology for publicly attacking my optimism, and getting ALL OVER MY ASS for just trying to be positive about the importance of YOUR COUNTRY in the world. 

No, I didn't forget about it.  You chided me like a child because I could see the inevitability of something that eventually came true.  So stand up and take your licking. 

No, I don't. You were right that they booked a gig here, and I was wrong, but you were right by accident, based on absolutely no evidence other than your wishful thinking, and everything I said was true.

[Ron]

... but I was still right, because I was optimistic, and you were wrong, because you were negative. 

You had no evidence, I had no evidence, you just chose to look at it negatively.  When I was positive about it, you trashed me. 

All I'm saying is: you owe me an apology.  Be a man about it. 

[AndrewHickey]

... but I was still right, because I was optimistic, and you were wrong, because you were negative. 

You had no evidence, I had no evidence, you just chose to look at it negatively.  When I was positive about it, you trashed me. 

I had no evidence *that I was choosing to speak about publicly*. If you report details of private conversations, people pretty soon stop telling you things. But I had very, VERY good reason at the time to believe there would be no UK shows.