Beach boy Wilson makes them 'smile' at last
Sixties pop legend Brian Wilson received a fiveminute standing ovation as he performed his lost masterpiece Smile for the first time ever.
The former Beach Boys star, who slaved for months on the album in the late 1960s but never released it, brought the house down at London’s Royal Festival Hall last night as the forgotten work finally received its world premiere.
Grown men wept as the 61-year-old performed a set of around 20 songs, including classics such as Wouldn’t It Be Nice and California Girls.
Wilson, who suffered a mental breakdown during the arduous recording of Smile, opened the sell-out concert with an intimate unplugged set accompanied by his 11-strong band.
They then tore through a selection of surf classics incdluing Sloop John B and Dance Dance Dance.
Fans had flocked from around the world to hear the first ever performance of Smile, which Wilson played in its entirety in the second half, displaying his trademark combination of lush harmonies and creative percussion.
Smile was to have been the follow-up to the 1966 album Pet Sounds as Wilson attempted to outdo The Beatles and their album Revolver.
Wilson, who was tonight dressed in black and sat behind a piano he played only occasionally, adopted ever more bizarre methods in his painstaking quest for perfection as he recorded the album, using huge orchestral arrangements.
Famously, he even dressed musicians in firemen’s helmets to create the perfect ambience for a grandiose “elements suite“, a move he repeated tonight with the eight-strong string and brass section.
Other highlights included an instrumental section featuring electric screwdrivers, football rattles and loudhailers.
Despite looking somewhat frail the pop genius was upbeat as he introduced the songs – although he did appear to forget his own lyrics during one number.
Smile was concluded with the pop classic Good Vibrations, and after an epic standing ovation Wilson rocked the concert hall to the sound of party classics such as I Get Around, Surfin’ USA and Barbara Ann.
Legend has it that a spate of fires near Wilson’s studio during the recording of the “fire” section of Smile prompted him to shelve the whole project. At the time, in 1967, he explained the songs were “not commercial“.
The tapes are thought to have been sealed in a vault, and only fragments of the recordings have ever been made available – some tracks turning up on the Smiley Smile and Surf’s Up albums, while others featured on boxed seats and bootlegs.
Wilson performed his entire Pet Sounds album when he played the Festival Hall in 2002 to rave reviews.
He will play five more sold out nights in London as well as dates in Bristol, Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool and Birmingham.
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