I 'n' Gigs 4: Brian Wilson (London, 2002 - could have sworn it was 2003 or 4 but seems to have been 2002)

I was meant to be going to see Nick Cave and his merry bunch of Bad Seeds this week. Since I'm not, and gigs are something which I'm sure a lot of people are missing, I thought I'd write a little about 10 gigs I went to. Not my favourites per se, just memorable ones from down the years.

These are not reviews. I wouldn't do that very well. They're just memories. I have called the segment "I 'n' Gigs"  (a pointless pun on the name Ryan Giggs)... that is a good indicator of the quality writing to come ...

This was a stunning gig, part of his ‘Pet Sounds’ residency, though my memories of it are a bit patchy. I remember, inevitably, that the crowd was a different vibe to most of the gigs I was going to back then, and that when they stood to dance for the encore it felt like a bacchanalian letting-go for some.

I remember there were a lot of famous people there. A lot. You could see them everywhere. When I was waiting at the Royal Festival Hall bar beforehand, Brett Anderson was also there, looking a little pensive, and then Crispin Hunt, formerly of the Longpigs, came past, and they spotted each other, and greeted each other like long-lost friends, and it was a rather lovely moment. Britpop seemed such a long time ago to me then, but now the 6 years or so since their prime seems like the blink of an eye.

What also do I remember of the concert? The band, primarily comprised of the Wondermints, were incredible. Incredible. There were so many people on stage. Brian sat behind his keyboard but was clearly having a wonderful time throughout. His voice was what it was, you know ... there were a lot of other voices doing a lot of work.

The moment of ‘Pet Sounds’ I was looking forward to the most is the one moment of the whole album which didn’t happen – the ineffably beautiful bit in ‘Caroline No’ where he goes “oh Caroline you broke my heart” … he clearly couldn’t get up that to that note, so they arranged it differently, which is fine, and just a reminder that sometimes the very best bits of pop music are the most difficult (I remember a similar things seeing the Shins around the same time when, on record, he goes up an octave to sing the refrain “mercy’s eyes are blue when she places them in front of you” and, live, he, to my great disappointment, didn’t do that octave leap …)

They did Pet Sounds, and (before or after, I can’t quite remember) there were more songs, all the great Beach Boys megahits, 'Help Me Rhonda' and 'Don't Worry Baby' and all, and there were so many of them – they just kept coming, and it really really was joyous.

I suppose that was the high point of the notion that Wilson was pop’s greatest genius and ‘Pet Sounds’ the greatest album of all time.

I’m not sure that many people would say that now, and I’ve gradually moved away from that album and from listening to the Beach Boys regularly myself.

I wasn’t particularly interested in the late recreation of ‘Smile’ both live and on record – there is a certain truth in the fact that the Beach Boys lyrics can go too much one way or the other. I read a very persuasive article once by Ian MacDonald arguing that, for all its beauty, ‘Pet Sounds’ is essentially a childish album, compared to what the Beatles and the Stones were doing at the same time, and what others would do later.

Aah, but who cares, really … Fun. Fun. Fun.