REVIEW: The Beach Boyz (A Beach Boys Tribute) - The Epstein Theatre, Liverpool.

The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed, commercially successful, and influential bands of all time. They were one of the earliest self-contained rock bands and one of the few US bands who maintained their success before, during and after the 1964 British Invasion. They were brought to life in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original line up consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and their friend Al Jardine. Notable for their vocal harmonies and early surf songs, they were cited as being one of the most influential acts of the rock era. The band were influenced by the music of jazz-based vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and R&B to create their distinctive sound, and with Brian as composer, arranger, producer, and leader, they often incorporated classical components and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways into their music.

They emerged as a garage band, Garage rock being a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada which has experienced various revivals since then. The style is characterized by basic chord structures played on electric guitars and other instruments, sometimes distorted through a fuzzbox, as well as often unsophisticated and occasionally aggressive lyrics and delivery. Its name derives from the perception that groups were often made up of young amateurs who rehearsed in the family garage, although many were professional. The band was led by Brian and managed by the Wilson brothers’ father, Murry. They gained national prominence in 1963, with a string of top-ten singles reflecting a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance, later dubbed the "California Sound”.

Post 1964, they abandoned beach influenced themes for more personal lyrics and ambitious orchestrations. In 1966, the “Pet Sounds” album and "Good Vibrations” single raised the group's reputation as rock innovators and established the band as symbols of the ‘nascent counterculture’ era. The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon that developed first in the UK and then the USA before spreading throughout much of the Western world between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s, with London, New York City, and San Francisco being hotbeds of early countercultural activity. The combined movement gained impetus as the Civil Rights Movement continued to grow, and would later become revolutionary with the expansion of the US government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam.

Brian Wilson fell prey to mental health and substance abuse issues during the group’s ‘Smile’ project in 1967 and he relinquished production and songwriting responsibilities to the rest of the band. This resulted in the group’s commercial energy faltering and despite efforts to maintain an experimental sound they were dismissed by early rock critics as the archetypical “pop music cop-outs.”

Carl took over as the band's musical leader until the late 1970s, during which time they rebounded as an increasingly successful live concert attraction. Personal struggles, creative disagreements, and the overshadowing success of the band's greatest hits album precipitated their transition into what some described as an oldies act.

Since the 1980s there has been much publicised legal wrangling over royalties, songwriting credits and use of the band’s name. Sadly, in 1983 Dennis drowned and in 1988 Carl died of lung cancer. After which Mike Love was allowed to lead a touring band under the Beach Boys name.

During the 1960s and up until the 2010s they had more than eighty songs in the charts worldwide, thirty six of them in the US Top 40 (the most recorded by a US rock band) and four reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100. They have sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide making them one of the world’s bestselling bands.

If you like the Beach Boys songs, you will love Beach Boyz Tribute Band. The five piece band are into their fourth year of touring and they had the audience at the Epstein Theatre in their hands from the start. With a brightly decorated stage full of surf boards, large pics of Californian palm trees swaying in the sunset, beach balls and Hawaiian flowering leis the audience easily slipped into the sunny atmosphere after having travelled to the theatre on a cold, wet English evening.

The driving force of the band is their lead vocalist, whose energetic personality and delivery is infectious. He had the audience clapping along from the start. He made sure to include every member of the audience by bouncing along the stage from left to right and putting a smile on everyone’s faces during a truly enjoyable live music experience.

Their performance is a homage to The Beach Boys and is a unique opportunity to hear a wide-ranging selection of chart hits of America’s biggest pop band ever; all the hits and more were included, such as during the first half, California Girls, Don’t Worry Baby (a personal favourite of mine), I Get Around, When I Grow Up To Be A Man, I Can Hear Music, Surf City, Little Old Lady From Pasadena, Fun Fun Fun, Help Me Rhonda, Wouldn’t It Be Nice and finishing off with God Only Knows. They also included a rendition by the band of the first song Brian Wilson wrote, Surfer Girl re-creating the original recording, performed around a retro mic stand with just a guitar accompaniment. The harmonies were spot on and they received a rapturous response from the audience. All members of the band are accomplished musicians and vocalists and Terry on keyboards is their Musical Director.

The second half started off with a costume change in to smart white suits and fedoras to the sounds of Do It Again, Darlin’, the country and western hit, Old Cotton Fields Back Home, Break Away, and tracks from the Surf’s Up and Smile albums.

The audience were promised that this section would be ‘the party section’ and they were ready by this time to ride the wave of adrenaline and nostalgia looking forward to being swept from surf and sun to hit after hit. Audience participation played a large part in the band’s routine and the audience were ready to participate. We enjoyed the experience of a homage to fade-out at the end of a song as per the Beach Boys used to perform in studio recordings and also tried a live fade in! It was all good fun and to the strains of Surfin USA and Barbara Anne we enjoyed a ladies versus men singing contest. By this time everyone had their leis swaying up above their heads and many of the audience had left their seats and were up dancing in the aisles. Liverpool audiences aren’t shy at joining in and with very little encouragement the final segment included a great sing-a-long; some audience members were quite literally dancing in the aisles and recreating the actions of surfing!

There weren’t many hits left to perform but we enjoyed Sloop John B and Good Vibrations whilst on our feet swaying and the encore of Johnny B Good was a fitting end to a performance of so much energy and passion coupled with a great sense of humour and musicianship.

The band has featured on BBC TV, BBC Radio Merseyside, BBC Radio Wales and other BBC and independent local radio stations across the UK. They even tried their hand on Eggheads, the BBC TV competition and won!

If you want to be transported on a journey in time and space, back to the 1960s, across to the sunny shores of the golden state of California where the surf sound was conceived and listen to rich vocal harmony, by five all-singing, all-playing young-at-heart performers then the Beach Boyz Tribute Band is for you.

Beach Boyz Tribute Band is an accolade act which provided a lively, fun-packed show that showcases over thirty hit records, all performed 100% live. They re-created the early rock and roll sounds with such accurate authenticity that it was hard not to be transported back to the days of black and white, and then carried on a wave of harmony to the multi-coloured complex orchestral works of Brian Wilson and the iconic Pet Sounds.

It was a tribute concert to the music of Brian Wilson and the band, with little anecdotes and recountings of the events in their careers. We also heard of the inspirations for The Beach Boys, especially Phil Spector, a hero of Brian’s as well as bands they had influence on. As a result we were treated to songs by the Ronnettes, The Mamas And Papas, Jan & Dean and The Beatles.

I went to the beautiful Epstein Theatre with no expectations, a little cold and wet and left with "good vibrations", a smile on my face, a positive mood and I felt energised deciding with everyone else that Beach Boyz are good for body and soul.

Reviewer - Anne Pritchard
on - 25/4/19