What better way to celebrate Brian Wilson's eighty-fourth birthday than by playing his masterpiece, Pet Sounds, in its entirety? So kudos to Novelty Island and Credits for not only taking on the challenge but knocking it out of the park.
The first set opened with 'Our Prayer', Brian Wilson's wordless a cappella hymn. The seamless blending of multiple voices set the tone for the night. The musicians went straight into 'California Girls' and 'I Get Around';, two of the Beach Boys pre-Pet Sounds hits. They slowed things down for 'Surfer Girl' and 'Don't Worry Baby', so we were now ready for the centrepiece of the night: 'Pet Sounds'.
A video of Brian Wilson talking about the album sometime in the late 1970s was the precursor to the opening track, 'Wouldn't It Be Nice'. The musicians played through the rest of side one, with different people taking lead vocals on different songs. 'Sloop John B' took us to the interval.
Side two opened with, arguably, the album's most famous song, 'God Only Knows', for which Tom McConnell played piano and sang. It's fair to say that the songs on this side are more emotionally mature and highly orchestrated than those on the album's lighter first half. The musicians captured both the lush romantic devotion and he melancholy realisation of lost youth perfectly, ending with the rumble of a passing train and the sound of two dogs barking.
To play an album of this sophistication required ten exceptional musicians and probably 30 musical instruments, including a bicycle bell and horn, woodblock, sleigh bells, tambourine, baritone saxophone, clarinet, flute, bass saxophone, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, theremin and alto flute. More impressive still was how effortlessly they made it sound. Wilson's famously intricate arrangements were reproduced with remarkable precision yet never felt academic or over-rehearsed. The warmth, invention and sheer joy of the original recordings remained intact. The upbeat 'Darlin'; and 'Feel Flows', a deeper cut, brought the second set to a close.
Obviously, there was an encore, starting with 'All I Wanna Do' and 'In My Room'. Dan Astles joined the musicians for an exuberant version of 'Help Me, Rhonda', and Frankie Tibbles came on to sing the final song of the night, 'Good Vibrations'.
McConnell played a mean theremin as the musicians clearly enjoyed the psychedelic wig-out that brought the night to an end. This review cannot do justice to the hours of preparation and rehearsal that went into the show, nor to the skill required to bring such a complex and ambitious work to life.
Pet Sounds remains one of the most intricate albums in popular music; to perform it live so convincingly was an extraordinary achievement. This cannot be a one-off show, so I would implore the bands to get back together and do it again.
Reviewer: Adrian Cork
Date: 20/06/2026
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