In recent times stories hinting at the possibility of a Beach Boys reunion – where Brian Wilson and Mike Love would break bread, link arms and let bygones be bygones – have been rolled out with suspicious regularity. A new one has emerged, and this time it’s straight from the horse’s mouth.
Brian Wilson has suggested that the Beach Boys may reform this year to mark the band’s fiftieth anniversary since their forming.
This strange business around a possible 50th anniversary tour has actually risen before, with Mike Love stating last year “Brian Wilson, who has been working on some unfinished Gershwin music project, will rejoin us.” Not long after, he said there “are no current reunion tour plans.”
Now, BBC6 Music reports, Wilson has fuelled the fires once again, saying, “I’m considering it… I don’t know yet but I’m considering it. Nothing’s really holding me back. I just don’t know if I want to be around those guys, you know. They’re zany guys. They’re crazy.”
Add to this confusing, conflicting mix little Al Jardine, who said recently the group are “definitely doing at least one show…” which would “probably be free.”
Five years ago in 2006, Love, Wilson, Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks were together at a Hollywood ceremony celebrating the 40th anniversary of the release of Pet Sounds. Since then, there’s been little in the way of tangible brotherhood between the surviving members.
Worrying reports recently suggested that Wilson was on the verge of retiring from touring due to his well publicised long-term health issues. That seems to have been a false alarm should these new rumours come to fruition. Wilson is touring in North America throughout June, while his last album was Brain Wilson Reimagines Gershwin, which came out last year.
The Beach Boys, meanwhile, are on the road milking the cash cow that is worldwide touring. They play dates in Europe and North America over the European and US summer.
Al Jardine recently called on his erstwhile bandmates for a special vinyl charity single with proceeds going towards victims of the Japan earthquake, an experience that may have warmed the cockles of the various parties, and instigated this latest shot at a reunion.
