Live Review: Brian Wilson @ Doncaster Racecourse

Smile…

I don’t like the races. The heady mix of overpriced drinks, animal cruelty and wankers wearing suits does little for me. Donny races in particular is testing with the whole event normally comparable to that scene in Peaky Blinders where the Shelby’s start murdering everyone at the race track. Blood, tears, fat women spilling out of their dresses, Doncaster Racecourse is not a place for someone with a nervous disposition. Why then was I very much present at Doncaster races on a gorgeous August afternoon? Well… there was a legend in town.

Due to my adolescent over-excitement, I tend to hyperbolize certain things within my writing. Weezer, Billy Sharp and cheeseburgers to name but three. But when I say that Brian Wilson is probably the most legendary singer who is still with us, I am merely being accurate. As the beating heart behind the Beach Boys he is responsible for songs that are forever surfing through the public consciousness, as well as an album in Pet Sounds, that genuinely changed the face of music forever. I still can’t quite believe that Brian Wilson, THE Brian Wilson was coming to my hometown.

Wilson’s health issues have been well documented (if you haven’t seen the biopic Love & Mercy address that immediately) and he is escorted on to the massive Donny races stage by two helpers. But as Wilson sits down at his white baby grand and starts to play California Girls, it is clear there is still plenty of livin’ left in the old rocker. The band features Beach Boys founder member Al Jardine, his son Matt (who handles most of the eye watering falsetto’s), Blondie Chaplin – another former Beach Boy and touring member of the Rolling Stones, plus various other relatives and session musicians. While Brian Wilson himself is clearly frail and diminished in his old age, he can still carry a tune and the backing band are genuinely fantastic. I closed my eyes during ‘I Get Around’ and let the sun shine down on my chubby face and the harmonies were delivered so beautifully that I could have been on a beach in California.

The first part of the set is a kind of best of the rest of Beach Boys standards. Nothing off Pet Sounds but we do get Dance, Dance, Dance and Little Deuce Coupe. The gig really gets going with the jingle jangle intro of Wouldn’t It Be Nice and from there it is all gold. Brian Wilson had been something of a bystander at his own gig up until that point, but he becomes much more animated for the final eight songs and it is touching to see such an undoubted talent reconnecting with his music.

Sloop John B has the whole crowd dancing before Wilson announces God Only Knows as the best song he ever wrote. The song holds particular resonance for me as my wife walked down the aisle to that unforgettable intro and I must admit, I may have had something in my eye for a moment there. Aside from my own personal connection to that song though, being able to see Brian Wilson play God Only Knows live will go down as one my all-time highlights from years of watching live music. Goosebumps.

Good Vibrations has to be halted as Wilson intones ‘whoa, slow down will you’, but when the band get going again they deliver a perfect rendition of one of the most innovative songs of the sixties. They follow this with the party records. Barbara Ann, Surfin’ USA and Fun, Fun, Fun sound just right in the August sunshine and it is nice to see the Doncaster crowd genuinely enjoying themselves with beers held aloft and faces adorned with smiles.

Love and Mercy is the song that signalled Wilson’s long-awaited return to the recording studio after years in the wilderness and while he can’t hit the high notes any more, it is salient that he doesn’t need his backing band for the final song of the evening.

Brian Wilson and his band leave the stage to rapturous applause. We have witnessed something incredibly special. For a couple of hours at a racecourse in Doncaster, an old man from California invited us to bask in the glow of his genius. It was a gig I will never forget.