The Beach Boys’ SMiLE was abandoned by Brian Wilson in 1967 and eventually performed at an emotional gathering of the faithful in London 37 years later. For writer and lecturer David Leaf it became an obsession. He made a documentary about it in 2004 and has just published ‘SMiLE: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Brian Wilson’ drawn from detailed conversations with the people involved. He talks to us here about his discoveries, which include …

... the Rolling Stone story that kick-started his obsession.

… “a bicycle ride from Plymouth Rock to Hawaii” and other early plans for the album.

… how Leonard Bernstein, the Beatles and Derek Taylor racked up the pressure in the studio.

… why the other Beach Boys – and Capitol and Murry Wilson - felt the new music was a threat to their livelihood.

… how Brian composed the “teenage symphony for God” that became an albatross around his neck.

... “Ray Davies needed a deadline”: the perils of endless recording time.

… the magnetism of Van Dyke Parks, a man who “talks in paragraphs”.

... the imagined impact on the world and the band’s career if SMiLE had come out in 1967.

… the birth of “art rock” versus the strictures of the music business.

… the value of the SMiLE myth in the eventual rebirth of the Beach Boys.

… the reaction to its long-awaited performance at the Festival Hall in 2004.

... why Brian thought shelving the album would save the group yet “they went from a No 1 single to an act nobody cared about in under a year”.

... and the greatest Beach Boys record of all time.

Order SMiLE: the Rise, Fall & Resurrection of Brian Wilson here: https://omnibuspress.com/products/smile-the-rise-fall-and-resurrection-of-brian-wilson-published-10th-october-2024?_pos=1&_psq=smile&_ss=e&_v=1.0

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Slapping the beanburger of news on the sizzling grill of scrutiny and served with relish by Alex Gold and Mark Ellen (David’s in Spain with his bucket and spade). This week’s specials include …

… Springsteen’s unprecedented speech onstage in Manchester about his nation’s “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration” and the Dixie Chicks’ career-popping anti-Trump manoeuvre of 2003.

… John Niven’s upcoming play ‘The Battle’ and the Blur/Oasis soundclash it celebrates.

… the 50th anniversary of the Stones’ (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction: from motel bed to finished recording in six days.

… “Lennon’s all about the legs”: the art of playing the Beatles, Keith Richards and all four of the Small Faces onstage (involves “ducking, bobbing and dipping”).

… brilliant songs written in seconds – by Lady Gaga, the Beastie Boys, James Brown and the White Stripes.

… the tour circuit and the trouble at borders.

… “the sound of dental floss being pinged by a squirrel”: Bill Bailey’s impression of the Edge with a power failure.

… Elvis v Cliff, Beatles v Stones, Hendrix v Clapton, Bowie v Bolan, Clash v Pistols, Duran v Spandau, Blur v Oasis: what was the last great rock rivalry?

... and Elvis Costello’s inspired use of the Ansaphone.

Fast Show clip ‘Mr Wells’:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FRAeFyBX1w

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Dennis Greaves took a week off from Nine Below Zero in 1980 but otherwise kept his nose firmly applied to the grindstone. They broke up in 1983 when he formed the Truth, who broke up in 1989 when he rebooted the old band. He looks back here at the first gigs he ever saw and played – a world with the attractive scent of spilt beer and tobacco – stopping off at various points, among them …

… why blues and R&B flourished in South London, police and villains drinking together at the Thomas A Becket and the folklore of the Old Kent Road.

... the great advantage of never having a hit.

… taking his parents to see Chuck Berry in 1972.

... the lasting appeal of R&B in a world of processed music.

… what he learnt from Glyn Johns when he produced them at Olympic Studios, “the man who invented phasing with Itchycoo Park”.

… buying singles at A1 Records in Walworth – “Progressive, Reggae, Artists A-Z …”

… seeing Blackfoot Sue and Scarecrow on the pub circuit, and the Groundhogs and Rory Gallagher at the Rainbow.

… Pete Townshend watching Nine Below Zero from the wings - “you remind me of us in the ‘60s”.

… seeing the Jam 11 times – “900 people in a 400 capacity venue!”

… “getting gyp is good as you learn how to control an audience.”

… 2am service station food and how touring has changed in 45 years.

... performing in the pilot for The Young Ones in 1982.

… “the song you should study for A-Level Pop”.

… memories of Mylone LeFevre, Capability Brown, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee, BB King, Muhammad Ali, Henry Cooper, Uriah Heep, The Little Roosters, Deep Purple, Gary Moore, Greg Lake, Love Sculpture, Free, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Alvin Lee, Dr Feelgood and Charlie McCoy playing Lady Madonna on the harmonica on the Val Doonican Show …

… and the greatest record ever made!

Nine Below Zero tickets and tour dates here: https://www.ninebelowzero.com/tour

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Peter Capaldi – aka Malcolm Tucker, Dr Who, the universal screen delight and an Oscar-winning film director – was the singer in the punk band the Dreamboys in the late ‘70s who put out a single when he was at the art school in Glasgow. And then became an actor. And then - in the grand tradition of actors who’ve made albums, Hugh Laurie, Scarlett Johansson, Jeff Bridges and Keanu Reeves among them – released St Christopher in 2021. He’s just recorded a second, Sweet Illusions, and talks to us in this extremely funny and entertaining pod about …

… how his sole motivation was “a burning desire to be on the telly”.

… the difference between fronting bands and being in plays.

… how he grievously stitched up support band the Cocteau Twins at a gig in Grangemouth.

… a teenage love of Slade - “a bit terrifying but still a bit safe”.

… first-hand evidence of the connection between Blakey from On the Buses, Adolph Hitler and Beatles.

… “you have to write a hundred songs before you can write a good one”.

… arriving at art school in ’76 a Neil Young fan and his overnight transformation – “peroxide hair, PVC trousers and bright red crepe sole shoes”.

… seeing Simple Minds at the Mars Bar in Glasgow, Jim Kerr with his Shakespearian haircut, “strange, powerful, imaginative, post-glam”.

… forming the Dreamboys and “trying to be big, clever and Kafka-esque”.

… the stigma of being virtually the only band in Glasgow not to get a John Peel session.

… writing the “bizarro pulp” lyrics for the Dreamboys – “we couldn’t decide if we were the Cramps or Talking Heads”.

… what’s required, “apart from a terrible Scouse accent”, in playing John Lennon onstage and George Harrison onscreen.

… auditioning (comedian, actor, TV host) Craig Ferguson as the band’s drummer.

… how Bill Forsyth launched his acting career: “one minute you’re supporting Altered Images, the next in a movie with Burt Lancaster”.

… forming a duo with Keanu Reeves when filming Dangerous Liaisons in Paris – powdered wigs in the daytime, guitar/bass punk-thrash at night.

.. the romantic Edward Hopper charm of Glasgow in the ‘70s - proto-goths, street lights, rain.

… how Dr Robert of the Blow Monkeys and four months filming The Suicide Squad in Atlanta spurred him into writing songs.

… the greatest record of all time.

Order the Sweet Illusions album here:

https://shop.lastnightfromglasgow.com/products/peter-capaldi-sweet-illusions-vinyl-lp-cd-lossless-dl

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The teenage Alan Parsons was hired as a tape op by EMI and worked with the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Steve Harley, orchestras, comedians, Pinky And Perky and countless others in the control room at Abbey Road, and saw almost 60 years of technical revolution. He’s just finished a 50th anniversary box set of Harley’s the Best Years Of Our Lives and talks here from his Santa Monica home studio about …

… the things you find buried in old recordings.

… how AI will allow anyone to remix their favourite record.

… the miraculous transformation of Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me) from a vindictive dirge to a No 1 pop hit, its backing vocalists and its DJ-baffling false ending.

… cutting the tape with John Lennon to end I Want You (She’s So Heavy).

… seeing himself - ‘in an orange shirt and black knitted tie’ - in the Get Back movie 52 years later. ‘It proves I was there!’

… recording the clocks, footsteps and airport announcer for The Dark Side Of The Moon - ‘playing Abbey Road studios as an instrument’.

… recording He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother with Reg Dwight on piano.

… the magical ‘60s technology that made Pinky And Perky.

… opening the door at Savile Row and first seeing the Beatles and all their girlfriends.

… recording Pilot, the Hollies and the Joe Loss Orchestra.

… the story of Clare Torry and The Great Gig In The Sky.

… Abbey Road recordings stored at a nearby squash court.

… working with David Gilmour on an Earls Court show from the 1990s.

… touring with the Alan Parsons Project (who never toured originally).

… why Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone is the greatest record of all time (clue: the hi-hat and bass figure).

Pre-order Steve Harley’s ‘The Best Years of Our Lives’ here:

https://SteveHarley.lnk.to/TBY

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Perched outside the Vatican Of News awaiting puffs of white smoke, which this week arrive in the following fashion …

… Brandi Carlile’s Mothership Weekend and her genius for publicity.

… Jim Morrison is alive and living in Syracuse, New York!: barrel-scraping new rock documentary incoming.

… Hip Hop Wealth v Rock Wealth: the $57m house Kayne West bought, gutted and left to disintegrate.

… real or fictional ‘religious’ musicians – Saint Pepsi, Cardinal Rex, Pope Plastique, the Reverend Horton Heat?

…. Lady Gaga at Cobacabana Beach and is there anywhere in the UK you could feasibly hold a concert for two million people?

… “Crafting smiles for today’s legends’: Kayne West’s devious dentist.

… is Elvis still ‘sighted in Brent Cross Shopping Centre’?

… the Noel Gallagher sunglasses range! The ‘She’s Electric’ train route to Wembley!: the eternal churn of the Oasis rumour mill.

… the life and luck of Peter Capaldi, one minute supporting Altered Images, the next in a movie with Burt Lancaster.

… is there music for everyone anymore or is it all repackaged for subsects of the population?

… ‘the towering gates of Sean Combs' estate have flaming torches burning day and night’.

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Dennis McNally was the Grateful Dead’s publicist in the mid-‘80s, one of many reasons why he’s supremely qualified to write his new book about the birth of the counterculture in America’s West and East Coast and Britain. ‘The Last Great Dream: How Bohemians Became Hippies And Created the Sixties’, a celebration of music, beat poetry, radical thinking, free speech and artistic liberty, seems even more precious now in the light of recent events. All sorts are discussed here, these being some of the highlights …

… how the Summer of Love of ‘67 actually happened in the Fall of ‘66 in Haight-Ashbury.

… “rigid, stagnant, terrifying”: early ‘60s America before the revolution.

… the three key cities that “experimented with freedom”.

... how San Francisco “cherished strangeness” and had a self-proclaimed ruler, Emperor Norton, who created his own currency.

… how the Grateful Dead - “the ultimate example of the bohemian pulse writ large in music” – spent $1m building a sound system when they were earning $125 a week.

… the influence of Private Eye, Beyond The Fringe and That Was The Week That Was on British culture. And of Lenny Bruce, the Hungry I club, Bill Cosby, Woody Allen and Mort Sahl in America.

… how Rebel Without A Cause and the Wild One helped establish the West Coast as rebellious.

… “there are two flags of freedom – one to make as much money as possible, the other to be as open-minded and thoughtful about everything”.

… Eisenhower said “in God we trust!” But which God?

… the entire security for the 25,000 crowd at the Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park was two mounted policemen.

… “nothing is more fun than researching”.

... how the counter-culture was created with very little money or technology.

Order the Last Great Dream here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Great-Dream-Bohemians-Hippies/dp/0306835665

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Passing the thermometer of conversation over the rock and roll news to see where the mercury rises, which this week includes …

… the new Barbra Streisand duets album. Duets are ‘playlets’, small intense dramas that depend on human interaction, but so many are recorded separately (including, tragically, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell).

… but … duets you HAVE to hear! eg Cash & Carter, Otis Redding & Carla Thomas, Ray Charles & Betty Carter, Siouxsie & Morrissey, Nick Cave & Kylie, Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush.

… the extraordinary story of the rebirth and Indian Summer of Mississippi John Hurt after 40 years of invisibility.

… blues lyrics that now seem unimaginable.

… Frank Zappa as a drug dealer? Miles Davis as a pimp? Cyndi Lauper as a trophy wife? Real or made-up Miami Vice rock star cameos.

… great opening lines – “We got married in a fever …!”

… how you always learn something you never knew about someone from their obituary - like Mike Peters’ involvement in the highest altitude concert ever performed (on Everest with Glenn Tilbrook and Slim Jim Phantom).

… where people listen to the Word In Your Ear “poddy” – eg in the bath, in court, at wedding receptions, by the Allman Brothers’ graveside.

Plus birthday guest John Montagna on rock stars who should be in a TV series.

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