Who else could headline the Pet Sounds arena?
Friday may have been about rain and mud but the weather on the Saturday at T in The Park turned a lot more positive and the sun was shining for most of the day. Some may say this was because of global warming, of changing air pressure or of some crazy belief that this reviewer just wouldn't understand but they'd all be wrong. The sun was out because Brian Wilson was playing and Brian Wilson invented the summer. Sure, there was the period between spring and autumn before the Beach Boys but it never reached its full potential until the band started unleashing summer soundtrack after soundtrack.
With the set running in roughly chronological order, the early surf and girl hits came at the start and quickly got the crowd (which should have been bigger for a legend like this) in the singsong mood, which they never really lost for the rest of the night.
The moment when 'And Then I Kissed Her' arrived, all the magic and melodies merged together and any naysayers would have been converted instantly. Its possibly hard to stay objective when one of the best songs of your life is being played directly in front of you and perhaps that chill going up my spine was due to the evening turning colder but there was something kinda awe-inspiring about that song and its performance.
And that's just it, there was a magic to the show. Before Brian's first UK tour of recent times when he played the Pet Sounds tour there was a lot of debate about who was behind the shows, was it Brian himself or were people pushing him to make money? Hes certainly getting on and seems to be in a frail condition at times (research his past history if you don't know much about the man) and there was a worry that he was being used by others to earn them easy money. So that was a concern, but back then, as it was at T, the performance of Brian indicated that he still had the element of performance in him and he seemed to be genuinely touched by the crowd reaction to him. Brian Wilson probably gave out more love and reasons to fall in love than that vast majority of recording artists, so its only right he was getting some back.
Sure at times it bordered on cringe worthy (a crowd singsong of 'Row, Row, Row Your Boat') but when the crowd were led in a handclap or poorly attempted to match the high backing vocals, it didn't matter if it was a bit off because the amount of all time classic songs that were on show surpassed any other comment or remark.
By the time the songs were hitting 1965 onwards, the tempo had risen and each track was being met with an ovation, with the only way of quietening the crowd down was to play another song so there followed hit after hit in quick succession.
With 'Sloop John B' segueing into 'God Only Knows' (hmmm, the phrase "one of the best songs of your life" has already been used in this review) and then onto 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' and then 'Add Some Music To Your Day', that's just an unbelievable run that any other artist would really struggle to compete with. And if you think they would then consider that the next song of the evening was the multi-layered classic 'Heroes And Villains.'
Hes still got the voice, hes backed by an amazing band and the amount of all-time classic hits in his arsenal should mean that as long as Brian Wilson is fit and happy to tour, he should be afforded every opportunity to do so. The man is a hero in an industry of villains.