LET’S make it clear right from the start. Brian Wilson and Al Jardine will not be in The Beach Boys’ line-up when the Californian surf boys play a post-racing live show at York Racecourse tomorrow night.

Love will be in the air instead. Mike Love that is, one of the founding members from 1961, leading the touring line-up through those golden sunshine hits.

“What could be better? The Beach Boys playing outdoors,” says Mike, who will be cheered to know the weather forecast is for a sunny evening, just as it should be for The Beach Boys.

“We did Epsom Downs three years ago. That was pretty neat. They actually sold out that day’s racing and we’re really looking forward to York.”

Love is 73 now, and The Beach Boys have been spreading sun rays for 53 years, so no wonder they will open tomorrow’s show with Do It Again.

“We’re doing it again, at the risk of being redundant, but unfortunately people keep asking us to perform,” says Mike.

“I’ve always preferred the live performances because you have the interaction with the audience and there are so many songs they sing along with, even some that are more subtle like In My Room.”

Among the familiar numbers, such as California Girls, Surfin’ USA and Help Me Rhonda, The Beach Boys will be performing a “new song”.

“It’s one I wrote and recorded after George Harrison passed away, and we released it on February 25, the anniversary of the day George died,” says Mike. “It’s called Pisces. We’re both Pisces; we’ve both had a lot of meditation in our lives; when The Beatles were with the Maharishi, I was there; Donovan was there.

“It was an incredible time, a very special time; the Maharishi was a great host, throwing a birthday party for me and George with fireworks and cake too.”

Mike goes on to quote his lyrics: “Such precious moments now in the past, music and the memories are all that last,” he says. “Which is true,” he adds.

Songs last too, of course. “It’s very apparent how music affects people; we see how our music registers with people and something that’s happened in their life,” says Mike. “Songs bring back memories or moods or feelings.”

This in turn gives the Beach Boys good reason to continue touring and to keep the band’s flame burning as bright as their Hawaiian shirts.

“We’re obsessed with recreating those songs as perfectly as possible each night we play, but also rehearsing new songs to break them in,” says Mike.

“We don’t ever think about it as just coming out and performing in an egotistical way; people are coming to see us play the songs they love and we want them to go away having been impressed.”

Along with Mike on stage will be a Bruce Johnston, a Beach Boy since 1965. “He joined in ‘65, taking Brian’s place on the road when Brian ‘retired’ as by and large Brian wanted to focus on the studio, which resulted in some good stuff like Good vibrations and Pet Sounds. But though there was sadness about him not playing shows, we realised he was happier at home.”

The Beach Boys story has had as much darkness as sunshine, be it the premature deaths of Dennis and Carl Wilson or brother Brian’s mental health problems.

“I think that’s true, but the thing that exacerbated the decision for Brian to stop touring was that he and Dennis got hooked on some heavy drugs,” says Mike. “Brian was taking some pretty heavy doses of LSD; eventually coming out of that but not unscathed, whereas I’d been with the Maharishi since 1967, which kept me away from drugs and excesses.

“Transcendental meditation gives me the positivity to keep on doing what we’re doing; 130 shows a year.”

And tomorrow, he will be doing it all again, in harmony in York with Bruce Johnston, John Cowsill, Scott Totten, Jeffrey Foskett, Randell Kirsch and the wonderfully named Tim Bonhomme.

• The Beach Boys play York Racecourse tomorrow night. after the 8.30pm last race. Tickets cover both the race meeting and the concert. Ticket hotline: 01904 620911.

 

The low low lowdown on Wet Wet Wet

Occupation: Scottish pop band with 15 million record sales.

Formed: Clydebank, Glasgow, 1982, initially as Vortex Motion, then Wet Wet Wet, taking name from Scritti Politti song Gettin’ Havin’ & Holdin’.

Members: Clydesbank High School friends Tommy Cunningham, drums; Graeme Clark, bass; Neil Mitchell, guitar; plus trainee painter and decorator Marti Pellow (born Mark McLachlan). Graeme Duffin joined line-up after initial contributions as session guitarist.

Reason for forming: “It was either crime, the dole, football, or music – and we chose music,” said Cunningham.

First hit: Wishing I Was Lucky, number six, early 1987.

First album: Popped In Souled Out, September 1987, featuring three more soul-pop hits, Sweet Little Mystery, Temptation and Angel Eyes (Home and Away).

Going back to the future: Released The Memphis Sessions in 1988, although it was recorded in the USA before Popped In Souled Out.

First number one: Childline charity single cover of The Beatles’ With A Little Help From My Friends; double A-side with Billy Bragg’s She’s Leaving Home, May 1988.

Second number one: Goodnight Girl, January 1992.

Third number one: Cover of The Troggs’ 1967 top fve hit Love Is All Around; 15-week chart topper from Four Weddings And A Funeral soundtrack.

More Top Ten hits: Sweet Surrender, 1989; Julia Says, Don’t Want To Forgive Me Now and Somewhere Somehow, all 1995; If I Never See You Again and Yesterday, 1997; Weightless, number ten, February 2008.

Albums: Holding Back The River, 1989; Wet Wet Wet Live, 1990; ballad-dominated High On The Happy Side, January 27 1992; Cloak & Dagger, billed as by faux veteran act Maggie Pie & The Impostors, January 28 1992; Lve At The Royal Albert Hall, 1993; compilation End Of Part One: Their Greatest Hits, 1993; Picture This, 1995; 10, 1997.

Personnel changes: Cunningham left to formThe Sleeping Giants; Pellow quit post-10 in 1999 to break alcohol and heroin habits. Addictions conquered, he released his debut solo album Smile in 2001. Branched out into musuicals in the West End, on Broadway and on tour, such as Chicago, The Witches Of Eastwick, Jekyll & Hyde and Blood Brothers.

Further Pellow albums: Moonlight Over Memphis, 2006; Love To Love, 2011; Hope, 2013.

Band re-formed: March 2004, releasing single All I Want and The Greatest Hits in November.

First studio album in ten years: Timeless, November 2007.

Latest compilation: Step By Step, The Greatest Hits, featuring new tracks Step By Step, Sad Kinda Love and Playin’ Like A Kid, November 2013. Accompanied by tour that included Leeds First Direct Arena last December.

Pellow in York in 2014: Played Che in Evita, final week of tour, June 9 to 14.

Where and when will Wet Wet Wet be playing in York? York Racecourse Music Showcase Weekend, post-racing on Saturday afternoon; last race starts at 5.15pm.

Tickets are all-inclusive (racing and concert); bookings, 01904 620911 or at yorkracecourse.co.uk