Brian Wilson

Brian Wilson

Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow

The Brian Wilson touring extravaganza, which just five years ago was a but a pipe dream for a few hardcore fans, has turned into an all-embracing and slick production that belies the still apparent fragility of its star.

Wilson�s reputation for perfectionism is reflected in the ten piece band whose multi-instrumental dexterity and vocal strength is the key to the brilliance of the show. By contrast, Wilson, though singing well, appears disconnected from both the end of tour high-jinks of the musicians and the adulation of the audience.

While it would be impossible to find any comparable artist performing to anything like the same level, any disappointment comes from the song selection rather than the execution. Having milked his master works, �Pet Sounds� and �Smile� on his previous tours, they provide mere interludes here – though the staggering version of �Heroes and Villains� and an equally impressive �God Only Knows� reprise these shows.

For the most part, it is a trawl through his earliest songs, with albums like �All Summer Long,� �Surfer Girl� and �Summer Days and Summer Nights� from the pre-Pet Sounds, early and mid-sixties era well represented.

Included are a most out-of-season Christmas song, �Little Saint Nick,� recently re-recorded, but originally from 1963, and excellent renditions of �Then I Kissed Her� and �In My Room.� There are some other miscalculations: the encore of �Johnny B Goode� is laboured and �Marcella� is the only occasion where it becomes over-wrought.

However, it is the closing song, �Love and Mercy� which really encapsulates Wilson�s enduring skill as a pop composer. Supplemented by support band, The Magic Numbers, the thirteen piece harmonies augment what is the most touchingly human of lyrics from the pen of an often impenetrable person.