September 11, 2011: Glasgow, Scotland: Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Brian Wilson – Re-Imagines Gershwin Tour

Legendary songwriter, producer, arranger and co-founder of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson returns to the UK in September 2011 for a string of dates.

Brian Wilson Re-imagines Gershwin (released by Disney Pearl in August 2010) is an album of George and Ira Gershwin classics that has already garnered rave reviews. With imaginative arrangements of some of the most widely known and recorded music in history, it includes an a capella arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue, songs from Porgy and Bess such as Summertime and It Ain’t Necessarily So as well as classic Gershwin compositions including They Can’t Take That Away From Me and I Got Rhythm.

Brian Wilson says: “I remember hearing Rhapsody in Blue and I was probably four or five years old and I was blown away. I just couldn’t believe how beautiful it was.”

He gave us good vibrations but the beach boy was the ultimate music casualty. His recent comeback lived up to the decades of expectation.

As the main songwriter in 1960s group The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson penned classic hits such as ‘Help Me, Rhonda’, ‘I Get Around’ and ‘Good Vibrations’.

At the age of nineteen, Brian Wilson recorded ‘Surfin’ in his parents living room, with his younger brothers Dennis and Carl, his cousin Mike, and a friend named Al Jardine, which was destined to become the first single from the newly formed Beach Boys.

The Beach Boys were soon signed to Capitol Records and released their first album, ‘Surfin’ Safari’ in 1962. After their third album, Brian became the band’s producer, and the Beach Boys released seven albums in quick succession.

The music produced by Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys soon came to epitomise an era in America in which people were hopeful for the future. Teenagers were keen on activities like rock’n’roll and surfing, and such pastimes became the subject of many of the Beach Boys’ hits, despite the fact that Wilson himself was actually afraid of the water.

By 1964, Brian Wilson had retired from touring with the Beach Boys, and was pouring all his energy into writing and producing for the band.

In 1966, when he was still only twenty-four, Brian wrote the legendary album ‘Pet Sounds’, with lyricist Tony Asher. This was described by the NME as the “Greatest Album Of All Time”, and personally named by Paul McCartney as his favourite album.

Wilson soon became frustrated and exhausted, however, and eventually withdrew more and more from music and the world. His first solo album was released in 1988 but, despite critical acclaim and commercial success, was hampered by controversy as rumours circulated about Brian’s therapist.

1995 saw a positive turn for Brian Wilson as he married Melinda Ledbetter. The couple later had two daughters, Daria and Delanie.

‘Imagination’ was released in 1998 by Wilson, with the help of producer Joe Thomas, and was well-received, as was the tour that accompanied it, despite some initial worries about Brian’s stage-fright