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Brighton Fringe 2013

£5 Fringe Festival Launch Party

The Brighton Beach Boys

Genre: Musical Theatre

Venue: The Lord Nelson Inn

Festival:


Low Down

The £5 Fringe Festival has returned for it’s second year, helmed once again by Brian Mitchell, and it kicked off with a launch party concert with The Brighton Beach Boys playing a joyus “acoustic set” at the Lord Nelson Inn.

Review

With over a decade of experience, The Brighton Beach Boys were in an “unbuttoned” mood, with a relaxed, informal feel of a jam session.

The band’s musical director Steve Wrigley struggled manfully on stage with a broken leg and led them in a wide range of numbers including classic Beach Boys tunes, I Can Hear Music, and God Only Knows, whichas you’d expect—they handled confidently and assuredly, even employing an excellent Hammond organ iPhone app on Good Vibrations!

As well as deftly handling Brian Wilson’s complex harmonies and arrangements, The Brighton Beach Boys also covered several Beatles tracks including: Here Comes Sun, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band, I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends, It’s Getting Better and Come Together. They generously shared out the lead vocals amongst them, and covered less expected tracks such as Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Bad Moon Rising, Harry Nilsson’s Everybody’s Talkin and even The Archies’ saccharine Sugar, Sugar. Drummer Theseus Gerard took centre stage to perform a VERY funky, thumping rendition of James Brown’s Get Up Offa That Thing, which would have had the whole room dancing, had they not been impeded by an over abundance of tables!

Also known as The Psychedelic Love Orchestra, the group’s line up of accomplished musicians includes Charlotte Glasson on flute and saxophone; Rory Cameron on guitar; Theseus Gerard on drums; Adrian Marshall on bass; Ralph Brown on saxophone and keyboards; Steve Wrigley on guitar, and Glen Richardson on keyboards. All melded mellifluously together, making their hard work look effortless.

The whole gig acted as a warm-up/sneak preview of the award-winning band’s four shows at the All Saint’s Church in Hove during the festival. They are performing the 1969 show and the Abbey Road album on Friday 24 May, the next day (Saturday 25 May) it’s Pet Sounds Vs. Sgt Pepper (twice!) and finishing with a brand new show on the Sunday evening, The Life of Brian (Wilson…).

Relentless entertaining and constantly evolving, The Brighton Beach Boys are well worth watching time and time again.

Published