In a fantastic musical coup, Together The People has announced a UK festival exclusive headline performance from The Beach Boys’ founder and creative genius Brian Wilson on the Saturday and seminal British rock band Suede on the Sunday.
Together The People festival will see Wilson and his band performing The Beach Boys’ classic ‘Pet Sounds’ album and more of their greatest hits in Preston Park this September. He’ll be joined on stage by former bandmate Al Jardine.
Short of reuniting the original surviving The Beach Boys on an actual surfboard in the sea off Hawaii, we can’t think of a more perfect place to hear Brian Wilson perform ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’, ‘God Only Knows’ and (sigh) ‘I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times’ (to name just three ‘Pet Sounds’ marvels) than down here by the sea.
The full line-up for Together The People Festival is as follows:
Brian Wilson performing Pet Sounds (headlining Sat 3rd Sept) / Suede (headlining Sun 4th Sept) / The Horrors / Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats / Hiatus Kaiyote / Peter Hook & The Light performing Joy Division / New Order Greatest Hits / Gaz Coombes / Songhoy Blues / M. Ward / Natty / Turin Brakes / Sage Francis & B. Dolan present ‘Strange Speech, Famous Development’ / Fickle Friends / Max Jury / Seratones / Stevie Parker / Skinny Living / Poets Vs MCs / Chris T-T / Matthew Logan Vasquez / Jacko Hooper / Westerman / Daniel Wakeford / Egyptian Blue / Fur / Atlas Wynd / Penelope Isles / Mindofalion / Post-Heather / Seats / Voodoo & The Crypts / Wild Front / The Rocking Horse Club / The Island Club / Thoughts / Episodes / House Points / Frankie Furlow / Mother Me
As well as the programmed entertainment, festival-goers can also expect local street food, craft beer, roaming entertainers, children’s entertainment, arts and craft, local ales and workshops. Like last year’s event the festival will look to focus on local issues and businesses in addition to its music. 2016 sees the return of the Soapbox stage, where debates, poetry, spoken word and acoustic performances from local contributors will take place.
In 2015 the festival was powered by bio-diesel and solar technology, recycled over 5.3 tonnes of waste and generated over £2,000 in public donations for the local homeless charity, the Brighton Housing Trust.
Just in case you really needed a reminder, here’s Brian Wilson and his band performing ‘Surf’s Up’, plus two archive clips of The Beach Boys (without Brian) on an earlier visit to Brighton, circa 1971-72.
Preston Park, Saturday 3rd – Sunday 4th September 2016
Words by Stuart Huggett and Jake Kennedy
