Your "committee" members - Val, Heather Findlay, Alan Poole and David Noakes came up from England on 21st June 1998. We nervously gathered in Grangemouth. With some bravado, I was adopting a Kevin Costner stance from Field Of Dreams I kept saying "They Will Come!"...but would they?
Derek Dick and I travelled there together and when we arrived not only was most of the "committee" ther, but Tom Brown, who did all the local pre-arranging for the Oxgang House Hotel and Sean Macreavy who had been performing in Glasgow with his group The Landys were also in full swing setting up the electrics. Tom McGill our "design expert" was there too, with a brilliant poster he had prepared for us to welcome everybody.
Broadcasters/performers Duglas T. Stewart (of the BMX Bandits) and Davie Scott (of The Pearlfishers) arrived with friends to prepare for their input and guess what? They did come! Over 50 people turned up on what started off as a glorious California-like day, a great start to our first event considering we had only planned it 6 weeks previously.
They turned up from every corner of Scotland. People like Craig McKenzie travelled from Stoer in Sutherland, stayed overnight in Aberdeen and was driven down by Alan Cumming from Aberdeen. Others came from the Borders and even from Halifax in England.
We HAD to start with a meeting to give members the opportunity of knowing who we were and what we were trying to do and then get their views.
We explained some ideas we had:
forming branches in different British regions
arranging similar events like Grangemouth in other regions
holding larger scale weekend events which could involve families
arranging vocal/instrumental workshops for members eg a capella Beach Boys singing etc (we got 10 names on the day for this and I am in communication with Capella Nova on the possibilities, so watch this space)
A possible Carl Wilson tribute charity concert(s)
the long term suggestion of a possible trip of all members/families to California and take in Beach Boys sites/people
voolunteers to get involved regionally
fund raising ideas,
even line dancing to Beach Boys music (which was not received enthusiastically)
After this, we made way for Duglas and Davie to present their video of their meeting with Brian Wilson in 1996. This was highly entertaining and amusing as they both threw in anecdotes of "their pal Brian". They followed this with tales and excerpts from the making of their upcoming CD of Brian Wilson music which they have made with other artists. They have a great story concerning Alex Chilton of The Box Tops and Charles Manson which I will leave them to relate if they are ever available.
We showed cvarious videos and Sean Macreavy gave us another quality presentation of some extracts of music he has prepared for his musical Good Vibrations based on the life of Brian Wilson which is awaiting legal clearance with the appropriate lawyers and administrators.
In addition, John Porteous arrived from his pet Sounds base in Newcastle and spoke to us about how he came to be involved with all things Beach Boys. He then went on to open his stall of goodies.
Fans had also brought along various items of Beach Boys memorabilia from their own collections. We also had a raffle which helped to improve our funds somewhat. Graham Pierce, a fan from the village of Foveran, one mile up the road from mine in Aberdeenshire, had to leave early and to many ironic cries of "fix!" as I (presenter for the day) proferred his ticket - he won the most sought after prize of a Brian Wilson single CD which contained an a capella version of Your Imagination
A buffet and bar were available and fans took the opportunity to mingle and trade their own anecdotes about the Beach Boys. The pitch of the day was deliberately low key to give members the opportunity to get to know one another and can only be judged as a great success as we recruited 4 new members on the day.
After the event I recseveral calls from members and other fans who were unable to attend on the day. Several Scottish members weren't present as they were on holiday and of course we were competing with the World Cup - at that time Scotland (and England) were still in the competition.
One of these calls has rendered a new member in Laurence Reid from Stow in the Borders who has also volunteered to organise the Scottish Borders area, so welcome aboard Laurence.
I can only say a big "thank you" to:
"the comittee" for their support in coming up to Scotland, Val , Heather,Alan and David
Alan Poole and David Noakes for organising the raffle
Tom McGill for the artwork
Derek Dick for being doorman/collector
Sean Macreavy for sorting the electrics and his presentation
John Porteous for his presentation, "selling his wres" and donations to the raffle
Duglas T Stewart and Davie Scott for their time and presentations
A special thank you must also be given to Tom Brown for organising the venue and general assistance.
The organisers' departure was delayed as the biggest downpour in years happened after everybody else had gone. It was too wet even to get from the hall to the car park, NOT California weather.
To quote Tom McGill, "thanks to everybody" bringing a little bit of California to Scotland for the day - We'll "Do It Again" next year, if you are up for it.
Finally the biggest thank you is reserved for our members - THEY DID COME!
If any of you have any ideas or requests for next year please write to Val or myself and let us know what you thought worked and what didn't and we'll print it in the next newsletter.
Alex McCambley
(Scottish Representative)
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