WHEN Fran King and his fellow crooners sing the hits of The Beach Boys live, they see genuine beaming smiles on people’s faces.
“The music endears because it is such a good catalogue of work and most of it is about happy times,” King said.
“These songs are always going to resonate with you and you’re always able to hum along to a Beach Boys song.”
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READ NOWHailing from Dublin, Ireland, King is part of The Bootleg Beach Boys collective, bringing a passion for harmonising and a distinct Californian sound to Australia.
“As musicians, all five of us all have that love of The Beach Boys in common and we joked about the idea of doing a project on them,” he said.
“It was a running gag until we said: ‘We should sit around and sing harmonies and see where it goes’, and that’s what we did.
“About a year-and-a-half ago, we sat around my kitchen table and sang the harmonies and we just kind of looked at each other and said: ‘We have to do this’.
“We had a moment – and we’ve been having a moment ever since.”
King said it had been an incredible experience both learning and playing the classic hits and bringing them to life around the world.
The biggest challenge had been resting their voices between shows as the compositions posed quite a challenge.
“There’s no substitute for rest and sleep and we really have to make sure we look after ourselves,” King said.
The jovial musician heard the legendary group for the first time when he was about six.
The song was California Girls and the melody has remained in his head ever since.
Community Newspaper Group has 10 double passes to give away to The Bootleg Beach Boys at Astor Theatre. Enter here by 10am, Friday, June 23.
THE ESSENTIALS
What: The Bootleg Beach Boys
When: July 8
Where: Astor Theatre, Mt Lawley
Tickets: www.abstractentertainment.net
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