Music to taste

Young Chang

The names of these bands both begin with “B.” Both originated in

Southern California, are known around the world and have had

chart-topping hits attached to Tom Cruise movies.

And by Monday, Berlin lead singer Terri Nunn and the Beach Boys lead

vocalist Mike Love will have one more thing in common. Both are scheduled

to perform with their bands at the Taste of Newport in Newport Beach this

weekend.

That’s pretty much where any similarity between these two groups end.

Despite the Beach Boys’ rocky ride in the past few decades, with

ex-member Brian Wilson’s struggles with drug-abuse and other episodes

that led to group tension, the band has still managed to surface time and

again.

Their unexpected 1988 hit “Kokomo,” also the theme song to the Cruise

film “Cocktail,” kept them at the top of the contemporary pop charts for

weeks.

It also happens to be Love’s favorite song to perform.

For Love, performing in Newport on Sunday is returning back to the

surf culture that nurtured the Beach Boys.

In the early 1960s, the band played the Rendezvous Ballroom, Newport

Beach’s haven for surf music. The ballroom, which no longer exists, is

considered to be the place surf music was born. It was a place for

surfers and their girlfriends, the place to be if you were into that

sub-culture surfer scene.

Love remembers surfing with his buddies in Newport and Huntington

Beach. At least three of the band’s hit songs have “surfin”’ in the title

-- “Surfin’,” “Surfin’ USA” and “Surfin’ Safari.”

“We always loved Southern California,” Love said. “That was the

environment in which we grew up.”

Love, 59, said he still surfs today. But he attempts it less often

than he used to and only where the waves are simple.

Berlin vocalist Nunn almost never surfs. The 41-year-old said she

tried it once and found she was “pretty awful at it.”

“I remember the board hitting me on the head,” Nunn said. “It shot out

from under my feet and then crashed down.”

Berlin, best known for their 1986 hit song “Take My Breath Away,” from

the movie “Top Gun,” will perform Friday night.

The food tasting event is an appropriate place for Nunn, in more ways

than just musically.

“The older you get, the less you can eat,” she said, referring to

metabolisms. “I think that’s one of the most unfortunate things about

growing up.”

Nunn said food gets more fun with age, and that she enjoys it now more

than ever. Her dream place would be a land where she could eat as much as

she wants and not pay the price.

“That would be heavenly,” Nunn said. “That would rock.”

Nunn said she has a weakness for sushi, and sake is her favorite

drink. A vegetarian, she said she also eats fish.

“If I can’t eat as much now as I used to, that sucks! What is that? “

Nunn said. “I’m always looking forward to food.”

FYI

A TASTE OF NEWPORT CONCERTS

WHAT: Wang Chung will perform at 7:45 p.m. Friday and Berlin will

follow at 9:30 p.m.

* Kool and the Gang will perform at 9:30 p.m. Saturday.

* The Beach Boys will perform at 4 p.m. Sunday.

WHERE: All concerts will take place at Fashion Island, 905 Newport

Center Drive, Newport Beach.

COST: Admision is $12, which includes the concerts. Children under 12

are admitted free Saturday and Sunday.

CALL: (949) 729-4400