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
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