They get around

IT'S TAKEN 44 years, but this Saturday the Beach Boys - who had their first hit single, Surfin', in 1961 - will finally appear on a Hong Kong stage. Why has it taken so long? 'Nobody ever asked us before,' says Bruce Johnston, who (except for a brief hiatus in the 1970s) has been a core member of the band since 1965.

The call finally came. David Garcia, a friend of Johnston and one of the organisers of the Foreign Correspondents Club's annual Charity Ball, asked if the band could fit the event into a busy touring schedule that still keeps them on the road for more than six months a year.

'To tell the truth,' says Johnston, 'we were lucky to squeeze it in.' Fortunately, there was a short gap between US gigs, and another appearance was arranged in Manila to make worthwhile a trip to Asia that will last not much more than 48 hours.

In the pre-Beatles era, the Beach Boys were by far the most successful white rock and roll band in the US. And just as the Liverpudlians conquered the US, the Californians conquered Britain, and - like The Beatles - a wider world, including Hong Kong, where their records have always been radio favourites.

Competition between the two groups was fierce, and for a long time evenly matched. Inspired by a desire to top the Beatles' Rubber Soul, the Beach Boys made the classic Pet Sounds, which Paul McCartney said inspired The Beatles to come up with Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. The Beach Boys were, without a doubt, one of the most important bands of the 60s.

Sadly, not all the Beach Boys will be here. In fact, most of them won't. Of the original line up - which Johnston joined in time to take part in many of the classic recordings, including Pet Sounds - Carl and Dennis Wilson are dead, and Al Jardine no longer performs with his former bandmates.