I've been watching a conglomeration of some local news stories and unedited raw video from a post game Beach Boys concert back in 1983. If you're old enough to remember, the Beach Boys started playing annual concerts at Jack Murphy Stadium after Padres games in 1982. This was long before they sang at Dodger Stadium.
I believe from the clues in the video that this concert took place on Sunday, May 8th after the Padres beat the Cubs 5-3. The reported attendance for the game was 41k but news reports said an additional 11k showed up just for the concert. There were so many people jumping and dancing in the stands that city engineers were worried that it would cause structural damage to the stadium. They can be seen with with surveying equipment outside in the parking lot.
There was plenty of reason to be excited about this particular event because the Beach Boys had their entire line up back together. In 1983 Brian Wilson was back with the group after a long hiatus. He had been under control of a malevolent therapist, his longtime girlfriend and assorted drugs for the better part of a decade. Unwilling or unable to get out of bed most days and living an unhealthy lifestyle caused him to balloon to 325 lbs.
However in the year prior Brian was fired from the group as part of an intervention that eventually restored him to relatively good health and led to him rejoining the band in concerts. The band members comment on how great he looks and feels, suggesting that his return was somewhat recent. Sadly, this was also the last time youngest brother Dennis Wilson played the drums at Jack Murphy because he drowned in December of 1983.
In an interview segment Mike Love talks about how the band loves doing baseball concerts and how it all started in San Diego. He says it's beautiful and loves coming into town, especially to a packed stadium.
In the unedited video section there's a part where the perv camera man follows and zooms in on the buttocks of a girl in pink hot pants walking up the steps of the outfield. Soon after the crew tries to take an overhead picture of the stadium and crowd by tying a 35mm camera to balloons. These were the days before remote control GoPro helicopters.
The Beach Boys eventually come out on the field in classic cars and start to play. Local High School cheerleaders dance on the field in front of them wearing the B-100 FM sponsored shirts. With the music playing the perv cameraman takes the opportunity to scour the crowd for dancing women and zoom in on jiggling boobies for later personal use.
The last half of this video is the crowd dancing and cheering like crazy people. Let me tell you that the city engineers had reason to worry about the structural integrity of the stadium. You've never seen a crowd this wild and involved in a concert. Certainly not post game concerts in the last 30 years. Can you imagine even a few people dancing like this at a Liquid Blue concert in the 90's? It was a different time, a better time. This video makes me want to buy some short O.P. corduroy shorts, grow a mustache, hop in a time machine, become a television cameraman and go to a game.
