It is not often that a rock concert begins with a prayer, but that is how former Beach Boy Brian Wilson has opened the shows on his current tour, which will come to an end in the UK next week (28 October) with a final extravaganza at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

The prayer itself has been a musical one – a wall of sound supplied by his 10-piece band – that has signalled that these are concerts with a twist, and that the 74-year-old Wilson is still a man who does things his way.

The tour was conceived to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of The Beach Boys’ album Pet Sounds. Though the album contains only a few of the band’s greatest hits – “God Only Knows”, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “Sloop John B” – to music critics and Wilson’s true believers, it was the Beach Boys at their best.