The Beach Boys frontman Mike Love and keyboard player Tim Bonhomme have fired back at reports the band has taken to lip-syncing at concerts.
Fans of the group accused the bandmates of miming at a high-profile concert in Australia on Saturday night, but Bonhomme, who also serves as the act's tour manager, insists the allegations are simply not true.
He tells FemaleFirst "We do not lip sync. I want to make it 100 per cent clear that The Beach Boys do not and never have lip-synced their concerts. They have been touring since 1961 and generally have performed in more than a hundred cities a year since the beginning. I guess we should take it as a compliment that it sounded so good."
Longtime Beach Boys leader Love adds, "Throughout the duration of my stay in Australia I heard nothing but positive feedback on our show... We pride ourselves on providing a great live show to our millions of fans around the world and spent time that day soundchecking our vocals to ensure a great live mix. In our almost 50 years of performing The Beach Boys have never lip-synced and we are not about to start."
The lip-syncing claims came from fans who attended the Gold Coast 600 concert, which The Beach Boys headlined. Reports suggest many concertgoers left the Southport Parklands venue before the end of the show, with some accusing the band of lip-syncing their set.
A statement from the event's management team reads, "Due to ongoing speculation surrounding the Saturday evening performance of The Beach Boys, the management team of the Armor All Gold Coast 600... would like to unequivocally state that the performance by the Beach Boys on Saturday evening was a live performance.
"Suggestions that The Beach Boys were lip-syncing are false. A slight delay between the vision being played on the big screens at the 600 Sounds presented by Hard Rock precinct and what was happening on stage did occur, as sometimes happens with live performances, and this may have contributed to the confusion felt by some event-goers."
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