Beach Boys monument vandalised

The newly unveiled Beach Boys monument in Hawthorne, California has already been vandalised with graffiti. Rolling Stone reports that sometime between 6:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. last Friday June 10, the word "Choli" was spray-painted in black across the 20-foot-long brick structure.

On May 20, original Beach Boys Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks returned to the spot where the Wilson family home once stood at a dedication marking it as a California historical landmark. It was at the Wilson family home that the group first rehearsed together on Labor Day 1961. Jardine says that he's not surprised that the monument was defaced, saying, "Graffiti is a territorial expression. Maybe we're on someone else's territory."

The city of Hawthorne immediately blasted most of the scribblings off the monument, but some of the names of the landmark project sponsors - which were carved into the structure's bricks - are still obscured.

The city is reportedly considering applying some type of graffiti-resistant coating or implementing surveillance cameras to protect the monument, which features a stone reproduction of the group's 1963 Surfer Girl album.

In other Beach Boys-related news, Beach Boys co-founder Brian Wilson turns 63 today June 20, 2005.

Wilson kicks off his European tour on June 22 in London. He told us that although he's still contemplating what songs he'll perform on tour, there are a few Beach Boys favorites he definitely wants to play:
[ click here to listen if you have a Backstage Pass] "Well, I wanna do 'Good Vibrations' and 'California Girls,' I wanna do 'I Get Around,' I wanna do 'Don't Worry Baby" and 'Do It Again,' and 'Wouldn't It Be Nice and 'God Only Knows' -- songs like that."

Following the European dates, Wilson returns to America to kick off a 17-city US tour on August 9 at Boston's Bank of America Pavilion. He'll be performing Smile in its entirety.