What did Brian Wilson play at his Glastonbury Sunday Legends slot?

26 June 2025, 18:00

Brian Wilson performs in the Sunday Legends slot at Glastonbury on 26th June 2005. Picture: PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo

It's 20 years since the late, great Beach Boys genius brought the sunshine to a very muddy Glastonbury. Here's what he played.

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By Radio X

@RadioX

The death of Brian Wilson at the age of 82 on 11th June 2025 saw a huge outpouring of love for the mastermind behind the music of The Beach Boys.

Paul McCartney, who considered The Beach Boys to be The Beatles' only serious songwriting and production rivals in the mid-1960s, said of Wilson: "I loved him, and was privileged to be around his bright shining light for a little while".

Brian's former Beach Boy colleague Al Jardine called the musician "a real gentleman, a real musical intellect, who taught the world how to smile".

With the 2025 edition of Glastonbury around the corner, it's a sad coincidence that it's almost 20 years since Brian Wilson performed at the festival's Sunday Legends slot, so Radio X has looked back to see what happened on that sunny afternoon two decades ago.

Brian Wilson - Good Vibrations (Glastonbury 2005)

Glastonbury 2005 was one of the festival's wettest years on record - there was sa torrential downpour on the Friday morning, leaving much of the site waterlogged, one stage was struck by lightning and the day's menu of music delayed by a couple of hours.

It was fitting, then, that the appearance of the man who crystalised the concept of surfing culture and the "endless summer" into a catalogue of memorable songs signalled the return of the sunshine that had been missing for much of the weekend.

"We brought the Californian sunshine with us," Brian told the enormous crowd that had gathered at the Pyramid Stage. In fact, this was really where the huge audiences for the heritage acts on Sunday afternoon really began.

The huge crowd that gathered in the sunshine for Brian Wilson at Glastonbury, 26th June 2005. Picture: Tabatha Fireman/Redferns/Getty Images

Joined by his backing band, The Wondermints, Brian Wilson delighted the Pyramid Stage crowd with a setlist that was essentially wall to wall hits, kicking off with The Beach Boys's reworking of the old Crystals hit, Then I Kissed Her.

All the surfing classics of the early 60s were present and correct, including Surfin' USA, California Girls, Fun Fun Fun and I Get Around, while a few audience members got a little dewy-eyed over the harmonies on In My Room and Our Prayer.

Only the Beach Boys leader could get away with doing a Christmas song in June, but Brian gave the crowd Little Saint Nick in the middle of a glittering set of pop gems.

The Glastonbury set came at a time when Wilson was enjoying a career resurgence; he'd been touring as a solo artist since the turn of the Millennium and the previous year had seen the unveiling of his definitive version of the abandoned Beach Boys Smile project.

Brian Wilson, Sloop John B

It as a miracle to see Wilson performing at all in the 00s - his much publicised mental health problems over the previous three decades had thrown a cloud over his life and career. While Brian didn't always hit the notes during his Glastonbury set, you can share in the sheer delight the audience is experiencing at seeing such a legendary musician in person - and to see him clearly enjoying the crowd's ecstatic reaction.

The set climaxed with a selection of songs from the peerless Pet Sounds era: God Only Knows, Good Vibrations and Wouldn't It Be Nice were just some examples of Brian Wilson's timeless genius.

Band member Darian Sahanaja told the press "In six years of touring this is the happiest we've ever seen Brian" and the star followed his Glastonbury appearance with a performance at Live 8 in Berlin in July 2005.

Brian Wilson is delighted at the crowd's reaction to his Sunday Legends slot, 26th June 2005. Picture: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Brian Wilson Glastonbury Sunday Legends setlist, 26th June 2005

Then I Kissed Her (from the album Summer Days (And Sumer Nights!!), 1965)
Don't Worry Baby (from the album Shut Down Volume 2)
Dance, Dance, Dance (from the album The Beach Boys Today! March 1965)
Darlin' (from the album Wild Honey, December 1967)
In My Room (from the album Surfer Girl, 1963)
Surfer Girl (from the album Surfer Girl, 1963)
The Little Girl I Once Knew (single, November 1965)
Wouldn't It Be Nice (from the album Pet Sounds, May 1966)
All Summer Long (from the album All Summer Long, July 1964)
Little Saint Nick (single, December 1963)
I Get Around (from the album All Summer Long, July 1964)
Sail On Sailor (from the album Holland, January 1973)
Marcella (from the album Carl & The Passions - "So Tough", June 1972)
Row, Row, Row Your Boat (an impromptu a capella version of the nursery rhyme with the Pryamid Stage crowd)
Our Prayer (from the album 20/20, February 1969)
Heroes and Villains (from the album Smiley Smile, September 1967)
God Only Knows (from the album Pet Sounds, May 1966)
Sloop John B (from the album Pet Sounds, May 1966)
California Girls (from the album Summer Days (And Sumer Nights!!), 1965)
Good Vibrations (single, October 1966)