Brian Wilson & Gary Numan play Liverpool in July

Feature by News Team | 27 Feb 2017

New series of shows unveiled for the city's 50 Summers of Love season, including the Beach Boys founder's last ever Pet Sounds show in the UK

To mark 50 years since the infamous Summer of Love – the 1967 counterculture gathering in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district, upon which The Beatles were an acknowledged influence – Liverpool will be treated to a season of overly 60 specially curated events, including performances by lesser-seen legends Brian Wilson and Gary Numan.

Entitled 50 Summers of Love, the programme sees the two performing at Exhibition Centre Liverpool, King's Dock, with synth-pop pioneer Numan appearing on Thursday 27 July and Beach Boys founder Wilson playing the following day.

With a new album in the works, and following 2016's Android in La La Land documentary (not to be confused with this year's similarly-titled Gosling/Stone vehicle), Numan's show promises to be a retrospective of his 39-year career – not to mention one of only two UK dates planned for 2017. Support on the night comes from John Foxx and The Maths, the new project from the original frontman of Ultravox.

Wilson's performance promises to be no less eventful, representing the final UK performance of his last-ever Pet Sounds tour, in which the 74-year-old Californian plays his former band's magnum opus in its entirety. With a band including fellow ex-Beach Boys Al Jardine and guitarist Blondie Chaplin, it's a final chance to see the genius in action on these shores.

Tickets for both shows go on sale at 9am on Friday 3 March.