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GESThe Ventures
“The group has achieved almost
an iconic status in Japan”
Europe, they’re a cult band, with a small but
loyal following, yet in Japan they have the
status of near-rock’n’roll gods.
“Being an instrumental band, there’s no
language barrier,” suggests Taylor on why
The Ventures are so beloved in the East.
“When the guys first went to Japan, there
was no electrified-type music, and the
Japanese freaked out, especially the younger
generation, because they hadn’t heard
anything like that before. Don would always
tell this story of when the band went there
in 1965. When they got off the plane, there
were 5,000 people waiting for them. Don
thought, ‘Who else is on this plane? That
can’t be for us!’”
“The group has achieved almost an iconic
status in Japan,” adds Spalding. “One of the
reasons for that is as they broke into Japan,
one of the really smart decisions they did
was to start writing music specifically for
that market. They had a very good publisher
over there, and they took those songs that
The Ventures wrote, and placed them with
popular Japanese singers. The Japanese
singers had tremendous hits with these
songs that The Ventures wrote the music to,
and they became standards. We have to play
those every year when we go to Japan.”THOUGH OFTEN LABELLED as a surf
band, The Ventures have always resisted
being tied to one genre. “We’re much more
than surf, and I’m not putting surf down,”
Don Wilson said in an interview once.
“We’re either a surf group or a surf-rock
group. It just so happens that we put outEver evolving line-up
Since they formed in 1958, a whole host of musicians have passed through The Ventures’
ranks. The current line-up of the band includes Luke Griffin, who joined in 2017, and Bob
Spalding’s son Ian (pictured inset), who came into the group in 2016.
“In the last four years, with the unfortunate changes that we’ve had, like the death of Gerry
McGee [the guitarist died after collapsing on stage in Japan in October 2019], we have a new
configuration of the band,” says Bob.
“I brought my son in. Actually, I didn’t do that,
Don Wilson did. Ian was his pick to replace him
when Don retired in 2015.”
“Ian plays rhythm, and he plays a lot like Don.
He’s very percussive like Don, while Luke plays
a lot like Bob. It’s like having the original guys
on stage.”
While the new guys bring a freshness to the
playing, Taylor maintains it’s important for the
current line-up not to stray too far from the
established Ventures brand.
“We try to keep the music true to the original
sound,” he says. “It wouldn’t be the same if you
didn’t stick to the original sound and feel. That’s
important to all of us.”a surfing album [1963’s Surfing] and it’s one
of the biggest albums that has ever sold.
So, people identify us with that.”
Still, ‘surf music’ had something of
a renaissance in the mid-90s, due in part
to the plethora of surf tracks on the PulpFiction soundtrack. Quentin Tarantino’s
movie even featured one song penned by
Nokie Edwards, Don Wilson and Bob Bogle,
The Lively Ones’ Surf Rider. Today, The
Ventures often play Surf Baby in their set,
but Spalding says if there was a spike of
interest in surf, they didn’t feel it.
“It was very successful for the guys
because they got royalties on Pulp Fiction,”
he says, “but in terms of the additional
popularity of ‘surf music’ or instrumental
music, I didn’t see that much. It was kind of
just a blip in the business. It certainly didn’t
do anything in terms
of the record sales.”THE VENTURES
HAVE, over the
past six decades,
recorded more than
250 albums, and
the long-player that
started it all, Walk,
Don’t Run – named
after their first hit
and their signature
song – has just celebrated its 60th birthday.
Bob Spalding was 13 when that history-
making album was released.The Ventures pictured
in the early 90s