DIM
ITRI
OS^ K
AMB
OUR
IS/G
ETT
Y^ IM
AGE
S^
“I’d just started playing around,” he says,
“then when I heard Walk, Don’t Run,
I thought, wow, it was completely different
to anything I’d been exposed to from an
instrumental standpoint, which was Link
Wray and Johnny And The Hurricanes,
mainly. The Ventures had a level of
sophistication to them.”
Taylor, meanwhile, was just five when
Walk, Don’t Run became a hit and was more
interested in toys and comics
than instrumental rock’n’roll.
It was only later that he learned
to appreciate the musicianship
of his pa and his mates.
“The chord structure is
not very complicated,” he
points out, “but when you
listen to it, there are all these
rhythmical parts, in pretty
much everything The Ventures
do. People ask what makes The
Ventures’ sound what it is, and
it’s those rhythmical parts and having that
percussive rhythmic style of playing.”
Of those 250-plus LPs, a sizable chunk of
them are what we now call concept albums.
Well before Sgt. Pepper’s popularised the
idea of the themed album, The Ventures
were putting out long-players like 1961’s
The Colorful Ventures (where every track
was named after a colour) and 1964’s
The Ventures In Space (which boasted
such sci-fi-friendly songs as Out Of Limits,Moon Child, War Of The Satellites and
The Fourth Dimension).
“Putting an instrumental album together
is probably one of the hardest things that
you can do in the music industry, even if
you’re The Ventures,” suggests Spalding.
“It’s tremendously hard to try to latch on
to an idea or concept and turn that into a
musical product. Years ago, it was largely
driven by the record company. They’dcome to the band and say, ‘Hey, would you
guys do a, you know, whatever...’ But in
terms of coming up with concepts for an
instrumental album, we look at things that
are appropriate today, and things that The
Ventures are known for, and we try to come
up with something that we think not only
the fans will like, but also that we try to
gather new fans, too.”
Excitingly, Spalding reveals that the band
are currently sweating away on a sequel tothat original Ventures In Space album. “It’ll
be from today’s perspective,” he teases. “It’s
one of the things that we’re working on
while we’re not touring.”
Though Don Wilson is largely retired
(and at 87, who can blame him?), Spalding is
hopeful he can convince his old bandmate to
contribute to the new album.
“Occasionally, Don will sing a song to me
on the phone and I’ll do it,” he says. “I’ve
been trying to get him to write
some new material for this
album. That’ll be neat if we
could do that.”
There are also some virtual
performances planned for- Leon Taylor and Bob
Spalding may be in their 60s
and 70s respectively, but
slowing down appears to
be anathema to them. Even
bands with 20-year histories
don’t have the lust for writing,
performing and recording that the 2021
Ventures have. After six decades and
countless personnel changes, it seems they
still have the enthusiasm and hunger that
original line-up had back in the late 1950s.
“You know, it’s kind of neat we’re keeping
the band moving,” says Spalding proudly.
“It’s great we’re keeping it together and
moving it forward, hopefully in new
directions. We’re just so lucky The Ventures
have been able to achieve this longevity.” 9
The VenturesOnstage at their induction
into The Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame in New York in 2008