Poll

The Ventures were never popular in Europe because:

Few people had herd of them compared to The Shadows.
2 (28.6%)
Hank Marvin played better than Bob, Gerry, or Nokie.
0 (0%)
A pink strat looked better than a Mosrite.
0 (0%)
It was easier to learn to play like Hank than like Bob, Gerry or Nokie.
1 (14.3%)
Ventures records were unavailable in Europe.
1 (14.3%)
The Ventures never toured Europe.
1 (14.3%)
The Ventures were an instrumental cover band.  None of their originals were hits..
1 (14.3%)
All of the above.
1 (14.3%)

Total Members Voted: 6

Voting closed: August 10, 2012, 02:47:27 pm

Author Topic: New Poll--Ventures vs. Shadows  (Read 3563 times)

Offline geoff1711

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 10
    • View Profile
Re: New Poll--Ventures vs. Shadows
« Reply #15 on: July 24, 2013, 03:09:25 am »
When the Ventures had hits in the UK with Walk Don't Run, in the charts at the same time as John Barry, I was still at school and everything American was very cool, a friend at the time, who's home always seemed a bit Yankie ( they had a fridge, washing machine and his mum had died blonde hair! which where I was brought up was pretty unusual then) summed it up by saying:

America - Coffee, gum, John Wayne!! yeah!

England - Tea, polite old ladies

So on that basis alone they should have had hit after hit, but their sound is different to the Shadows, The Ventures sound is more "head down and go for it" and along the way timing gets a bit lost as is clarity, The Shadows original image over here was of gritty coffee bars and post war Britain still a grim place to look at because of all the bombed out buildings still to be demolished and rebuilt, they had a new sound and a precision of style, they may have played similar tunes just in a different way.

Don't forget though that within a couple of years Beatlemania had started and The Shadows and Cliff's image changed from mean rebellious kids to cuddly family entertainers, and now it was the likes of The Rolling Stones that made your dad foam at the mouth.

Surf music in the USA didn't really go out of fashion until Hendrix and flower power.

And to us Brits on some of the later tracks with that bloody awful (and supposed to be sexy??) growl one of the guys kept doing was just plain cringeworthy, it was bad enough first time round with Roy Orbison on Pretty Woman but rehashed by The Ventures a number of years on - not for me!

50 years on and both bands have tracks I like and tracks I don't, but there are more Shadows tracks I like than Ventures - the reason? The Shadows playing expertise and technique  seemed to improve with age, The Ventures style stayed the seem but seemed to get a bit sloppy.

One odd thing though, years back Hawaii 50 was a massive TV hit running for years, I only found out long after the show finished that it was a Ventures tune, now that has to be poor marketing on behalf of their management.

Geoff