The Ventures

(l to r) Howie Johnson, Don Wilson, Nokie Edwards and Bob Bogle
The Ventures are one of the first, best, most lasting and influential of instrumental guitar based combos.
Often identified as a surf group they predated surf music and lasted well beyond it.

Current members
     Bob Spalding – lead guitar, bass guitar, rhythm guitar (2005–present; studio and live guest 1980–2005)
     Leon Taylor – drums (1996–present)
     Ian Spalding – rhythm guitar, bass (2016–present)
     Luke Griffin – bass, guitar (2017–present)

Former members:
     Nokie Edwards – lead guitar, bass guitar (1960–1968, 1972–1985; as guest 1999–2016; died 2018)
     Howie Johnson – drums (1960–1962; died 1988)
     Skip Moore (1960) –  session drummer
     Mel Taylor – drums (1962–1973, 1979–1996; died 1996)
     Gerry McGee – guitar (1968–1972, 1985–2017; died 2019)
     John Durrill – keyboards (1968–1972)
     Sandy Lee Gornicki – keyboards (1968)
     Joe Barile – drums (1973–1979)
     Dave Carr – keyboards (1973–1974)
     Biff Vincent – keyboards (1975–1976)
     J.D. Hoag - guitar (1981–1982)     

One day in 1958 Bob Bogle was looking to buy a used car. It was the  used car dealership,The Bargain Spot in Seattle,Washington.that Bogle first met Don Wilson Don Wilson. Wilson was working at the lot owned by his father's as  mechanic refurbishing cars during the day and as a salesman in the in the evenings. It was while showing Bogle cars who would end-up buying a 1957 Hudson Horner, that the two would find they both shared a common interest in guitars. That being the case the two decided to start playing together  Later Wilson quit working at the lot and join Bogle working at Sahara Waterproofing where Wilson was a foreman. They then went out and bought two used guitars in a pawn shop for about $10 each. The duo began playing at small clubs, beer bars, and private parties throughout the Pacific Northwest. Wilson would play rhythm guitar, Bogle lead. When they went to register the band name The Versatones, but found that a New York group had already taken the name.. Disappointed, they cast about for an appropriate name. Wilson's mother Josie reasoned since they were venturing into a new career why not all yourselves  Upon agreeing on The Venures name they registered the name with Bob, Don and Josie as partners in 1959.

Bill Wiley and Grover Jackson were a popular entertainment team that hosted a popular TV show on Tacoma's KTNT. Regular watchers of the show, one week Bob and Don heard of an it announcement that Bill and Grover Variety Show would be holding a talent contest, of which the winner of the contest would get to appear live on. As fate would have it, not only did they win the contest but they met fellow contestant  Nokie Edwards at the event. After watching  Edwards play, they recruited him as the group's bass player. It was while recruiting Edwards they signed up Skip Moore, with whom they had played with at nearly a dozen contests. Working at the family's service station, Moore told the group he could only work part-time. Don offered the twenty-one-year old drummer an equal share of the any record revenue, but with no faith in percentage deals, Moore for the current three-hour session rate of $25.

 After winning the contest the pair decided the group needed a stage name. Since both worked in construction, played others tunes, and traded off between lead and rhythm guitar. Seeing how versatile they were they decided to call themselves The Versatones. When they went to register the band name The Versatones, found that a New York group had already taken the name.. Disappointed, they cast about for an appropriate name. Wilson's mother Josie reasoned since they were venturing into a new career why not all yourselves  Upon agreeing on The Venures name they registered the name with Bob, Don and Josie as partners in 1959.

Soon, the group was in a recording studio playing the new song with Bogle on lead, Wilson on rhythm, Edwards on bass, and Skip Moore on drums. They pressed a number of 45s, which they distributed to several record companies. Later, Skip Moore opted out of the group to work at his family's gas station When "Walk, Don't Run" was recorded, he also opted out of the royalties from the recording, taking $25 for the session instead He later sued to collect royalties but failed because of his prior opt-out. "Walk, Don't Run" sold over one million copies,and was awarded a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Needing a permanent drummer for the group after George Babbitt dropped out because he was not old enough to play night clubs and bars, they hired Howie Johnson. Babbitt went on to become a 4-star general in the United States Air Force  The group found early success with a string of singles, but quickly became leaders in the album market.

Their first demo of  "Walk Don't Run" was sent to various record companies. Receiving no response, Wilson's mother Josie released it on her own Blue Horizon label. "Walk Don't Run"was picked up for distribution by Dolton Records (distributed by Liberty), the group re-named, and became an instant regional hit in 1960. In August 1960 "Walk Don't Run" became a #2 hit. The Ventures followed it with a rock version of "Ghost Riders in the Sky, then "Perfidia, "Lullaby of the Leaves," "Diamond Head," and 2,000 Pound Bee," all which were hits through the early and mid-Sixties.

A few months after Walk-Don't Run became a smash hit, Skip Moore's lawyer threatened a lawsuit, attempting to obtain a quarter of the record's sales revenue. A simple letter from the venture's lawyer that bedore the recordind session the Moore had knowing;y rights to anything more than the standard fee setled the isue. Rhe Ventures never heard from them again, but a few years later delivering the news that he had died from cancer.

In the wake of the success of Walk Don't Run, Wilson and Bogle left their jobs in the building industry to pursue music full time. The group issued a cover of Perfidia, a Latin song that had been made popular by Alberto Dominguez in 1939. Perfidia reached #15.

Classic Venture Line-Up
(l to r) Bob Bogle, Nokie Edwards, Mel Taylor, Don Wilson

In September of 1962 Johnson was replaced by Mel Taylor after he was hurt in an automobile accident and left the group. Hits kept coming with versions of "The Lonely Bull" and "I Walk the Line" in 1963 and a top ten surf remake of "Walk Don't Run" in 1964. In 1965 they released what was one of the first instructional records, Play Guitar with the Ventures.

In 1963, Edwards suggested that Bogle's lead guitar abilities were being stretched, and that they were in essence wasting Edwards' talents by keeping him on bass. Bogle agreed, and rapidly learned the bass parts to all their tunes, allowing Edwards to take lead guitar full-time.  This move would prove vital in modernizing the band's sound, ensuring success in an ever-changing market well into the late 1960s.

In 1967 Edwards was replaced by Jerry McGee, who left in 1970 to record with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, after which Edwards returned. By that time keyboardist John Durrill had expanded the Ventures to a quintet and the group had delved into fuzz-tone and wah-wah guitar modification as well blues, calypso, and Latin material.

Taylor left at one point and formed his own group, Mel Taylor and the Dynamics, but later returned to the group. Some of the artists who worked as guests or session players with the Ventures in the 60's included Leon Russell, Harvey Mandel, and David Gates.

Ventures 1996

In 1969 the Ventures had a hit with a version of the theme from the TV show Hawaii Five-O. In 1981, with Bogle, Wilson, Edwards, and Taylor, they released a regional West Coast single "Surfin' and Spyin,'" and embarked on a successful tour of the U.S. and Japan. 

At Rock Hall of Fame induction
(l-r) John Durrill, Don Wilson, Nokie Edwards, Leon Taylor, Bob Spalding, Fiona Taylor

On March 10, 2008, the Ventures were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with John Fogerty as their presenter. In attendance were original members Don Wilson and Nokie Edwards, late 1960s member John Durrill, current guitarist Bob Spalding, and current drummer Leon Taylor, son of Mel Taylor who, along with Mel Taylor's widow, Fiona, accepted on behalf of the Ventures' late drummer. Bob Bogle and Gerry McGee were unable to attend the ceremony. Fiona Taylor gave special mention to her husband's predecessor drummers Skip Moore and Howie Johnson. The Ventures performed their biggest hits, "Walk, Don't Run" and "Hawaii Five-O", augmented on the latter by Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame musical director Paul Shaffer and his band.

The Ventures enjoyed their greatest popularity and success in the US and Japan in the 1960s, but they continue to perform and record. With over 110 million   albums sold worldwide, the group remains the best selling instrumental rock group of all time. Thirty-eight Ventures albums (including a seasonal Christmas album) charted in the US, and six of fourteen chart singles made it into the Top 40, with three making it into the Top 10. Of their 38 chart albums, 34 of them occurred in the 1960s , and the Ventures rank as the 6th best pop album performer for that decade, according to "Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Albums".

Ventures 2012
(L-R) Ian Spalding, Leon Taylor, Don Wilson, Gerry McGee

Bob Bogle lived in Vancouver, Washington, for years and died there on June 14, 2009, of non-Hodgkin lymphoma; he was 75
Nokie Edwards died on March 12, 2018, due to complications after hip surgery. He was 82.
Gerry McGee died on October 12, 2019, after collapsing onstage four days earlier in Japan. He was 81.
Don Wilson continued to record with the band, but retired from touring at the end of 2015. He died of natural causes on January 22, 2022, at the age of 88.
Mel Taylor died on August 11, 1996, of cancer, at the age of 62. He was diagnosed just two weeks before his death.
Josie Wilson passed away at age of 91 on February 19, 2007.

The Ventures were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008