instrumental explosion

[abstamaria]

It is still a mystery to me that four-piece instrumental bands, or "combos" as we called them, erupted suddenly in 1960 like some biological species that merged spontaneously and spread rapidly across the world. In March 1960, the Ventures recorded Walk Don't Run, in June the Shadows followed suit with Apache, and teenagers across the globe picked up electric guitars.

What paved the way here in the islands was not radio, as there were no radio shows here broadcast from abroad, For me, it was the new stereo console that arrived at home one day in the late 1950s - "stereophonic" was new then. I listened to American guitarists Tony Motola and Al Caiola. The latter's album Italian Guitars, released January 1 1960, was a favorite. In one of the album covers, Caiola said the electric guitar was here to stay.

And there was Neil Levang on Lawrence Welk's TV show. In later years, he would sport sparkling new Jazzmasters and Jaguars, the stuff of my dreams. And of course we heard Duane Eddy.

Following the crackdown in the US in the late 1950s on rock-and-roll (and that day when the music died), pop music became sweeter, less rebellious, and "safer" in the eyes of conservative Americans. Pat Boone, Ricky Nelson, and so on became popular. Perhaps that contributed to the rise of instrumental combo music.

But it still an interesting mystery to me why the genre suddenly appeared with much success in 1960. The Ventures and the Shadows probably had never heard of each other then, but their sound, so different from each other, was heard 'round the world. The Ventures by the way can be credited with popularizing the genre here, and it is their music remembered most by non-musicians. In any case, like some biological strain, the genre morphed in 1964 and disappeared from the general audience's attention. It is nevertheless still pursued by folks like us!

Andy

[Uncle Fiesta]

It is still a mystery to me that four-piece instrumental bands, or "combos" as we called them, erupted suddenly in 1960 like some biological species that merged spontaneously and spread rapidly across the world ...

Andy

Not to me. Instro music appeared because people were getting fed up with listening to, or playing, rock and roll - and frankly I can't blame them.

It got replaced for the same reason, something better came along. Unlike these days, when pop 'music' just gets worse with every iteration.

[GoldenStreet]

"5 O'Clock Club" was the final version of what was essentially the same ITV (Rediffusion) weekly childrens' magazine programme. It started as "Lucky Dip" sometime around 1959, with hosts Muriel Young and Neville Whiting* and regular appearances by Bert Weedon, who not only played, but also explained, the pieces he was performing. In 1961, the format changed slightly and its title was changed to "Tuesday Rendezvous". Bert composed and played a new theme tune for this format. He played it on air and asked for suggestions from viewers for a title. The winning entry was for China Doll and there was some prize for the successful correspondent. That programme carried on into the mid-1960s, when the format was changed into a twice-weekly show by the title "5 O'Clock Club". There was a new theme song, which had the not-quite Larry Hart-standard lyrics (sung by children on the session):

5 O'Clock Club - Da dah da da
5 O'Clock Club - Da dah da da
5 O'Clock Club - Da dah da da
Tuesday, Friday, 5 O'Clock Club.

Apart from Howard Williams (Lucky Dip, etc.) and numerous other presenters over the years, I recall the actress, Louie Ramsay in Five O'Clock Club, who a good few years later appeared in Ruth Rendell's Wexford stories as the wife of the eponymous detective (and also married in real life to actor, George Baker.)

A Shadows connection here, of course, is Brian Bennett, composer of the Wexford theme tune.

Bill

[JJMMWG DuPree]

I seem to have followed the same course as most people. In my case it started with a 10/6d Bakelite ukulele, which I thought was a guitar. I was saving up for it at 6d a week, I'd reached 5 bob when mum took pity on me and gave me the rest (Then showed me the four chord trick). Dad was a classical and big band jazz aficionado, but in the piano stool he had a bunch of 'standards' songbooks and I soaked up all the fancy chords from the ukulele symbols in the way kids do.

I grew up a bit and after a load of pestering mum bought me a £6 second hand guitar. Within microseconds of dad tuning it I figured out that if the top strings of the guitar were the same as the uke and the top and bottom strings were the same, all I had to do was to work out what notes would fit on the 5th string...

Within days I became the village's answer to Lonnie Donegan, and there it would have remained if one day, on the radio, I hadn't heard Duane Eddy. Once again, using childhood logic, I worked out that the reason he sounded so good while all the others didn't, was that he was using lower notes than all the lesser guitarists, so, I reasoned, the way to sound so good was to make sure that the lowest note in whatever you're playing was bottom E. So firmly did I believe it that I can't help it, I still do it to this day. The first time this proved to be a problem was when I was asked, by one of those inferior guitarists, to play rhythm for him. He started playing 'Walk, Don't Run' in Am, only to discover that the rhythm guitarist was playing it in F#m.

Over the years I did become quite a good guitarist, but with old age comes arthritis and I'm starting to go the same way as my peers. I comfort myself with the thought that I will soon be as good as Santana, Jimmy Page, Les Paul... Just not Duane Eddy.