Wedding Bands - A 'Wipe Out' Venture

Were you born in the 70s or earlier? If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, weddings (especially the Catholic ones) were very different from what they are today - in more ways than one.

Being one of six siblings, the only weddings that we attended as an entire family were those in the immediate family. In other cases where the family was invited - maybe one or maximum two of us would accompany Mum and Dad to the wedding. And the main reason that I liked to attend weddings was to listen to the band play. And rock n roll to tunes like Hawaii Five-O.

  
And this was the typical sound and even look of the Mumbai bands. Three of four guitar and maybe, a keyboardist plus a female crooner. They would play the popular tunes of the day and keep the party moving and shaking, and walking hand in hand as they played their tunes including the marches where you had to Walk Don't Run.

Another thing different at weddings was the food service. Dinner would be served in a plate including a mayonnaise salad, puffs or croquets and the most delightful of all deviled eggs.

The bands has some delightful names. In an earlier post I mentioned Crimson Rage. Among others I remember one that sounded like food dish - Blue Buttercups. There was one that went on through to the nineties - named after a drink and this tune - Tequila.

Some of the bands were inspired by the band featured here - The Ventures and another one called Bonnaventures - combining the Ventures with the bandleaders name - Boney. Well, the inpiration behind this post is the music of the Ventures that I was checking out to post today on the 80th birthday of Don Wilson, one of the guitarists. 

I've had my own fun times in the band, spending entire Sundays jamming up, working out new songs, tunes, sequences, voices with Blending Stars and Blend. Followed many updates on other bands in town. Have heard of bands breaking up and forming new associations for a whole lot of reasons including Perfidia  (Spanish for faithlessness and betrayal).

Another reason for the decline of bands has been the entry of electronic sounds and sequencing machines that saw the Wipe Out of the clean sound that you hear on all these videos here. 

Did that music make you nostalgic? 

What do you remember about the band scene? 

What were your favorite bands? 

What were the favorite songs they played?