Director: Staci Layne Wilson

Plot: Documentary film on the #1 instrumental rock group in the world, The Ventures. The story of their rise to fame in the 1960s right up to now, as they celebrate their 60th anniversary of playing the best guitar-rock of all time.

Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: The Ventures: Stars on Guitars starts as we get to see how the members of the band Don Wilson and Bob Bogle met and started to bring their own band of music, one which will see them getting a female producer Josie Cotton, which broke the barriers, and see how the band started to gain attention within the music industry.

When the band found their sound joined by Nokie Edwards on guitar, they band became one of the biggest instrumental bands in the industry, challenging The Beatles for popularity, with a style of music transcending language.

Thoughts on The Ventures: Stars on Guitars

Thoughts – Going into this documentary, I can honestly say, I had never heard of The Ventures, seeing the news they outsold The Beatles grabbed my attention and stepping into this movie with the plans to learn about the band. We are not disappointed because we get the full history of how The Ventures managed to recreate songs to appeal to a bigger audience, using the music over the lyrics to appeal to wider audiences. We see how they competed with the biggest names in music through the 1960s, The Beatles, Elvis and still having admirers in the modern era of music that has given musicians the idea to try and recreate the songs of previous artists. We do get into a true technical talk on how the band created different sounds, which will appeal to the true musician out there, but it could go into too much details for people who are more into listening, over playing.

Final Thoughts – The Ventures: Stars on Guitars is a documentary that will highlight one of the most influential bands in music history.

DVD/VOD Release Date: 12/8/20