Just a mention, Nokie Edwards, lead guitar player for the Ventures, just passed away. The Ventures were an instrumental band who were huge in the '60's and began touring Japan about 1962. They inspired countless people to pick up the guitar and form bands.

The Ventures are still the most popular American rock group in Japan, the world's second largest record market. One oft-quoted statistic is that the Ventures outsold the Beatles 2-to-1 in Japan. They produced dozens of albums exclusively for the Japanese market, and have regularly toured Japan from the 1960s through to the present.

Great people on earth passed away this March. Stephen Hawking, Nokie Edwards and my grandma.

I was going to post something on this today because I was surprised to read in the obit that The Ventures had much success in Japan.  I never considered that before, but good for them.

This month the rock world also lost Russ Solomon (the founder of Tower Records) and Gary Burden (artist who created so many iconic album covers for The Doors, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, Eagles, and most notably, Neil Young).

@Metal Mickey
Sorry to hear about your grandmother.  My condolences to you and your family.

Don Dio wrote:I was going to post something on this today because I was surprised to read in the obit that The Ventures had much success in Japan.  I never considered that before, but good for them.

Yes, huge in Japan.

The Ventures pioneered guitar-powered instrumentals of the early 1960s with hits like “Walk, Don’t Run” and “The Lonely Bull.” Their popularity started to wane after The British Invasion and Beatlemania, so the group took off for Japan, where they have enjoyed phenomenal success that continues to this day.

The band first toured Japan in 1962 and their music helped start the “ereki” guitar craze among high school students that led to a nationwide shortage of electric guitars. By the time the Ventures returned to Japan in 1965, they were full-fledged superstars, outselling the Beatles 2-1. (In 1965, over 760,000 electric guitars were manufactured in Japan, a record that has yet to be broken.) Inspired by A Hard Day’s Night,The Ventures were signed to make a similar type of film, Beloved Invaders that would later air as TV special in 1966.

Beloved Invaders is a combination of live performances, footage of the band sightseeing, and several scenes that were obviously staged for dramatic effect. The Ventures did not have to bother with acting, the entire movie was dubbed into Japanese by professional voice actors. While it would have been nice to hear the band members speak in English, it doesn’t matter one bit, since there is absolutely no plot whatsoever.

It starts off showing Ventures 45s being manufactured at the record pressing plant  and then moves on to scenes of young ereki bands onstage imitating their heroes. The Ventures are mobbed by autograph-seeking fans of all ages wherever they go, and the tour takes them from Tokyo (10,000 people showed up at the airport to greet them) to Yokohama, Kyoto (the band visits temples while “House of the Rising Sun” plays in the background), Osaka and Hiroshima (where they try their hands at pachinko).

The Ventures have sold an astonishing 40 million albums in Japan, over half their total worldwide sales.
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Damn, sorry to hear that, I even have their live album recorded in Japan.
In the UK we had Cliff Richards backing group 'The Shadows' who also had many instrumental hits on their own. their 1960 hit "Apache" was even covered by 'The Ventures'

The Shadows also visited Japan in 1967 and I also have their Japanese album but I am old