The Venturers Again

Description

The Venturers Again is a four-track 7-inch vinyl EP by the British gospel beat group The Venturers, independently released on Venturers Recordings in 1963.

The EP features Doug Hollidge (Lead Vocals, Clarinet), Mike Wood (Lead Guitar), Don Kilbride (Rhythm Guitar), John Thompson (Bass), and Ken Wolfe (Drums). Backing Vocals provided by Keith Clarke, Phil Gouldson, Richard Soar, and Roger Watkins.

In 1963 the group recorded and released another EP, ‘The Venturers Again!’. Commented Doug [Hollidge], “We rather cheekily put it out under a black cover with no picture. We were not trying to upstage the Beatles, but we thought, ‘Why can’t we?’ On that one, there were four songs – the traditional spiritual «Go Down, Moses»; the traditional gospel song «Just A Closer Walk With Thee»; another traditional, «O Sinner Man»; and a final song that Mike wrote called «God Cares For You», which became a favourite song on the campaign work we were doing. Mike [Wood], when he came into the group with his new style, challenged us in the way we were doings things: it became an electric sound, where before that it was Spanish guitars, whatever. Our first amplifier was made by one of the group – a huge, great coffin of a thing we used to carry around with us; but in Mike’s time, totally electrified. I think when Mike was leaving Spurgeon’s, and when I was leaving the college, the group said, ‘Two major contributors are no longer going to be with us’; and I have to say, a lot of energy had been put into the group activity.” So in 1965 The Venturers came to an end. [Excerpt from Tony Cummings’ article “The Venturers: Britain’s pioneers of contemporary Christian music”, featured on Cross Rhythms, 12th August 2015]

7-inch vinyl EP tracklist:

Side One
A1. “Go Down Moses”
A2. “Just A Closer Walk”

Side Two
B1. “Sinnerman”
B2. “God Cares For You”

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