The Vynes were formed during the summer of 1966 by combining the rest of The Living Ends,
John Guill from a great band called The Disciples, and a total in-crowd
pretty boy named Randy Schum, who just happened to be a great lead singer.
The Vynes were John Guill on lead Telecaster,
Mark Groenke on the Rickenbacker 12-string,
Gary Baldwin on the Fender bass, Dave Dieter on drums,
and Randy Schum on vocals.
(The Vynes consisted of)
John Guill - lead guitar, vocals, songwriter;
Mark Groenke - rhythm guitar;
Gary Balwin - bass guitar, vocals, songwriter;
Dave Dieter - drums; Randy Schum - lead vocals. Then Randy was replaced by me (Victor Wells) on lead vocals;
Gary was replaced by Chuck Bill on bass and vocals; and Steve Lawroski was added on organ.
60s: How would you describe the band's sound? What bands influenced you?
GB: The Vynes were heavily influenced by The Beatles and The Byrds, primarily,
but covered the hits by The Kinks, The Animals, The Hollies, The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds,
The Nashville Teens
—we all pooled our resources and bought one of the only Rickenbacker Model 360-12 electric 12-string guitars in the area,
and were able to cover The Beatles and Byrds thoroughly. The Rick also figured heavily in the 4-5 original songs we performed.
VW: The Beatles and The Byrds were certainly the big influences. We also loved The Who, The Hollies and The Kinks.
We used a Rickenbacher 12-string, so the sound was very jangley, with lots of vocal harmony - as many parts as we could possibly stack.
When I joined the band, we also began to explore the soul end of things, with Wison Pickett material and such.
http://www.60smuseum.org/NL13.htmMaybe Jessica could fill us in on their father's music history?