There was a contest on a local AM station back in the early 60's and my high school "won" the Astronauts for one of our dances. Too cool for school. I also spoke with Rich Fifield a while back, who is in the Denver area. Very nice guy and had some wild stories. I am now a 60 year old drummer in a local "Surf" and still think the Astronuts were one of the all time greats.
Rich Fifield on lead..the Jazzmaster, The two rhythms, Jaguars, are Bob Demon and Dennis Lindsey, both now deceased. Bass is Stormy Paterson and on Drums Jim Gallagher.
I agree...I prefer the Astronauts' version of "Let's Go Trippin" to the legendary Dick Dale's version even though he wrote and first recorded it and "Baja" stands with the best of the surf tunes by any group...
I love this early 1960's Surf instrumental band and I love this song ALOT ! The Astronauts were one of the best Surf rock bands back in the early-mid 1960's and they are still # 1 to me ! 😏
I just turned 70 today. Saw a bumper sticker 'I may be old but I saw all the good bands". Yep, I did. Janis, Jim, Jimmy...sadly gone but also saw these guys several times. I am from Colorado and a local radio station had a promotion that whatever school sent in the most postcards requesting the Astronauts for their school dance would win them for such. Unbelievably my high school let us sit in class and fill out cards...we won..
Yo, I just saw this. Bro, Im 75 in a few days. Man, we saw the top bands as we hit the surf. WE surfed, danced and just lived with them. I had my own band and we rode the wild surf. Let this be the cry, Ride the wild surf, cowabunga.
Great Video. I've been playing The Astronauts on my radio show for years! They put the Reverb in Reverb ! Whenever I play their music, the studio speakers at the station shake! One of the greatest surf bands of all time, if not THE greatest!
Indeed he is. He is still here in Colorado and I spoke with him a year or two back. Just listened to their "Live" at Tulagis and Baja albums yesterday and his drumming on those knocked me out.
WOW...I remember The Astronauts when they played at Kearney State College (Nebraska) in 1963 or 1964 before a HUGE crowd and also at the Kearney Airport a year or so later. I was a sophomore or junior in college and before the airport performance they were drinking beer, talking to us and they had brought a couple of college-age black girls with them from Boulder. Rich Fifield was the "cool" guy in the group and I have their CD Surfin' With The Astronauts"! Best song...KUK.
The ultimate Big Eight party band! Saw them at an interfraternity dance in Lincoln when we were still high school - the auditorium was full and they ROCKED!
The Astronauts. Loved the matching Olympic white Fenders (Jazz Bass, Jazzmaster and two Jaguar guitars). They also had all matching Fender blonde Tolex covered Fender amps not shown on this video but on an earlier album cover. So, so cool!
Thing I remember the most about The Astronauts on stage around 63' in front of a crowd of a couple thousand at Kearney State College was the four twanging guitars lead by Rich Fifield and the big drivin' beat of Jim Gallagher their young drummer. It was a time of C.U., Tulogi's, Estes Park, The Sink, girls, beer and cool guys in the band. Stormy was like the jock, Bob the slightly older cool guy and Denny the steady one. The KSC college kids loved them in person and they were cool!
along with the surfaris,the Astronauts were one of my fave instro bands at that time and "fire water" was the first track i;d ever heard of them off "Surf Party" album if my memory serves me well??they had a great "Wet" sound the lp was;nt up to much but at the time worth buying 4 the two Astronauts tunes/good to hear again//
"Here are the astronauts with firewater here on wilk-radio am 910 scranton am 980 wilkes-barre am 1300 hazleton & 103.1fm circa summer-1986 memories are made of this 🇺🇸🎸📻.
Both of their "Live" albums.. Club Baja and Tulagi's are favorites. Not many instrumentals but some great classic vocal tunes. Perfect for chugging down that 3.2 beer.
The Astronauts were as good as The Ventures, I think. But The Ventures were the ones who really brought this sound together, even though they did not invent it. That would be Dick Dale, California transplant from Quincy, MA. There were a lot of bands doing this in the early 60's. I grew up on it and it still resonates with kids today, if they give it a chance. It's the raw energy of it all. Let's face it: The Ventures were not kids when they started. They were in their twenties and already accomplished guitarists. In fact they didn't consider themselves a "surf" band, and they weren't from California, either. The greatest instrumental band of all time really figured how to make a small band sound big, with rhythm AND lead guitar. They started the trend for self contained guitar rock & roll bands. The Greatest!
apparently this number and many of their others were recorded i a BIG studio at RCA...........hence the natural reverb on top of those old spring units {thank god we can achieve the same for much less cost these days]
The more I hear bands like The Astronauts, or even Chicchi with Sweet Pappa, the more I'm becoming a sucker for the certain umph of a band having 3 guitars, bass and drums!
Best surf sound IMO. The bassy tone they got down onto record, the relentless reverb-drenched rhythm guitar, that trademark Jaguar lead sound, and classic drums. I had no idea they were from Colorado! Check out their surf album! Thanks for posting. C
..wow, what's ur dad doin these days, i think he's just a few years older than me now! Some of these old surf bands are back together playin on the West coast today, the Vara-Tones are a good example of a group that played together in the 60's and are back together & doin what they love best, playin the 'surf sound' the way it used to be played!
Rich is your Dad? I live in Denver area and saw the Astronauts live several times. I play in a local surf band which covers a number of their songs and spoke to Rich a couple of times last year... great guy. Yes, I have copies of all the movies they were in and plan on adding more some day.
I've been looking for the names of their movies so I can get hold them. I have "The Surf Party", bought it just for the Astronauts clip. Can you maybe list the others here?
Just scored the Surf Party original soundtrack on vinyl from my dad's collection. Easily one of the coolest records I own now--purely for Firewater off side 1, and the whole of side 2 with JImmie Haskel and The Routers.
Looks like a frat house party! Many frat houses had live bands on Friday and Saturday nights. Those good old days when going to college was fun in a unique way.
Yeah, drummer got a bit the Gus Grissom looks, one of the astronauts that perished while doing his job. Space definetely was a source of inspiration, you also had the Spotnicks, and probably the Gemini's or Mercuries ?
Doesn't "Surfin' With" have the song "Kuk"? I remember liking that one, so silly. Is that possibly the weirdest job of miming a band has done on film? The drummer in particular seems to be having a muscle spasm.
