Pier fund-raiser: ‘honest-to-gosh, hard-core’ surf music.

The day after huge flames swept across the Redondo Beach pier, destroying much of it, John English took pictures of the blackened planks and smoldering wooden pillars that remained.

“I looked at the devastation and on that day I decided to do something,” said the co-owner of Go Boy Records in Redondo Beach.

At the time, English and his partner, Alan Ostroff, had been thinking of trying to reunite several 1960s South Bay surf bands. “So we decided this would be a great opportunity to combine the reunion with a fund-raiser,” English said.

After “several hundred phone calls” and hours of pounding the pavement to raise donations, English and Ostroff organized Surf Band Reunion ‘88, a benefit concert for the reconstruction of the pier.

The Sept. 25 bash at The Strand, a Redondo Beach club, will feature four original surf bands from the early 60s: The Belairs, The Packards, The Halibuts and Eddie and the Showmen. To make the atmosphere complete, the party will include surfing films, classic cars, surfboards, barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers, and surfing memorabilia.

“The only thing missing is the sand,” quipped English.

Nearly all production costs for the fund-raiser have been donated, including housing for the bands while they are in town, printing for the advertisements and decorations for the concert hall, Ostroff said.

Dozens of door prizes donated by Redondo Beach businesses will be given out during the 5 1/2-hour party.

English and Ostroff, who hope to raise about $10,000 toward the reconstruction, have contributed about $1,600 from their own pockets.

“We do not expect to be reimbursed,” said English.

“This is a dream come true for us to get these bands together,” added Ostroff.

The men, who have organized a few other benefits in the past, including a fund-raiser for the South Bay Free Clinic, turned down contributions by corporations and big businesses because “we wanted this to be a grass-roots thing,” Ostroff said.

“We figured that the pier would be rebuilt either with taxpayers’ money or with community involvement,” Ostroff said. “We think this is the best form of community involvement.”

Ostroff and English were never devoted surfers themselves. Ostroff said that when he was young he rode a few waves and had a surfboard strapped to the top of his car, “but it was mostly to impress the babes.”

English said he, too, tried surfing for a while but admits that he spent most of his time just hanging around on the sand.

But although English and Ostroff didn’t have a hunger for surfing, they did acquire a taste for surf music.

While growing up in the South Bay, both men devotedly attended the Friday and Saturday night surf music concerts in such clubs as The Reveler and The Belair in Redondo Beach. “That’s where everyone hung out and did their thing,” English said.

According to the two longtime South Bay residents, in the early ‘60s the featured bands at these clubs originated surf music. Bands such as The Belairs, featuring local guitarist Paul Johnson, were the first to introduce “twin guitars,” a technique of using two guitars to play one lead melody in unison. These bands also introduced vibrato and reverberation to the guitar sound.

Later, bands such as the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean “wrote songs about surfing, but that wasn’t surf music,” he said. “This is the real, honest-to-gosh, hard-core stuff,” in which the music is mostly instrumental and very upbeat.

The band members, who have split up and gone their separate ways, agreed to the reunion because they all grew up in the South Bay and want to see the pier rebuilt, English said.

The age limit at The Strand, which is usually 21 years or older, has been dropped to 18 to allow the younger crowd in as well, English said.

English and Ostroff expect the concert to attract all types including those who have no interest in surf music but want to see the pier rebuilt.

“There are going to be a lot of people who don’t know what surf music is,” English said. “We think they are going to love it.”

“It’s going to be fun,” he said. “Just like the Beach Boys song says: fun, fun, fun. “