Bill Spence

“Lips that touch liquor will never play here.” That quote may sound a little awkward, but Bill Spence really said it and he really meant it. His stated goal in the 1960s and ‘70s was to provide Boston-area youth with venues that were clean, wholesome and completely alcohol-free. And two out of three really ain’t bad.

Spence made a valiant effort to enforce his no-booze edict, and more than a few bands were forced to replace a player before being allowed to take the stage at his Surf Ballrooms in Hull (on Nantasket Beach), Hyannis and Salisbury. Resourceful local musicians found ways (and substances) to get around the rule, naturally, and Spence lost the battle soon after he began booking national acts. Still, each of The Surf venues remained as close to drug-free and safe as parents could reasonably hope for a rock ‘n’ roll environment in the ‘60s and ‘70s, because William J. Spence truly was a man of principle.

When he died at age 85 on May 10, 2015, he was remembered in one obituary as “a visionary [who] had the courage to stand up for what he believed” and a man who “made the world a better place.” A decorated Navy officer who served in the Korean War, he spent six years in the Massachusetts Legislature and twice sponsored bills that raised the Commonwealth’s minimum wage. He taught confirmation classes to teens at Resurrection Church in South Hingham for 50 years and was the founder and president of Massachusetts Bay Lines, the first commuter boats to offer South Coast residents an alternative to the daily gridlock that was – and still is – Route 3A.

And as much as anyone, Spence was instrumental in guiding New England through the changing music scene that followed the onslaught of the British Invasion. Early on, he brought The Beach Boys, Sonny & Cher and dozens of other stars to The Surf in Nantasket. A ticket from September 1961 shows that young rockers could see and hear Del Shannon singing “Runaway” and “Hats Off To Larry” live for just $1.00. The production was so low-budget that the singer’s name was misspelled as “Gel” and nobody caught the mistake.

Influenced by the glittering global success of Brian Epstein and his Fab Four, Spence contracted to bring a British quintet called The Rolling Stones to the United States in the fall of 1965, when The Rockin’ Ramrods were Surfs’ house band. He had all the members of the Boston-based group wear Beatle boots and Beatle suits and sent them off with the Stones on a tour of North America that took the continent by storm. Back home, bands including The Mods, The Pilgrims, The Techniques and The Tidal Waves worked The Surf, opening for acts ranging from The Barbarians to The Doors. Though Spence lost his financial shirt when he promoted/sponsored the first major integrated concert tour of the Deep South, the event wasn’t about money for him; it was about deeply held principles of equality, and often cited his father’s maxim: “You are not one bit better than anyone else, nor one bit worse.”

As a young Harvard graduate, Spence married Wilma Collins, who was a fashion model for Jordan Marsh department stores at the time, and they were partners for 62 years in marriage and in business. He called her “Precious” and she joined him in final repose on October 3, 2015, less than five months after he passed away. All the Surf locations have been gone for decades, but fond memories linger for hundreds of musicians and thousands upon thousands of grey-haired and/or balding former teeny-boppers. They can thank Bill Spence for a great many of those memories.

(by Richard Mattulina)