Born and raised in East Syracuse, New York, Richard "Dick" Virginia AKA Richard Venture began to play guitar at 12 years old. His first musical influence was the driving guitar sounds of The Ventures.
A few years later The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix had made their mark and Richard again took their music to heart and his style of musicianship followed. By this time, he was playing the Central New York area with a popular band called “Unity”.
As the years passed, Richard was involved with many musical projects with the most prominent being with the surf instrumental group,” The Woodys”. Their hit song Shark Attack was featured in the surf compilation CD, "Surfing Sundays" released in conjunction with the Huntington Beach Surfing Museum.
Two more recording projects were to follow with the groups “Stingray” and “Surfquake”, who opened for the Beach Boys in 2002. During this time, Richard also befriended his childhood legends Don Wilson , Nookie Edwards, and Bob Bogle of” The Ventures” along with the King of Surf himself, Dick Dale.
In 2004, Richard had an opportunity to join a project dedicated to the music of the Beatles. Unlike other “tribute bands” “Ticket2Ride”, as the band is named, is dedicated to the sound and feel of the music, with visual duplication of the equipment used without the typical Beatles garb. Richard's contribution is to present the image of the late great George Harrison. Richard feels that this bands purpose is to bring alive the music of the most influential band of the century and share with the new generation as well as the old. His love of instrumental and surf music is still evident today.
He currently plays guitar in a classic rock band, "The Arrangements" and a country bluegrass band, "Coyote" and the "Mighty Delta Tones". Dick resides in La Quinta, California with his wife, Holly, of 20 years.
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