Bandstand Stories

A Little Help From One's Friends by Hector Bourg Jr.

One night in 1982 the SJO was engaged to play for a special fundraiser. The event was to be held in an airplane hanger at Peachtree-Dekalb Airport in suburban Atlanta. This was a "Battle of the Bands" booking...with the SJO on one side of the hanger and our main competitor (another 17-piece band) on the other. Members of both bands were all "pumped up" and eager to show each other just how it should be done. (Yes...the eternal mystery of testosterone...with a big band twist!)

We played our set and felt pleased with our effort. The other band was to start immediately after the end of our set, and in that manner we would alternate for the entire gig.

Just as the other band was about to kick off its first tune, the drummer shifted his stool just a bit, not realizing he was perilously close to the edge of the temporary, elevated stage. Before anyone realized what was happening he tipped over backwards and fell nearly eight feet to the concrete floor! He landed in such a way as to injure his right ankle severely enough to end his playing for the night.

Mike O'Hara, then SJO's drummer, volunteered to sit in for his injured colleague. Mike played the entire four-hour gig with no rest, shuttling between the two bandstands!

Competition is one thing, but the music is everything!

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