Happy New Year!

Amazingly, it seems, we are heading into 2026.
It feels like last year just skipped by fast. First it was spring and flowers were starting to come out, and then it was 4th of July, and then fall was here, and now the last day of 2025 has arrived.
I am looking forward to the new year, spring coming in a few months, and seeing what the future holds for us.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, Everyone ! I am SO happy that our SOC is back again !
 
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It was early evening on New Years Eve, 1978. My band, The Generic Band, was setting up to play a six hour show at a Sorority House I no longer remember the name of, at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia. It was our third time playing there, so we sort of knew what to expect. It was a lot like Auburn, Alabama, where my partner in our company and fellow guitarist in the band, Gary and I lived at the time.

We played in a lot of colleges and universities, but we particularly liked this place as the area was teeming with Allman Brothers Band fans, and we played their arrangements of a lot of old blues songs. We also played some Cream versions as well, like "Outside Woman Blues" and "Born Under a Bad Sign." As we were setting up, the House Mother came over an welcomed us. And she said those magic words that the young rock and rollers in the band loved to hear, "Beer is on the house."

After we did a short sound check, we left and went to Denny's, our favorite restaurant at the time, for breakfast. It was dinner time for everyone else that was there. To everyone else, it was 6:30 PM, but for us it was 6:30 AM. We had started telling people that our digital clock's AM/PM light was backwards. When we got back to the Sorority House it was 7:30 and people were already starting to show up. By 8:00 the crowd was up to about 500 people.

At 8:00 PM Gary started playing his solo intro and then we played "Statesboro Blues." We always started the shows there with it, as the song was named after the town. The first set was all fast paced blues rock, as usual mostly Allman Brothers Band originals and old blues songs. We were taking in easy on the free beer because we had added two more 50 minutes sets to the show for New Years. We got paid double for that. But by Midnight we were all quite drunk when the countdown commenced. "Happy New Year!"

After the fourth set was done, we went outside to cool off and have a smoke. It was then 1978 and we made joke about "New Year Resolutions." Suddenly we heard a loud argument going on near by. One of the guys in the band was hitting on a girl from the Sorority, and her boyfriend, a big football player was giving him a lesson on what you get when you start messing around with another guy's girlfriend. Some of our guys stepped in to try and defend him (or break it up, if you're optimistic), then more football players joined in. By the time a half an hour had gone by a third of the crew was on their way to jail for drunk and disorderly, another third was being taken to a hospital, and quite a bit of our gear was damaged or destroyed. To say the least, the show was over.

As the rest of us were packing up the rest of the gear and loading it all back in the truck as best we could with four people, the House Mother comes over and asked me what happened. I told her that an argument got out of hand and it turned into a brawl. We discussed it for about an hour and came to the conclusion it wasn't really anyone's fault, and was basically just two drunk people getting into a fight, then their friends join in. I told that it might be a good idea to not tell the band beer is on the house.

I asked her if we were ever going to be hired to play there again she said she saw no reason not to. We had been paid in advance, so I said thank you, next time I'll add a set because we owe you two. Then we went home. Over the next couple of weeks, we couldn't play anywhere because we were down two band members and missing some gear. At a band meeting after everyone was finally there, Gary and I told everyone that after that fiasco, drinking on the job was no longer allowed. Some of the players didn't like that and quit.

The gear was all insured and we finally had everything we needed to play again. About $25,000 worth of gear was replaced. You don't really think about that so much buying gear a little at a time, but when you have to replace a lot of stuff, all at once. It sticks out like a sore thumb. But in the end, we had also missed several shows, and because of how I had written our contracts with players we hired, we had to pay them the whole time. So we were very happy to be working again, with new players who were actually better than the ones who had quit. So the band was better off.

Now the reason I'm posting this today, is that I had my last beer, 48 years ago today at a few minutes after Midnight. (By normal people's clocks.) We played at that Sorority House several more times before both Gary and I had split up with our wives, and started playing one nighters on the road. We left Auburn, and only returned occasionally to visit family. (Gary's parents and my grandparents lived there.) In the course of our travels, we played in all but three states, Alaska, Hawaii and Maine. And we've traveled to all but Alaska and Hawaii.

Gary, my friend, if you happen to join this forum and read this post, the 20 years that we were on the road together, were some the happiest days of my life.
 
Axel Slingerland said:
It was early evening on New Years Eve, 1978. My band, The Generic Band, was setting up to play a six hour show at a Sorority House I no longer remember the name of, at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia. It was our third time playing there, so we sort of knew what to expect. It was a lot like Auburn, Alabama, where my partner in our company and fellow guitarist in the band, Gary and I lived at the time.

We played in a lot of colleges and universities, but we particularly liked this place as the area was teeming with Allman Brothers Band fans, and we played their arrangements of a lot of old blues songs. We also played some Cream versions as well, like "Outside Woman Blues" and "Born Under a Bad Sign." As we were setting up, the House Mother came over an welcomed us. And she said those magic words that the young rock and rollers in the band loved to hear, "Beer is on the house."

After we did a short sound check, we left and went to Denny's, our favorite restaurant at the time, for breakfast. It was dinner time for everyone else that was there. To everyone else, it was 6:30 PM, but for us it was 6:30 AM. We had started telling people that our digital clock's AM/PM light was backwards. When we got back to the Sorority House it was 7:30 and people were already starting to show up. By 8:00 the crowd was up to about 500 people.

At 8:00 PM Gary started playing his solo intro and then we played "Statesboro Blues." We always started the shows there with it, as the song was named after the town. The first set was all fast paced blues rock, as usual mostly Allman Brothers Band originals and old blues songs. We were taking in easy on the free beer because we had added two more 50 minutes sets to the show for New Years. We got paid double for that. But by Midnight we were all quite drunk when the countdown commenced. "Happy New Year!"

After the fourth set was done, we went outside to cool off and have a smoke. It was then 1978 and we made joke about "New Year Resolutions." Suddenly we heard a loud argument going on near by. One of the guys in the band was hitting on a girl from the Sorority, and her boyfriend, a big football player was giving him a lesson on what you get when you start messing around with another guy's girlfriend. Some of our guys stepped in to try and defend him (or break it up, if you're optimistic), then more football players joined in. By the time a half an hour had gone by a third of the crew was on their way to jail for drunk and disorderly, another third was being taken to a hospital, and quite a bit of our gear was damaged or destroyed. To say the least, the show was over.

As the rest of us were packing up the rest of the gear and loading it all back in the truck as best we could with four people, the House Mother comes over and asked me what happened. I told her that an argument got out of hand and it turned into a brawl. We discussed it for about an hour and came to the conclusion it wasn't really anyone's fault, and was basically just two drunk people getting into a fight, then their friends join in. I told that it might be a good idea to not tell the band beer is on the house.

I asked her if we were ever going to be hired to play there again she said she saw no reason not to. We had been paid in advance, so I said thank you, next time I'll add a set because we owe you two. Then we went home. Over the next couple of weeks, we couldn't play anywhere because we were down two band members and missing some gear. At a band meeting after everyone was finally there, Gary and I told everyone that after that fiasco, drinking on the job was no longer allowed. Some of the players didn't like that and quit.

The gear was all insured and we finally had everything we needed to play again. About $25,000 worth of gear was replaced. You don't really think about that so much buying gear a little at a time, but when you have to replace a lot of stuff, all at once. It sticks out like a sore thumb. But in the end, we had also missed several shows, and because of how I had written our contracts with players we hired, we had to pay them the whole time. So we were very happy to be working again, with new players who were actually better than the ones who had quit. So the band was better off.

Now the reason I'm posting this today, is that I had my last beer, 48 years ago today at a few minutes after Midnight. (By normal people's clocks.) We played at that Sorority House several more times before both Gary and I had split up with our wives, and started playing one nighters on the road. We left Auburn, and only returned occasionally to visit family. (Gary's parents and my grandparents lived there.) In the course of our travels, we played in all but three states, Alaska, Hawaii and Maine. And we've traveled to all but Alaska and Hawaii.

Gary, my friend, if you happen to join this forum and read this post, the 20 years that we were on the road together, were some the happiest days of my life.
Click to expand...
If you can contact Gary, by all means invite him to the forum, @Axel Slingerland !
 
Believe me, I've tried. I can find no trace of him or the band. I did however, find a band named The Generic Band, but it was definitely not my old band. (They were terrible...) I found Gary's ex, she lives in Tucker, Georgia. But she hasn't heard from him in years either. Much longer than me, actually. She hasn't changed much, she's still got that massive chip on her shoulder. I only talked to her one other time since 1984. She makes a bad attitude sound minor... :ROFLMAO:

Gary's parents are gone now so I can't talk to them and all I know about them is what his ex told me, which may or may not be accurate. She said that they retired from Auburn University and no longer live in Auburn. But even if it is true, it doesn't mean much, I don't live there anymore either. They would be somewhere around 95, IF they are still alive. If they are, they probably live in nursing home in Florida somewhere. I would love to talk to them, they are nice people.
 
Axel Slingerland said:
Believe me, I've tried. I can find no trace of him or the band. I did however, find a band named The Generic Band, but it was definitely not my old band. (They were terrible...) I found Gary's ex, she lives in Tucker, Georgia. But she hasn't heard from him in years either. Much longer than me, actually. She hasn't changed much, she's still got that massive chip on her shoulder. I only talked to her one other time since 1984. She makes a bad attitude sound minor... :ROFLMAO:

Gary's parents are gone now so I can't talk to them and all I know about them is what his ex told me, which may or may not be accurate. She said that they retired from Auburn University and no longer live in Auburn. But even if it is true, it doesn't mean much, I don't live there anymore either. They would be somewhere around 95, IF they are still alive. If they are, they probably live in nursing home in Florida somewhere. I would love to talk to them, they are nice people.
Click to expand...
Not to be morbid, but you can find a lot of people on the Find a Grave website. (They have to be dead, though.).
 
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