This page features some of the various musical experiences I've had over the years. I plan to showcase a different story on a regular basis. So keep checking back. If you have comments, please send them my way. Contact me

Page Updated - May 27, 2008

Pool Party
by Kirk James

Like so many guitarists in high school, I played in a garage band. We played Hendrix, Rush, The Cars, Elvis Costello, Judas Priest, Deep Purple. Mainly it was myself on guitar, Jeff Johnston on bass and Phil Peeples (Ol' 97s) on drums. We always had more friends who would come jam with us. Occasionally Jeff Brown on guitar, who went on to play drums years later. Brian Markey played synthesizer and would show up from time to time with his buddy on guitar. No one really did much singing. We just played music and had fun doing it.

We always had friends who would come over just to listen and hang out. Most of the time we were playing at Phil's house as he lived down the street from Jeff. And being the drummer, Phil had more equipment than the rest of us, so his house worked out great.

As most garage bands, we were a very un-formal group. We didn't seem to have a name that I am for sure of. But I do remember something about The Urge, but stopped using it due to another band by that name.

Gary, one of our friends, was having a birthday party at his parent's house. It was summer and they had a pool. And a pool party in the summer heat of Texas usually had a big turn out of high school kids. This one was no exception.

Jeff, Phil and I were lined out to play this party for Gary. We practiced like we commonly did and worked hard to make the pool party appearance.

Gary's pool had a nice wooden platform at the deep end, which made for a great stage area. This was opposite of the house in the large backyard. Plenty of room for everyone to hang out while we were playing. This gave us an official stage area to perform on.

We were to play as long as we could or as long as we wanted. Which wasn't very long seeing that we didn't have that many songs on our list and again no one really sang in the band. And of course there was some guy who said that he could sing "Roxanne" by the Police. So we let him sing and the girls loved it.

I don't remember how long we played during our first set before we took a break. But it was a great feeling getting through those songs and seeing how our audience appreciated the music. While we went on break, we walked inside the house to get some food and something to drink. By the time Jeff and I got to the kitchen, we heard voices yelling and then a splash into the pool. People were getting thrown into the pool one after another.

We ran out of the house to make sure our guitars and equipment didn't get thrown in too. Jeff made it just in time to catch his bass guitar as it tipped this way and that. Luckily his bass didn't go swimming that afternoon. A very good thing because it wasn't his bass guitar... it belonged to his big brother Greg.

Though nothing got damaged, the party did seem to get a little out of hand. And as that was going to be the tone of the party from that point on, we decided to pack up our equipment. We got everything into our cars moments before it started pouring down rain. We had no idea it was about to rain. If we hadn't torn down our gear when we did, it would have been a big scramble to get everything under wraps.

But for our first gig we had a great time laughing at what could have happened.