Santa Monica College "One More Time Around" Band Reunion

By Chris Long

Nov. 13 -- One became a policeman, another a deputy fire chief and a third a park ranger. Others stuck with a career that struck a chord and pursued their love of music.

This month, 30 years after they helped forge a new electrifying direction for marching bands across the nation, former members of the Santa Monica College Corsair Marching Band will lock in step once again and relive their participation in a pioneering group that marked a special time in their lives.

Former band members plan to relive some of their memories during a weeklong reunion from Nov. 17 to Nov. 25. Reunion organizers invited anyone who was in the band or the Coronettes Drill Team from 1966 to 1978. More than 300 people were contacted and about 150 are planning to attend.

"I'm not eager to fly right now, so I'm driving to the reunion," said Darrell Patterson, a former band president from Pacific Palisades who now is the deputy fire chief in Salem, Ore. "I can't think of anything that would keep me away."

"When we were at SMC, the band was the trademark of the school," said Malcolm Willis, whose mother formulated the Nicholson Pipes and Drums in Santa Monica 20 years ago.. "We thought
the dynamics and the uniqueness of it would always be there.... Now we realize how lucky we were, how special it was. Those years provided once-in-a-lifetime memories."

The occasion will be marked with several rehearsals and performances, including concerts at the college, the Third Street Promenade and the pier and a reunion banquet honoring Frank Turner, the band director from 1966 to 1974.

Turner led the transformation as rock 'n' roll began finding its way into the repertoire
of school bands, replacing the traditional John Philip Sousa marches and college songs like "On Wisconsin" and "Notre Dame Victory March."

In 1970, Turner took the step that made the SMC band the renowned unit it would eventually
become. He incorporated electric, amplified music with the traditionally heavy brass and
percussion. An electric guitar, bass and organ, with the amps mounted on wheels and powered by
car batteries, were integrated into the band.

And the music choices were more apropos for teen-agers, collegians and young adults. The band played music by The Beatles; Blood, Sweat and Tears; Chicago; Wilson Pickett, Sly and the Family Stone and the Doobie Brothers.

"The electric instruments," Turner said. "Those were one of the things that set us apart. We had
a sound nobody could match."

Some of the groups highlight events included marching in the Rose Parade in Pasadena, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, the Hollywood Christmas Parade, sister city functions in Mazatlan, Mexico, the opening of London Bridge in Lake Havasu, Ariz., and Los Angeles Rams halftime shows.

The reunion was the idea of Bob Wells, a former drum major in the band who now is a captain in the United States Navy. Despite his efforts to make the reunion a reality, he will not be attending. He recently took command of the USS Lake Champlain, the largest non-carrier vessel in the U.S. fleet, and received orders to take the ship to the Indian Ocean.

More than 18 months ago, Wells got the reunion plan going in an E-mail to Knox Richardson, a longtime friend and former bandsman who is an online public relations consultant living in Bakersfield.

When a third former classmate, Joe Sheppard, a ranger at Camp Josepho in Pacific Palisades,
also endorsed the idea, they moved ahead.

"We asked Frank Turner if he'd like to do this and he liked it," Wells said. "It reaffirmed the idea that the band was a professional organization with a solid reputation."

Turner, of Newbury Park, is in his 35th year as a professor of music at SMC.

"I was very flattered and excited," Turner said. "People do remember. Thirty years later, maybe I
had an impact. If people think it's important, that is very special to me."

Wells, Richardson and Sheppard were joined by Larry Boone, an automotive technology
instructor at the college. They began formulating plans for the reunion.

Wells, inspired by "The Blues Brothers" movie, laughed as he recalled his feelings when the
final decision was made to go ahead.

"We're on a mission from God," he said.

The group will play a concert at the Santa Monica College Clock Tower on Tuesday, Nov. 20, at 11:15 a.m. It will also perform on the Third Street Promenade and the Santa Monica Pier on Saturday, Nov. 24, at about noon. The reunion banquet will be held on Saturday, Nov. 24, at 6:30 p.m. at the Four Points Sheraton on Pico Boulevard at Fifth Street in Santa Monica.

For more information, contact Larry Boone at (310) 204-1838 or n6koa.j@juno.com or click
on www.gooshgoosh.com.

Chris Long was a drummer in the band from 1970-72. A former sports writer for The Outlook, he currently is a sports copy editor for the Orange County Register.