Gene Swift, Gary Harmon, Larry Fritts
Saturday Miles
Portland, Oregon
1971 - 1972
Members
Larry
Fritts ~ Lead Guitar
Todd
Meislahn ~ Organ, Vocals
Gene
Swift ~ Bass, Vocals
Gary
Harmon ~ Drums, Vocals
Pat
Johnson ~ Manager
Larry
Fritts ~ Lead Guitar
Todd
Meislahn ~ Organ, Vocals
Gene
Swift ~ Bass, Vocals
Gary
Harmon ~ Drums, Vocals
Pat
Johnson ~ Manager
Gene and I liberated Gary and his drums from his parent's Richland, Washington home during the dawn of his 18th birthday to form a new band in Portland. We played a lot of bars and school dances due to our manager, Pat Johnson, who worked very hard to promote us. I remember playing songs by Steve Miller, Traffic, Three Dog Night (yuck), the James Gang (yeah!) and the Stones (Sympathy for the Devil was our closer). At this point, we began rebuilding our guitars, amplifiers, and drum sets.Larry Fritts, April 2003
As Larry mentioned, Pat Johnson worked very hard and we played all over Oregon. I made a list once of all the towns and cities and it was pretty big. We got a little more commercial in this band than the “Dog Years” and we got a lot of gigs. Once we went to the Portland Coliseum and filmed a show for TV with some other local bands for this promoter, Steve Shore. He made us dress up in fancy 70’s type stuff and I know I was a little embarrassed. I had to wear some outfit with all kinds of frills hanging off of it. It got in the way of my bass. But we did it because we had a chance to be on the great and powerful TV. I don't think the program ever aired. Pat got us a College gig in LaGrand Oregon and we had to rent a U-Haul truck because the station wagon that we normally pulled our equipment trailer in had blown up. Well, we put all the big amps in the back and while one or two of us were driving up front the others hid behind the amps with the back door of the truck open and when a car would come up behind we would jump out from behind the amps and shoot “Silly String” at the cars. It would never hit them as the slip steam carried the stuff up and over the truck. It sure did scare a lot of drivers. Can you imagine doing that today? They would lock you up now days.
Gene Swift, April 2005
