ABOUT THE
TOTAL ECLIPSE BAND
The Total Eclipse Band formed early in 1976 at Osan AB, Korea. How we all got to Korea was as varied as our musical backgrounds. Some of the members had come in to the base from SEA, others from stateside assignments and at least one member was in his second or third tour in Korea.
The first five members were already pieced together when I got to Korea in late January. Playing in a band was the last thing on my mind. Settling into a new unit, making new friends and getting used to the cold....damn it was cold....were the first things on the list. After a few months I had settled into a group of guys that had one thing in common. Music. We loved to listen to each other's favorites for hours on end. Somewhere along the line I let it be known that I played drums (probably on the first day) and not long after Eddie asked if I was interested in playing. He was part of a group that had been searching for a drummer for a while. I told him, "Sure!", and ordered a set of Korean drums from a downtown music shop. I had my mother send me over my Ludwig Supra snare and Zildjian cymbals to put with the drum set. It took some time, but eventually all came in and we had our first get together.
I was sharing an apartment downtown with a friend from my squadron Larry White. I asked him if it would be OK to have our practices there. That lasted all of one day. We were so loud the neighbors kicked us back on base. Carlos was able to talk his commander into letting us use one of the rooms at his squadron, where we could practice at night and leave our gear there. That became home for quite a while as we worked hard on putting the show together.
By June we were ready and had our audition at the base NCO Club. It was a requirement for a band to play a "free" gig in front of a group of NCO Club managers from around Korea. They acted as judges and gave the band a grade after their performance. The "grade" determined the pay the band would receive for gigs they played throughout the circuit. I don't remember all of the details because the money wasn't much and we all would have played for free (and many times did).
Ed Watkins joined the band shortly after that gig and took over the bass duties. That allowed Eddie Heaukulani to go to lead/rhythm guitar where he was happiest.
We spent the rest of the year playing gigs and practicing. Of course our military duties came first and our playing/practicing had to be scheduled around "work". Fortunately, most of our bosses were understanding and the conflicts were few.
At the end of the year when it was clear I was leaving the service and Korea, the band brought in another drummer to play with us. It was my only experience playing in a band with double drummers. It was not easy, but we got him tuned in before I left in January 1977.
