Georgia Football: Southern’s “Human Jukebox” Band Visits Sanford Stadium
On Saturday, The Southern University Marching Band – The Human Jukebox – comes to Sanford Stadium. They’ll bring their football team.
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Southern University provides the opposition for Georgia football on Saturday.
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The buzz you hear building is not anticipation of a gridiron contest, but anticipation for the Southern University Marching Band’s appearance Sanford Stadium.
Dubbed The Human Jukebox, the Jaguar band claims to, “Perform any musical arrangement, give it newfound emotion and radiate that “old Southern spirit” to the masses.” Keep your seat Saturday during half-time and you will enjoy the “Jaguar Rock,” high steps, and scrupulously crafted formations.
Southern University and A&M College, located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a historically black land grant institution, and The Human Jukebox reflects a long and deep marching band tradition. The Georgia Redcoat Band also reflects a long tradition, and the contrasting styles will be a band enthusiast’s delight.
Southern band director Nathan Haymer spoke to Chris Starrs of onlineathens.com last week. “We’re going to do something special for the Athens area. It’s still in the planning stage, but it will be something specific to the area.”
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The appearance of the Southern University Band is a breath of fresh air at a time when college and university band travel is tightly constrained by budget – it’s just expensive for bands to travel to football games and college game days have suffered.
The in-stands battle of fight songs and cheers – each band willing its team to victory – is a thing of the past. The simple pleasure of back to back halftime band performances is supplanted by highlight reels, presentations to big money contributors, and music from the In-human Jukebox, the stadium PA system.
“Every band has its own personality and its own style dictated through the years and through different directors,” said Mike Robinson, Redcoat Marching Band Director, also speaking to Starrs. “We enjoy it when other bands come; we get to see what they do on the field and in the stands. I’m sure our kids will be excited.”
Comparing home and visiting bands across the years and anticipating visiting band shows has gone the way of radio scoreboard shows.
. . . that’s a partial score from the West Coast and yes, Gene, cue up Hail State, we have a final from Starkville . . .
The study of various marching styles, the nuances and traditions, is as extinct a long post-game drives for dinner to roll through AM stations seeking game broadcasts, hoping to catch the descriptions of hometown announcers.
. . . Jones cocks his arm, he shoots one it’s, complete at the 15, that’s Hamilton, he’s in for the Tiger touchdown . . .
But Saturday, we’ll have a little throwback to a simpler time when no matter where a team traveled, the band traveled too, a time when people sat politely and watched and listened at halftime instead of racing for another round of Dippin’ Dots.
Where’s my raccoon coat and pennant?