Musical History of Steve Couch

AIRPORT
Summer 1971 till Winter 1972

CORE MEMBERS:
Steve Couch - Guitar, vocals
Eddie Arce - Bass Guitar, Vocals
Gary Venema - Lead Guitar
Mike Bardaky - Keyboards
John Zimmerman - Drums
Mike Couch -Manager, Percussion
Alumni Members:
Mike Jones - Drums
Ed Bernal - Lead Guitar

Airport at the Eden Roc Hotel 1972

Steve on Lead Vocals

Top Left to Right- John Zimmerman, Mike Bardaky, Gary Venema, Steve Couch, Eddie Arce

After my brother had left to work at Disney World I began practicing by myself in my garage rehearsal space. It was the summer of 1971, just before my senior year in high school. One day I got a call from Louis Lowey, bassist for Hemlock, that he met a Bass player and drummer that were looking for a band. I gave them a call and we agreed to check each other out. Eddie Arce (Bass) and Mike Jones (drums) came over and we jammed a little. We all had a great experience. I had never been exposed to a bass player like Eddie. I thought he was amazing. He covered the neck when he played and no bass part was too difficult. Eddie and I also had a lot in common with the music we liked and so we began to rehearse nearly everyday, thus, AIRPORT was born!
After rehearsing for a few weeks another musician friend of mine introduced me to Gary Venema (lead guitar) from Miami Springs. He had just quit his band and was looking for something else. Gary was a very uplifting guy, great personality and played a mean rock n roll guitar style. With Gary in the band, songs began to come together quickly. Being it was the summertime, we had plenty of time during the day to rehearse. The newly constructed "Westland Mall" was not too far from my house, so after practice one day we the band walked over to the Mall to check it out. We wanted to see what the new music store in the mall had to offer.

There was this guy sitting behind a Hammond organ playing Whiter Shade of Pale. We thought that was cool, introduced ourselves and asked him if he wanted to come by and check out the band. Mike Bardaky, came over the next day, jammed a little with us, and joined the band that day. Mike had a Hammond C3 organ and could also sing lead vocals. Mike's voice gave us another lead vocal other than mine. Mike and I began working on harmonies and we also worked in Eddie on a few low vocal parts. Airport was now complete. However, after our first couple of gigs we felt it was time to make a change on the drums. We had already played at the High School sock hop, and couple of my friends told me about a drummer that was very good and looking for a band. We were introduced to John Zimmerman. John was into progressive music just like we were. Everyone one liked Yes, ELP, Zappa and King Crimson.When John joined the band, we learned our first Yes Song, “Yours is no disgrace." John brought a more sophisticated rhythm section to the group. Eddie began to tighten his Bass sound around John's drums and the band began getting its sound. The songs were coming easy and we were really having a good time.By December 1971, my brother had quit Disney World and returned home. I felt I needed to get him involved in the band, but he knew Gary was a superior guitar player to him. Mike agreed to become our Business Manager and Conga player. It was great to have my brother back and involved in the band with me again. We all got along great and when we were not playing we would attend rock concerts or go to the beach with our acoustic guitars and play on the beach. It was a lot of fun in those days.We played numerous gigs. Officers club in homestead, Homestead Armory, High School dances, Weddings, Corporate parties, community centers and fraternity parties were available to us just about every weekend. Gary and Eddie loved to jam, so we would jam out just about every song we did. It was a blast! I remember we once played Johnny B Goode for 45 minutes at an FIU fraternity party. We had great times in this band. We were together my entire senior year in High School. Shortly after high school, Mike Bardaky left the band to go away to college. We tried to move Gary to keyboards and got another guitar player, Ed Burnel. Although we did a few gigs, Gary never felt real comfortable on the organ and we all became disillusioned, so the group disbanded