My Saxophone Saved My Life

In the 1960s and 1970s, The Miami Showband was one of Ireland’s most popular entertainment and recording acts. By the mid-1970s, as Northern Ireland tore itself apart during ‘The Troubles’, The Miami Showband was the embodiment of hope, with a line-up of Catholic and Protestant musicians from both sides of the border.

However, that symbolism of hope was to end on the morning of 31 July 1975, when a fake checkpoint staged by UVF terrorists between Newry and Banbridge resulted in the horrific killing of musicians Brian McCoy, Tony Geraghty and Fran O’Toole after a bomb planted in the group’s mini-bus exploded prematurely. Drummer Ray Millar, who travelled to Antrim town that night, avoided the massacre and band colleagues Des Lee and Stephen Travers miraculously survived.

My Saxophone Saved My Life tells the story of Miami Massacre survivor Des Lee. From humble beginnings in Belfast to playing in Carnegie Hall, it records the heady days of the ballroom era, the greed culture in the business, the horrific events of 31 July 1975, the decline of the showband industry, the psychological effects of the massacre, his emigration to South Africa, his drift into alcoholism and the heart-breaking deaths of his beloved wife, Brenda, and son, Gary. It also reveals that since 1975, repeated attempts by Des and Stephen Travers to seek compensation for the horrific trauma they suffered have been met with constant resistance by a stubborn British state.