The opening act for Rotaryfest’s 100th anniversary bash in Sault Ste. Marie says he's thankful for the quick medical response he received when he thought he had broken his leg on stage — yet somehow kept playing his guitar while being attended to.
Barrie-based musician Mike Haggith put months of prep work into the performance that would also act as the launchpad for his latest album, All the Best in All You Do.
“When you get asked to open Rotary 100 that’s a big deal,” Haggith said in a telephone interview, the morning after Thursday's set was cut short by a freak accident that sent him to hospital. “We had an amazing band set up, we rehearsed so much and we were tight and ready to go and then, yeah, if it had to happen my biggest regret is that it didn’t happen at the end of the show.”
Haggith had been working on a the album for the better part of three years and when the opening gig at Rotaryfest was secured, he decided to launch it at the show.
“I said, all right, this is the motivator. I am going to get off the chair and we’re going to release this record and release it the night of because we have a big stage and a big audience,'” said Haggith.
But early in the set, something went wrong, sending Haggith to his back on the stage.
“I had one leg up on the drum riser and one leg down and I think I started to pivot to come back around — we were just about to finish the song — and I think as I went to pivot my heel got caught on something,” said Haggith. “It was a fraction of a second, my body was turning and my leg wasn’t and all of a sudden it just snapped.”
A video of the set posted to Facebook shows the moment Haggith injured himself, at about the 8:30 mark.
“I think it’s just a freak accident that could have happened to anybody and I don’t think there was any sort of issue with the stage or anything. The committee did a fantastic job,” he added.
Haggith said his first thought was ensuring his guitar wasn’t broken, followed by the realization the show was probably over.
“Everybody thought it was just part of the antics at first, even the guys on the stage,” said Haggith. “After we finished the song they came to help me up and I was like no, we need medics. There is something wrong.”
Haggith said he is thankful for the medical response to his injury by the paramedics who were on site.
“Everybody handled it really well. The medics were great and we had a few laughs,” said Haggith. “You never know how people are going to act until they have to put that in motion and everybody just did a phenomenal job. I was really fortunate for that.”
Haggith is resting after spending a few hours at Sault Area Hospital receiving X-rays. He said the paramedics popped his knee cap back into place and he found out first hand a dislocation is not like what you see in the movies.
“My first thought was, if it is dislocated they will just pop it back in for a moment and I will keep going but the medics were like ’that’s not the way it works,’” said Haggith. “I hit a note I hope I will never hit again, it was pretty brutal.”
Haggith said the outpouring of love he has received after the injury has been really encouraging.
He said it has also come with some teasing, with people comparing him to Foo Fighters front-man Dave Grohl, who broke his leg on stage in 2015 and kept playing.
Like Grohl, Haggith was once drummer in a grunge band before later fronting his own alternative band.
“Everyone is like ’you just want to do everything Dave does,’” said Haggith.
