Jump to content

The history of the Westshoremen


Recommended Posts

Yeah I see I got a red mark too.

sorry if someone is offended, but let's cut to the chase here:

the Rebels didn't want women and people of color. or at least certain factions, including issues with the Post. It's sad to say it, but it's true. The sooner people accept it and move on, the better off they are,and we can hope as a human race, we've moved past it.

I remember for several years, Chris Garrett went to the Rebels table at Serenade and asked for membership info, Hell, he grew up in Maryland. And he'd always get looked at like he had 4 heads.

This was in the early 90's.

so red mark me all you want people. The truth hurts

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

do a web search for Charlie Schiavone. DCACDS or something like that. I have slowly been filling in my collection from him.

I have video of 80 prelims too. Gotta get that on dvd

Actually I think he's who I got some from...the quality of the recordings I received were WAY substandard, and some of them were a bit messy with the .wav files (sector boundry errors and the like) As I said you have to hope that the company that actually recorded them saved the mix-downs and has them somewhere?!?! But then again, you'd think they would have released them by now..... :doh:

DCI did it right, but the fact that they never left them for individual years release was dumb! Ok, I can see offering them initially as 5 year sets (I have 77-81) but then offer them year by year so you can fill in holes of years you really wanted! I would love a few odd years here and there 82 is one since I was up there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All I can say for fact as best I knew it was that we were very happy to have ANYONE on board the ship with us when I was in. We were an EEDC.... If you wanted to do it, welcome aboard. In some ways that kinda bit us in the tuckus in '83 when we got a few great people from elsewhere and some flat out ringchasers to boot that offset the good people that came on board.. We HAD guys later on while I marched-- Novelle (how's he doing, Boom!?), Jim the cool Bari dude who always had the cool hats, Alvin Pulley, Fred Pye, etc.-- I think in '84 we may have had some guys sign on in percussion Boom would know better that I really didn't get the chance to know. I'm unsure...

Jim was great!! he used to say "I'm the token" and "why are you guys afraid to shower with me, it's not THAT big" :tongue:

CORPS: I knew a girl all dressed in black... ****ed her in my CADILLAC

Jim: "AND I'LL BET THAT CADILLAC WAS WHITE, MOTHER-****ER!!!" :thumbup:

I'll never forget that as long as I live I CRIED laughing so hard when he yelled that!

used to run into Novelle downtown occasionally when I had to pick stuff up at PennDot. Been FB friend with Fred Pye for a few years now, he went to Reading in 84 when everyone split. (well you know how the guards are transients anyway) Alvin was great, he marched Cavies the year they did the Planets which was a very cool show!

I remember hearing bits and pieces about stuff like that, it was stupid when it got down to it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Part of the problem with 79 and 80 was we really didn;t have a direction or brand. Anyone could have done those shows was the problem. That's said with hindsight. A LOT of corps were very generic in that way BITD and placed well, etc.

No not at all...we were looking for an identity and we were all over the place! 79 started out with Broadway then into big band, and back to Broadway...Granada Smoothie and Sing Sing Sing (drum solo) were the misfit toys in that bunch. 80 was even worse with Prog Rock into Broadway, jazz, big band, and back into Broadway again. At least we sort of headed to "jazz" in 82 and 83..we finally lost the Broadway stuff..

It was almost like a misinformed high school band director was writing the show! (Middletown comes to mind :rolleyes: )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No not at all...we were looking for an identity and we were all over the place! 79 started out with Broadway then into big band, and back to Broadway...Granada Smoothie and Sing Sing Sing (drum solo) were the misfit toys in that bunch. 80 was even worse with Prog Rock into Broadway, jazz, big band, and back into Broadway again. At least we sort of headed to "jazz" in 82 and 83..we finally lost the Broadway stuff..

It was almost like a misinformed high school band director was writing the show! (Middletown comes to mind :rolleyes: )

There was a reasoning behind it, Ben. Ray told us the idea was to show the corps was capable of performing well in multiple genres. Something some of the ones above us-Sun and Reading excepted- really didn't push a lot of. The idea was to get a good score in Music analysis in doing so.

The problem was that we really didn't get any credit or recognition for it, and the GE numbers stalled. Lesson learned- never write a show primarily for analysis numbers. Yet people still do it....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also with Smoothie, remember many if not most corps recycled some music from one season to another. Smoothie was recycled from '78 as well as the Impossible Dream....

I'm sure it keilled Larry to give up the Dream. I know it almost killed the corps when he insisted on continuing to try it with the Alumni

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm sure it keilled Larry to give up the Dream. I know it almost killed the corps when he insisted on continuing to try it with the Alumni

Bill's arrangement for Alumni was really nice, at least I thought and still think so.

I have a version of it in my head that's way different from either the original or Bill's, but prolly way too fast and modern-hipster for anyone's taste. I'm thinking a temp of 160 and a 4/4 feel myself.

It's more than out of the box. :satisfied:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There was a reasoning behind it, Ben. Ray told us the idea was to show the corps was capable of performing well in multiple genres. Something some of the ones above us-Sun and Reading excepted- really didn't push a lot of. The idea was to get a good score in Music analysis in doing so.

The problem was that we really didn't get any credit or recognition for it, and the GE numbers stalled. Lesson learned- never write a show primarily for analysis numbers. Yet people still do it....

But at that point, Sun and Bucs could get away with it because a. they were a little more established, and got some leverage, and b. they were just that much better than us.

Listening to some of the older stuff I can hear more problems than I did when I was a lot younger, and had a "we can do no wrong" attitude. 30-odd years later, I'm listening for enjoyment and cringe at some of what I hear. Drum-wise, I blame the writing...78 had MUCH better writing (Flowers) but 79 and 80 and even 81 had his "protege" who could write snare parts...I think talent wise we were decent, but the writing left a lot to be desired. Yeah, we had a heck of a snare book, a marginal tom book, and a lack off writing for bass, and marching timpani. Thankfully in 80 Bobby G slid back to timps and we did some of our own modifications to the parts. 81 was another off-year drum wise talented snare-line and everything else was "eh" :thumbdown:

I remember the change in 82 when Robb came in, but there were other problems with him...the writing got a little better, but we were dirty as heck. 83 was just a cluster-____ because Robb started the year, and we had Brian and Billy Kauffman attempting to pick up where the failure started. :blink: I honestly think that the drumline was mostly better from a talent standpoint (except for a few) but we just got too late of a start to become cohesive...yeah the tomline was a force to be reckoned with, but the rest of the drumline was behind the curve.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also with Smoothie, remember many if not most corps recycled some music from one season to another. Smoothie was recycled from '78 as well as the Impossible Dream....

And thank GOD for Dave Pomoponio for adding some dynamics to it! :blink: 78's version would peel paint off of a wall!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...