KeithHall Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 Who were the corps that merged and why? What was the WHOLE story? Such as....... Regimente Militaire Crossmen Royal Brigade Avant Garde Oakland Crusaders Seneca Optimists Northstar (Canada) Fusion (Rochester) Renegades (Rochester/Lockport) Empire State Express Any more? Add them and tell us the real story! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xandandl Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 Crossmen were a combination of Keystone Regiment and 507 Hornets. Want further info, ask Yeaguy...he was a member and his Dad and family were involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindap Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 With respect to Seneca Optimists & K-W Northstar you may find their respective websites, 'Toronto Optimists Alumni' & 'Dutch Boy Drum Corps', very informative as did I.With respect to drum corps in Alberta (parts unknown west of Lake Ontario & Northwest NY State) wild west drum corps didn't merge; they morphed, evolved & adapted! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted September 16, 2014 Author Share Posted September 16, 2014 I know for the Renegades (NY) it was the Rochester contingent who talked Lockport Blazer Director Paul Villella into merging his corps with parts of Mighty Liberators and Greece Cadets. The other part of Greece merged with Patriots to form Fusion (I think). This was in April 1982. The Renegades had Brady Rouse writing drill with Bruce McCready and myself doing drill. Dave Martin worked the brass, Jerry Kelsey wrote the show, Dave Bucklin worked the guard and Ken Brooks and Phil Lake did the percussion. We rehearsed behind the Niagara County jail. After the season several members were recruited to go to Garfield Cadets and many joined up with the brand new Empire Statesmen. The corps had 60 horns in June and the season looked pretty good and then there was a blow up between the Rochester contingent and several brass players left leaving the corps with about 44. By the fall there was a name change, a corporate sponsor and very few members. The organization folded before 1983. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elphaba01 Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 "Mergers" While not exactly a "Merger" the 1966 New York Kingsmen had absorbed a HUGE chunk of the membership from the disbanded Selden Cadets (Including their horn arranger Bobby Bunce, who wrote an entirely new program for them) changed their uniforms, and came out completely revamped (And quite excellently) for the 1966 season. Elphaba WWW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsksun4 Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 "Mergers" While not exactly a "Merger" the 1966 New York Kingsmen had absorbed a HUGE chunk of the membership from the disbanded Selden Cadets (Including their horn arranger Bobby Bunce, who wrote an entirely new program for them) changed their uniforms, and came out completely revamped (And quite excellently) for the 1966 season. Elphaba WWW I believe the 66 NY Kingsmen were the first corps to play their drum major (Brian Farrell) onto the field in the opener. Like a matador in a bull fight. And believe me, when they started to play, people stopped and heads turned. Bunce liked things extremely loud and that they were. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barigirl78 Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 Crossmen were a combination of Keystone Regiment and 507 Hornets. Want further info, ask Yeaguy...he was a member and his Dad and family were involved. Keystone and the Hornets were in the same County--Delaware County, PA. DCI was getting more prominent and both corps struggled through the 1974 season with corps that were pretty small. I know the Hornets were probably going to fold, but someone got the idea to merge. Word went out and we met for the first time in the Fall of 1974 at the parking lot of Boeing, which was on the Industrial Highway outside Chester, PA. The Hornets practiced there because there were no residents around to complain about the noise and you could lay out a field on the parking lot. At first, the members of the corps were just former Hornets and Keystone, but the corps attracted a lot of other members from corps that were dying in Southeastern PA and South Jersey at the time. Corps like Bracken Cavaliers. Two charter members of the Crossmen were Thom Hannum (a Keystone drummer) and George Hopkins (from the Hornets). The first season went pretty well with the corps coming in 24th at DCI prelims and becoming a DCI Associate corps. The second season became a disaster when the corps was disqualified for having over-age memebers. But, it held together through that setback and made DCI Finals in their third season of 1977. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 A GSC corps I taught in 76, the Monarchs from Wayne, NJ, merged in mid-season with the Greenwood Lake Lakers from NY. We become the King's Regiment for the 1977 GSC season. That was our one good season; it was tough to keep kids in the merged group, since Wayne and Greenwood Lake are not all that close in terms of NJ-driving-distance. We lost a lot of kids, esp after the 77 season. They limped through another year or two after that. For the 77 season, we did have a carload of members from the Woodsiders join with us when they (I think) folded. The first GSC corps I marched with (68-69), the Livingston Imperial Guardemen, merged with the Old Bridge Dukes around 1972 or 73, and became the DIGs for a while (after my marching time with them). Another of those relatively long distance mergers thet did not really pan out for an extended period of time. By the time I taught them in 76, they had reverted to being the Livingston Imperial Guardsmen again. When I marched with them, a corps in Morristown folded, and we had a carload or two march with us in 69, though that was not an offical merger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimF-LowBari Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 Mike you should contact corpsreps.com about the DIGs. Last I looked there was an entry for then but no town name or history. There are a ouple of shows and scores but that's it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted September 16, 2014 Author Share Posted September 16, 2014 The Frontiersmen were a merger of the Royal Coachmen and the Frontiersmen (who were a merger of St. Johnsburg Blue Sabres and Red Raiders). Happened in 1977 (May) after RC director resigned and the new director thought a merge would help. He gave into playing our music (except one song). It lasted but many of the RC members left to join other corps or in my case went in to the Army. The Frontiersmen did not have any success throughtout the next 9 years I think they were together. They even changed their name to Vengeance for a year or two...not sure why though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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