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But some inmates run it more than other inmates.

Yea that's in line with what my son said. He said initially the crowd seemed to be sitting on their hands, but by the end, the crowd was on their feet. Almost as if the Mandarins earned their respect and approval.

Their alumni and Boston’s never gave up. Admirable.

no more like Bostons Animal Farm. Funny thing...that was a statement towards the whole G7 mess. and now who's a power broker?

Wouldn't shock me if Betsy the Cow and the rest of the herd stopped grazing to give BD a standing ovation lol.

I’m just not sure of anyone that could create a visual package to go with a modern machine show other than Gaines. I know we’ve been lucky to have Gaines back in the activity the last few years. But dang the man needs to start training some prodigies.

It was the Blue Star Cadets that led the way for the corps that's on the field, today. Back in '82, the Blue Stars reorganized the Cadet corps and they were in operation during the final year of the original Blue Stars season. The Blue Star Cadets were a parade and CCI corps from '82-'84. In '85, they competed and rejoined DCM and in '86 would compete at DCI in class A-60; just missing out on finals. During the offseason in the '86, the original corps debt was paid off and the Blue Star Cadets were able to become the Blue Stars. '87 was a special year for the corps as they made finals at DCM and DCI in class A-60 and proved to be a new powerhouse in that division. In '89, the Blue Stars would win their first DCI championship in class A-60/Div III. During the next decade, they would bounce back and forth between Div II and III. During two very successful years with huge corps in '04 and '05, the Blue Stars finally returned to Div I in '06 and made a statement that they meant business and a return to the Top 12 was around the corner. In '08, the dream of the Blue Stars becoming a part of the Top 12, again, materialized and they have been there ever since; with the exception of '12.

Yes it still has effect. If Plaintiff is successful in their action against CAE, there would be a case on the record where it was found that a new org carrying the Cadet banner is liable for the old org. Should anybody ever undertake an effort to bring the corps back, they would be knowingly exposing themselves to potential risk, so this hypothetical entity needs CAE to win this one. The likelyhood of anybody actually doing that and bringing them back? The Blue Stars ceased operations and came back decades later, so never say never, but personally I am pessimistic not just about that, but about the survival of the activity at all. Bringing back the Cadets may require a "Bill Cook" barring serious change in the current model and spending requirements.

Beautifully crafted show. Guard almost steals the show they were so wonderful and weird. As much as I loved the coats that year I don't think there was any doubt who was the winner that year. Definitely top to bottom one of the best of all time!

Allentown gave it a rousing ovation, at a time when the crowd there was continuously blasted as being ABBD

i have used this example before, and hopefully the days where it comes up are soon gone. i sat right in front of the judges at Readings second home show several years ago. you could hear the judges. and one GE judge was raving about how the "audience' was getting into the corps performance as it related to the communication sheet. the crowd wasn't doing jack ####. yes home town homerism was in effect most of the night 9 but 2 corps in particular got great reactions)....but not this corps. and this sheet called the show. and the "audience" wasn't pleased, because the corps that did communicate lost. and oh man, the results the next weekend were explosive when things shifted in terms of placement. After that i reached out to someone and got an actual copy of the sheet. it was pure GE speak. All of it. and audience as mentioned applied to the judge, not the fans as all PR stated when explaining the change. in the history of stupid sheets for judges to use, this is the tops. and it came at the expense of field visual which led to serious sloppiness that was noticeable upstairs, but couldn't really be addressed because thats nt what the upstairs sheets were designed to address.

....

That field was a trip. The crown may have been the highest point in central Illinois.

Also, I wonder which is worse....sending an alternate home in early June with a far reduced fee or having them spin in the end zone all summer, never to get into the show all the while charging them full tour fees AND depriving them of marching elsewhere or working at home? Boston now carries very few alternates on tour, instead calling them up from home should a hole opens. There is alot of misinformation on the above link, including Boston supposedly charging $8000 tour fees. They charge $6000, the same as Bluecoats this year and Cadets last year. And also for the record, they did not bring 10 alternates on tour last summer....not even close.

I dunno about that. Corps that want to play the game follow the score. Writing music for visual vs visual written for the music. I will take the second every time. The first will be disjointed no matter what you do. Yes, I know some will say it's "so advanced and integrated now" that there is no line....to that I say nonsense.

still the best top to bottom drum corps, show and performance i have ever seen

well and part of that is because the East has always gotten West Coast corps. maybe not all of them every year til the current Allentown format went into effect...96 or 97 i can't remember. but we always got some. unfortunately the West rarely got east coast corps, so i am sure they were thrilled to see them. However being at pretty much Allentown back to the beginning, the hatred for West Coast corps is overblown. yeah the locals have had their love, but even cadets got their fair share of tepid response with some of the out there shows over the years. the YEA Borg was loud yes, but not that loud. but I've seen BD and SCV as well as others get some great reactions going back almost 50 years now. in 11 SCV rehearsed by me a few days beforre Allentown, with a show that wasn't beloved anywhere. during ensemble, the kids weren't connecting to those watching or the staff, and someone on staff told them "in Allentown if you play without passion, the fans will let you know it....with silence. They'll respect you, but they want you to give your all." And i didn't disagree with a word of it.

BD definitely on several occasions. not so much others. VK of course universally loved. but BD 08-13 was generally under loved by many fans period, and Allentown was no exception. At least as i could tell there was no serious hostility like booing ( except maybe when scores announced), but the standing at the end was people strecthing or getting up to leave, and not because the shows wowed them. Feilliniesque was like the BD reactions of years gone by ( aka 80's and 90's)

It seems to be the opposite out here in California. When we get Midwest/East Coast corps come out here, we treat them like rock stars as we are so appreciative that they made the trip out west.

I can’t speak for everybody, but I never did. I always tried to make a connection with a show, but if I couldn’t I could respect the production value. Felliniesque bridged both for me. Like I said before, simply brilliant

I like it when legally correct and morally correct are the same thing.

I dunno that I saw outright 'not cheering for them' but a mixture of 'hometown homerism' and 'unfamiliarity with their show' could be read that way. I remember shows in Indiana we went to when we were kids, the midwest corps had their fans and alumni that would cheer louder for their homerisms, but recognized the performance levels and cheered for those moments from the West corps too. This like mid 80s to early 90s. I recall Tommy getting a somewhat tepid response in 1990 in Ft. Wayne. But the general buzz was more "the Blue Devils came and we didn't get jazz?" sort of disappointment than any hostility about being the Blue Devils Annapolis has been my go to as of late and BD hasn't done that show when I've gone. It's a Cadets show and crowd for the most part historically. SCV got lots of praise in 2016 with Force of Nature. This year Mandarins sort of caught them all off guard. I don't think a lot of the crowd were 'flo watchers' and had no idea what was coming. So there wasn't much buzz taking the field. But by "Take me to Church" there were people grooving in the stands with them. And the spinners got an "oh my god...this is insane...i can't belive they're doing this" reaction around me and nods of appreciation as to what they were seeing. But nothing like when Cadets came on of course and they were roaring and buzzing for their own.

I think Allentown was the night BD put in the finals closer if i remember correctly. I am envy of all of you that was there to witness it.

They sure were. They were Div 3, then 2, the back into open class.

I took a friend that night. This was her intro to drum corps. Told her she shouldn’t count on ever seeing a better show.

True - but all Hop abuses are technically pre-CAE. So it is objectively better for any potential future for the corps, however you look at it, that CAE prevails. That is not to say it's objectively better from a morality standpoint that they prevail though.

People either never knew or chose to forget Blue Stars were a DIII/A60 powerhouse.

Well, actually, Blue Stars came back immediately, first as a cadet corps, then as an A60 corps. They were not inactive for decades, or even for years.

And YEA's Board in the 90s thru 2018 was notoriously - nearly criminally - lax in overseeing their organization's CEO in matters both personnel and budget related, all of which can be corroborated fairly easily.

Even if CAE prevails, there are other individuals who would probably be willing to go after them for misdoings of at least one person we can all think of for similar behavior (edit: depending on what PA's statute of limitations on civil cases is), so they'd be at this for years to come. Any concept that could be seen as having any connection to any iteration of The Cadets is likely kaput.

Soon enough

Interesting reading. At this point, however, does the outcome have any effect on the future of the Cadets? They seem to be in a place right now whereby a comeback seems highly unlikely, no matter what happens with the lawsuit. Unfortunately.

Penn State

I’ve recently come across this from a newer composer/pianist Rick Chang. I think there’s some cool themes in here that would sound amazing from a corps.

Yes, and Boston has one or two admin riding each bus now, which leaves even fewer seats.

They can’t … when the max a corps can march increased to 165, that eliminated room on the busses for alternates.

The judges are the least influential individuals in the judging process. Call a Famous Designer's work less than brilliant, and watch your ### get kicked from the Finals week judging schedule (it happens regularly). Why are some corps literally paying $60-140k to grownups to write or teach drum corps shows? Because they know that the individuals who can command those fees bring with them the influence over the judges to make sure the corps they work for is looked on favorably. Designers run the show, bolstered by some influential (aka "domineering") voices in the managers room at Januals. Any attempt to design a scoring system that would put more power into the hands of the performers and their performance that night will be voted down in a heartbeat.

because in the end, as you state, the corps vote on it. so if they didn't like the system in place, they'd try to change it. too many on here continue to espouse the view the judges dictate what is judged, and thats simply not true. Sure they may recommend changes to the sheets, but in the end the corps control if it happens or not. the judging community doesn't act in a blind vacuum with no oversight. Even when Cesario began his push a decade ago, it still had to be voted on and approved by the corps. and by and large, whats being done today is a result of his push which IMO, has made the on field product more engaging to the fan base as well as the score sheets.

The inmates who run the asylum.

and who creates the sheets?

and drum judges aren't afraid to make a call. but with how the math is done, one caption's impacted on the overall is less likely to be a huge blow unless it's GE. Everyone loved to pile on Prosperie in 19 for calling the show in BD's favor, while totally ignoring the 3rd place (with a sub box in 4th) guard scores Bloo got.

I think that we can glean that there will be an element of dark in this show, because that is what John Mackey excels at. Dark, intricate melodies. Percussion and low brass are going to have worlds of fun with whatever he writes for them, I can tell you that.

While not "winning drums and not making finals" situations by far, last season had several lines punching above where their corps were placing. Cavies most notably. But Troopers too. Colts line early in the season was scoring real well too. The carryover from indoor and 'follow the instructor' effect seems to be part of this as well.

My take on the 10 years since 2014 is BD is still stronger than ever but DCI is not. 2014....full force of corps and no real issues in regards to corps folding ect. Even Madison Scouts made finals. 10 years later.....BD still dominate but the activity...really on thin ice.

Saw this at Ft. Wayne when they had a "flat run" for the opener (from La Strada on, it was great though). But it was clean as heck. There were staff from other corps that were sitting up there and when the last note sounded, one just said, "16." the other said "clean by July 8." This was the show where Tilt caught fire. Bloo didn't have the real ending on yet and there were still multiple jump runners (and the main jumper that was kept for the end actually overshot the catch group a bit and they barely blunted the head hitting the field...it was a bit scary). They had the Ft. Wayne crowd eating out of their hand though. It was clear though who was winning that show. Bloo was one point back and that was all the closer anyone got all season. This was also the show where BAC changed the opening drill for Animal Farm and I heard one of the judges behind me on his tape raving about the way they did the column shift now. "That's so much more effective!" Music City was open class and this was their season debut. They had us sitting upright and paying attention. The BD volunteer next to me was "whoa...that's open class?"

It is mind-boggling. Drum corps has had a way of bucking systemic influences, and steering a different creative course. For many years (i.e. prior to DCI), it labored under scoring systems which gave very little credit for content, focusing almost exclusively on identifying and deducting for errors. Yet many of the leading corps from that era were best known for introducing increasingly difficult things into the idiom, and pulling the whole activity in that direction against scoresheet logic. This was true in brass, percussion and visual. Maybe the best example of that was the evolution of colorguard. The original "colorguard" was literally an American flag bearer "guarded" by a couple of accompanying weapon bearers. It defies all logic how that evolved with the ideas of adding hordes of auxiliary performers in the late 1960s, having them spin and toss equipment at risk of penalties in the 1970s, then develop dance into a fundamental additional skill in the 1980s - all when there was no caption in the scoring system allocated to assess and credit all these developments, a change that was still two more decades off in the future. In similar fashion, when I look at the scoring shift 1994-2000, I do not see or hear the changes one would logically expect in response. Those changes came distinctly later - changes like the concepts of "intellectual" and "aesthetic" effect; making thematic shows mandatory; the fetishes for props and climbing; the shift away from musical focus and progression toward the patchwork design that infests current musical programming, and the electronic crutch on which it relies so heavily; and a parallel shift away from drill focus and progression toward the patchwork design that infests current visual programming, and the pose-or-dance sets on which it relies so heavily.

Really? Bluecoats did a Beatles show without any Beatles music. I know I'll get shot for this, but it's true. It was, actually, my favorite show of 2019 and I felt it should have won based on it's merits and the extremely high performance levels, but it wasn't musical at all. The musical elements of the show were just a technical exercise with the Beatles music as an underlying component, overshadowed by the vast and endless runs. That's not music. WHAT THE BEATLES HAD WRITTEN IS MUSIC, and Lennon is a much better composer and orchestrator than the Bluecoats music staff. I don't mean to rag on the Bluecoats, because they are not alone. EVERYTHING is written for the judges and nothing is written for the fans. There is no musicality today, or there is rather very little. If the Bluecoats just played the Beatles music without all the runs tossed in all over the place, they wouldn't have scored as well because it wouldn't have been deemed as having as much content. But, it would have been a hell of a lot better. I quite enjoy modern DCI but musically it doesn't hold a candle the golden era. Listen to Regiment's 1996 opener and how it just built and bulit and built over 4 minutes to it's thundering conclusion. THAT is music. THAT is musicality. How the hell can a corps achieve that today when they are playing 15 different pieces in 10 minutes and the hornline is only playing for 4 of them?

This is why I love Crown and Bloo in particular. I can almost always count on a musical product that's just as important to them as visual. It's simply not the case for the majority of corps anymore, and I don't blame them with the scoring being so heavily skewed towards visual. The fact that people with zero musical background are scoring music is yet another reason why scores are really a joke in the activity. It's always been kind of a joke, though, lol.

Just an update on the recent march camp they had. After becoming a recent alum, contracted in 20, 22, and 23, I decided to drive to the camp site to see some old friends and see what the corps was doing. I was only able to make it to the end of camp but, luckily, I was able to listen to all of the music they had up to this moment. They only had 2 parts for the camp which went up to the ballad surprisingly which makes me suspect that the son lux residency will be the star of the back half of the production obviously. Part one is in your face and guns blazing with great energy due to temp AND technique! This book is already miles harder than 23 and I'm a little jealous I aged out in 23. The second part of part 1 gives me the feeling of Kinetic noise with its intense rhythmic challenges. Part 2, the ballad is just gorgeous. It reminded me as a brass player why I wanted to march this Line in the first place. Doug Throwers chord progressions and focus to writing as close to the source music as possible is just amazing. The lines tonal accuracy is phenomenal and dynamic shaping is just as strong. I am truly pleased to be on the other side of the field and once again be a fan of this organization and wish them all the best for this season!