shawn craig

True, you never said they didn't deserve to win that night or that they weren't a great corps. Sorry if I put words in your mouth. :) With the three ties in the 90's I'm not so sure upsets can't still happen. I think since it is the last show of the year (usually) and such, everyone is usually pumped and up for it that night. It's THE ONLY championship and everyone knows what's at stake.

One could argue, which we do here on DCP, that in any given year the DCI champion was not the best corps that year. They are the best corps that night as decided by the judges. While I've only been to Championships a few times, generally I think the judges have made the right decision. Many years it's been so close, it's really hard to say which corps is best. But the competition aspect is part of the activity. It's one of the biggest motivators for the members, the staff, and design team. Whether Kingsmen were the best that year or not, you can't say they weren't a great corps.

I loved both Spartacus shows. 81 and 82

Yes! But I'm not sure they have any video of Kingsmen 72.

It's a lot of music except that Andrew Lloyd Weber uses the same few themes over and over.

The US Open! That was where I saw my first drum corps shows.

Sorry. Garfields Timps were just the first concrt ones I remembered.

We grounded timpani in 80 and several things in 81. But just the old marching equipment. 82 was the start of pit sections as we know them today. I remember Garfield used 4 concert keyboards and a set of concert timpani that year. I remember corps grounding timps and keyboards in the 70's for the concert number. The extra timpani players would play tambourines and other rhythm instruments during this piece.