Jump to content

ironlung75

Members
  • Posts

    12
  • Joined

  • Last visited

1 Follower

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://
  • ICQ
    0

Profile Information

  • Location
    Hoboken, NJ

Recent Profile Visitors

549 profile views

ironlung75's Achievements

DCP Rookie

DCP Rookie (1/3)

3

Reputation

  1. The legend and excitement of the Hawthorne Muchachos is coming back to the field this year. 2013 is the start of the Hawthorne Muchachos Alumni Corps. We are looking for a few hundred who are looking to experience what is the Hawthorne Muchachos. For those who have listened to recordings and heard the sound that still today sends chills down almost every Drum Corps fans body, is coming back. If you want the excitement we want YOU! Join Us on January 26, 2013 It doesn’t matter how long it’s been, nor whether you marched with us before. If you’re ready to take the field in exhibition next summer, come join us! Registration / rehearsal begins @ 10 am, and our goal is to have learned and practiced enough to play together by the end of the day (around 6 pm). Lunch will be provided, and equipment will be available for use that day for those who do not bring their own. A donation of $25 is requested, a portion of which is directly funneled into the Muchachos Foundation Scholarship Fund Location: Oakland Memorial AL Post No. 369, 65 Oak Street, Oakland, NJ 07436 Instructors who will be on hand include: •Brass – Kent Pennell, Curt Hawkins, Louis Giusto •Percussion – Bob Vitti, Dave Rutherford, Frank Nash •Guard – Ann Durborow We’re planning to perform in several alumni-style exhibitions and parades starting in 2013. Get off the sidelines and back on the field – we can’t do it without you! Contact hawthornemuchachos@yahoo.com or call 201-230-5818
  2. Same night on Contra. There was nothing like it and there hasn't been since.
  3. I learned how to play through my horn from Jeff Kievit. I was loud, but he is louder and I have about 150lbs on him. Granted I play Contra, but this guy would just barely toot a little, stand up and play on one leg the most outstanding stuff you ever heard. Most never got to hear the Pictures of Spain Solo with the ending he added for 75 DCI. He only did it once at the CYO Nationals in 75 it brought the house down. If you have his album "For Once" and listen to him on Pictures Remembered, you can hear it. Since then he has played with almost everyone; Sinatra (I think Jeff was still under 21), The Temps and Tops, Liza, half of Broadway, (He was the trumpet who danced on stage in the Boy from Oz.) He did those killer parts in Kiss of the Spiderwoman. He is the Guy on the NFL Commercials. I think that today he is still the #1 session guy in NY on Trumpet. And he is producing as well, he did a lot of things for Vanessa Williams. Ragtime, the list doesn't end. Brady, Chez, Noonan are greats, but you have to stand next to all three of them, which I had done, in their time with drum corps and know that Kievit was the best. P.S. By the way Chuck Mangione showed up for Jeff's mom's birthday (The best mom in DC.) and they played Happy Birthday for her just this month. It was a great time had by all.
  4. I guess this will never end. I was there. I watched what happened. I saw Mike Wade turn his wallet over to Pescione. I was the last Contra off the field while this was going on. Nobody can tell me what happened that day was right for any reason. We just had the Corps 50th reunion this summer. We still cry when we wish it didn't happen. It did. We barely have a video of the performance. It is owned by the Troopers (I didn't know corps could own videos of other corps) I thought DCI owned the video...what ever. I would like people who enjoyed our performances and enjoyed the spirit of what the Muchachos brought to the field now that it is 34 years later and let it live in the memories of those who remember. Many of our former members are marching in the Cabs Alumni so I don't believe unless one of us wins the lottery, you will ever see the Muchachos again. And like many of the other corps who have passed, it is a shame.
  5. Muchachos didn't tour much in 74 and 75 in comparison to other Midwest and Western Corps because we didn't have the money. There were a lot of corps from NJ and we even shared the town and the resources of the Cabaleros. We were not allowed to have Bingo and fund raising was very limited. But most people in the activity knew of the corps and the shows we had performed in order to make a judgement as to where we stood. Since in 74 we beat every DCI corps at least once and in 75... well you can have your own opinions about where that show stands in history.
  6. I think the alumni are going to be selling that shirt as a tribute to Merc and Pete Mitchell, both in the picture and both wearing the shirts. Both Dead center on the cover of Drum Corps News, not World (sorry Steve) Yes we are Muchachos, we are from Jersey and if you don't like it don't read the shirt! Thank you for your support.
  7. It's been 34 years and all I want is to have the 75 Finals show to perform with my Muchachos. Make all of the age jokes you want, but that was the night of my 18th birthday and it is one of the only things in my life I would love to have had that I can never get back.
  8. Since this is a Brass forum about Drum Corps and Since most of the people here are not talking about people who :marched" in Drum Corps. I will take it in a little different direction. I marched with Jeff Kievit in the Muchachos. I have not heard anyone since who could play as loud, in tune and with the range not only across the musical scale, but with the articulation and accuracy of playing that has been since replicated in Drum Corps. Not to say there were not other soloists who were not exceptional, but I think Jeffrey was in a class by himself. As for screamers, we had one guy in Muchachos who all he could do is scream. We used him on one note. Screamers for screamers sake suck.
  9. What is the SINGLE most exciting show you have ever seen? The corps? The year? Why?
  10. Wow, this is still amazing to me. I don't believe that people actually read what I had said, but decided to take their desired information out of context. As for overage members, I do know the names of the people who spoke to me and if anyone would like to discuss this with me I would not have a problem speaking with them. I do not like to publish information about other corps members themselves on line (except Romeo, he deserves what ever he gets) Most of these people spoke to me in trust, so I would have to insist the same consideration for who ever speaks with me. My name is Steve Horne, for you Madisonites you can ask Steve Vickers about me, he knows me well. And can vouch for my level of sanity. (Unless you have some problem with Mr. V then you can go F yourself) My personal email is shorne1@optonline.net (please no spam) I played contra in the Muchachos for 6 years. And you should know that I was not an advocate of marching overage members or anything else I was accused of. I felt that the way my corps was treated was capricious and arbitrary. It hurt people badly for how it was handled and it was a tragedy for those of us who did not get the opportunity to play that night and destroyed the corps for the future. (We were so far in debt and had to pay fines and give up prize money.) As for the martyr statement, I for one was never looking for martyr status. I as most people would rather be appreciated for what I did rather that what I didn’t do. (I had been in finals before so to correct a later email statement) DCI and those people who are involved in it today should look at themselves and maybe if there is a little bit of humility, they should recognize that the overzealous reaction of that morning and the arbitrary nature of what took place is a black mark on this activity and its almost 30 years to late to do anything about it. But maybe someone can try. Stephen C. Horne Hawthorne Muchachos ’73 – ’78 (And yes there was a 78 Muchachos)
  11. I marched in the '75 Muchachos, I haven't read so much BS in my entire life as what is in this string of crap. That day was my 18th birthday; it was August 15, 1975. We had been first on in the prelims because John MacAulffe (MAC) our director was in a pissing match with Pesceone all year. He wanted DCI to give us a break on tour requirements because we didn't have much money. I was in his office one night when they were screaming at each other on the phone. (Although the cigarette never fell off of MAC’s lip) MAC held the application for finals until he got a definition of what we were going to have to do. Pesceone put us on first because the App was late! Angelica would show up to our practices, act like he was a big supporter, then bad mouth us to others in the DCI "insiders" group. We were definitely on the outside and because oif our success, that seemed to tick a number of the DCI “click” ( The Lombard elite) off. That morning we came off the field at Prelims and Don Warren and Don Pesceone did not approach MAC, they went directly to our only Roto Tom player (That thing sucked anyway) Mike Wade, pulled him out of the ranks physically and asked him for his credentials. Why was Don Warren involved? Warren hated MAC that was for sure. Shouldn’t it have been Briske? There was a guy from Garfield that went to the Cav’s named Romeo who knew Wade and ratted him out. Wade was carrying his wallet with him and just gave it to them. He was 3 months overage. It was wrong. But you have to understand the times and the precedents that we were dealing with. We had guys in our corps who came from many other corps who had people who were 5+ years over age. But who remembers the IC Reveres? You might remember SAC, or St. Lucy’s. We were told to give our birth certificates to MAC in the middle of the season. We had some guys who were with us from the bad end of Paterson NJ who didn't even know where they were born, much less have documents. Everyone had to scramble to get the paperwork together because we had to have it done to hand in at the first Lowell show. Some guys didn't even live in NJ and Mommy and Daddy weren’t always the biggest supporters of Drum Crops back then. For some of these people it was like leaving home to join the circus or a gang. I don't know where these people writing this crap come up with 20 over age members. Come on. Jeff Kievit was 20 turning 21 that year. He even marched in the VFW nationals the following year because they used a different timing on when the birth date was eligible. Anyone who said that he was overage is full of it. He was 19 years old when he played lead trumpet for Frank Sinatra while a freshman at U of Miami. OK he was a pro, but he was eligible! The biggest problem I have with all of this is that over the years I have met at least 10 people who were with other corps that Finals night who were over age. (Actually three of them were pulled for Finals but marched in Prelims. Take a close look at full corps pictures that night vs. prelims, if you could ask Moe Knox he would tell you, he did to me, oh well a lot that did for anyone.) Two were with Madison (I marched with one of them in Cabs), One with Oakland, A few were with 27th and on and on. They told me to my face. I even saw their driver’s licenses! Did their directors know? Who the F knows? Did MAC know? He spent more time fighting with Angelica and Pesceone about touring and the "evolution" of Drum Corps to a new level while our funds were bleeding than checking up on everyone who was trying to get into the corps that year and whether they were dummying up documents. The bigger question was why then, Prelims morning and why in that way? Romeo knew Wade for years. I know based upon a verified conversation (told to me by a Caption Head years later) that occurred with several of the Directors the night before Prelims that there was a dislike for MAC's style and the way he felt that DCI was treating the eastern corps and their lack of funding to take on the major growth that DCI was planning. The statement was that they had to CORRECT the situation! This group was made up of those who just wanted us out because if we were successful we may have had a say in keeping some of that from happening. And there might be a bunch more corps still around today. This group of people included Jim Jones who was also concerned about the fact that the Troopers barely made it that night. (And haven't since) The whole effort that DCI was pushing was to improve the quality of Drum Corps and to #### with anyone who couldn’t pay the bills. (That’s why there were over 100 corps in the NJ Legion show that year and now there are not 100 corps period!) If DCI was so concerned about over age why didn’t we get approached prior to prelims that morning? They said that they had evidence weeks earlier. For those of us who were much younger (I was 18) and many who marched in the corps for over 10 years (some were less than 5 when they started. That’s right we were a real Junior Corps who used to do parades with kids who could barely stand up and hold a drum at the same time.) Did anybody realize how devastating that was to kids? And yes we were kids! Did the “Don’s” have any right to physically pull a member from the ranks as we were leaving the field without involving the director? Given the concern, why weren’t any other corps approached in this manner? Spot checks or something during the season? No this was to try to destroy the corps who was going to upset the master plan by possibly winning despite not having a fleet of busses or even a tractor trailer (We did finally get a new truck that year, not to big, but it was OK for us.) I would have like to have thought we won the Prelims, the show was clean, but it was 8:30am. I mean come on. We were night people! Would we have won it all? Well I guess no one will ever know, but it could have been one of the most exciting moments for the fans ever. I was in Denver this year and I barely saw anyone stand up at any point during anyone’s show until it was over. OK SCV had one mid show SO. If we were ON for a given night, it was rare that anyone sat down! The week before Finals in ’75 at the CYO Nationals we got a standing ovation that lasted almost as long as the show. And yes we did loose to the Devils at the World Open two nights before because that same Roto Tom player F’ed up a lead into a drum solo and the show was screwed up from the beginning of Pines till practically the exit. Instructing that corps that year were Dennis Deluccia, Jeff Kievit, Frank Gerris, Jim Messina, Charlie Groh, Jack Mehan the list went on and on. This was not during the times of big salaries either. These people were some of the best of all time. Marching was something else even more; Jim Prime, Don Van Dooren, Joe Koenig, Ed Argenziano, Mike Mercandante, Mike and Tom Durbrow, Marc Dernell (who with Jeff won individuals that year on French Horn) Lou Mondelli, and many more who are either still involved in one form or another, in the Hall of Fame or had great teaching careers after they aged out. Were we ###### off at Chicago, #### right, their director went after US! A corps member there went after US! Anyone who has any heart in this activity knows when you are attacked by people who are out to get you, you don't sit on your thumbs! Fights used to break out on retreat, I know I was in a few of them over things a lot less that what happened at Franklin Field. And despite the comments about our behavior, we didn't always start them either as some would have you believe. The whole thing screwed up a bunch of people lives because all we knew was Drum Corps. And if you were truly in the activity you know exactly what I am talking about. I lost several friends who were never able to get their heads straight about it and that's a #### shame. One of my best friends died only two years ago and that’s a long time to have your head so messed up from something that happened 25 years ago. But I guess its like a car wreck, everyone is tittilated looking at the carnage and talking about it afterwards particularly if there is some intregue. Did they win or didn't they? BS! I am 47 years old now. I don’t enjoy Drum Corps that much any more. I haven’t missed finals in all those years, but I think this is finally the end. I feel sad about the fact that we should have had a chance or an opportunity to correct the situation earlier and that every corps should have been treated the same way, under the same capricious scrutiny, but I guess as in life, things are not always fair. DCI was arbitrary in its actions and I guess if we knew better at the time we could have gotten lawyers and the whole thing that Bridgemen did with court injunctions etc., but it didn’t happen. So stop looking for a smoking gun and think about what we all missed. That was the biggest tragedy of all.
  12. You have got to me kidding, Kievit Was by far the best ever, there isn't even a comparison to make.
×
×
  • Create New...