ironlips

Positively brilliant. Have you noticed how many people now experience live performances (like concerts, guard shows and sports events) at which they are physically present by literally watching them on their cell phone screens? I think there should be an official diagnosis for this behavior. As for someone holding a cell phone conversation near me at a drum corps show during a performance...let's just say I may go full New York on the individual. (I'm certain that's diagnosable, too.)

Favorite (though this may be DQ'd since it was only used for Prelims, I believe): Mc Gill University (1981 configuration) - fascinating town (Montreal), comfortable temperature, rake angle of the seating area provided spectacular drill views, excellent outdoor acoustic ambience. Least favorite (by a wide margin): Lucas Oil - terrible acoustics, poor lighting, mediocre sight lines. Solitary positive - no rain outs. I would agree that Camp Randall is probably best overall, though Cornell sounded mighty good too, particularly when Anaheim rocked that house in '74.

Scene: On a rainy evening outside the Newark Armory in 1970, three instructors in a parked car wait for the doors to open so Garfield's drill rehearsal can begin. Pete (Emmons): "We need a cool set for White Rabbit, something nobody else would do." Bobby (Hoffman): "Yeah, well how about this?" (Draws a Peace Sign with his finger in the condensation on the inside of the car's windshield.) Pete: "Wow! That's REALLY cool, but who's gonna figure out how to get them into that from the previous set?" Bobby: "You are, Mr. Trooper Circle." Me: (Speechless, thinking "Nobody's ever gonna believe this".)

As jwillis35 said (above): "The thing to consider when it comes to drill writing is that everyone was influenced by everyone else. The ideas are fluid and each new germ of an idea tends to lead others to try things." Absolutely spot-on observation.

It may be difficult to process for anyone under 60 but, prior to the DCI Era, drum corps "drill" was based on this: https://archive.org/details/FM22-51960/page/n57/mode/2up Now, "visuals" are more closely related to: https://www.amazon.com/Vision-Modern-Dance-Words-Creators/dp/0871272059/ref=asc_df_0871272059?tag=bingshoppinga-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80814156493108&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584413735684256&psc=1&asin=0871272059&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1 Interestingly, both approaches, in a blended form, remain relevant. Today's heroes "stand on the shoulders of giants". And the contributions of women in the activity have always been under-valued, in every caption. It could be argued that today's visual designs are heavily influenced by color guard concepts, traditionally the bailiwick of female performers who developed movement, prop, and equipment innovations. Yet to this day, even that arena is male-dominated, at least in terms of who gets the overall credit for design. Women have made recent progress at the management level in drum corps and there are even some notable female music caption heads, but visual design still seems closed to them. It will be interesting to see what the next decade shows.

Given that DCI's history spans 50 years, that's a tough question. And the individuals above are certainly good calls, but if you asked them, I suspect they'd all give props to Pete Emmons. We used to say that he didn't do "transitions". Every second of the show was a Kodak Moment.

Congratulations to my old colleague. It's good to see his contributions recognized by his peers.

That staff roster is chock full of A-Listers. It's unfortunate that performers will not get to experience that level of instruction.

Ah, yes, but you have absorbed the culture, mate. Cheers. F

Cainan is too modest to say this (which I attribute to the legendary "British Reserve"), but Kidsgrove was the finest drum corps the UK ever produced. Over the years they created a new standard for the activity in Britain, and I for one salute them for it.

This would be a good question to ask Messrs. DeLucia and Rondinaro. If I am not mistaken, Canada has some very strict labor ordinances requiring the hiring of local production people. This may have proven too costly.

Hey, I love dogs as much as the next guy, but this topic is about responsible adults doing positive things for drum corps kids. I found one. Are there any others out there?

I find it noteworthy that one of the recipients is from a very small unit in the UK, and has a big commute, but an even bigger dream.

This just in: SOME ADULTS ARE DOING POSITIVE THINGS FOR DRUM CORPS PERFORMERS: https://marchingartseducation.com/scholarship/?mc_cid=c38757cfe6&mc_eid=ef0a8ecc15 Scroll down for profiles of the recipients.

No doubt this has been addressed before, but there are legal issues here not the least of which is the fact that most of the music on these recordings was never cleared from a licensing point of view. Of course, in Kobold's era drum corps was flying under the copyright radar and copyright holders were either unaware of these recordings or disinclined to expend their energies on a "mom and pop" enterprise for what would have been (in their view) very little return in any case. To be clear, they were always entitled to these royalties and licensing fees but the tracking mechanisms were not nearly as advanced as they have become. Releasing these recordings today without legal permisssions in place would be a clear violation of copyright, easily discovered. Naturally there are solutions to this dilemma, but those require time and expense on the DCI side, and the potential earnings would not justify the effort. Now, if someone would take on this job (negotiating with rights holders) on a pro bono basis...Any volunteers? From an archival point of view, these early corps recordings by Kobold, Wateska, Stetson Richmond...etc. are priceless. Perhaps an agreement could be reached to allow them to be treated as "scholarly research", not sold as copies but made available for digital listening via a subscription scheme, fees being divided between the rights holders and a drum corps entity like DCI. The administrative logistics of this are daunting, but it is possible.