Quadman1

Freelancers, 1980-84, especially '82 and '83.

With the Freelancers at the 1983 Drum Corps Midwest prelims at Whitewater, our (unnamed) tympanist started the drum solo on the "and" of four instead of on one (basically 1/2 count early). The entire corps was thrown off and the opening statement of the solo sounded like popcorn. I don't recall our score, but needless to say it was not a great one. When I was with the Blue Knights in 1981, we competed at the Capitolaires' home show in Madison. I recall that the Racine Scouts scored a 9.95 at that show. They received a zero in drumming execution (meaning they had at least 120 ticks). They were very small then, and it was one of those days.

Here are some good old school guards that, in my opinion, are excellent and worthy to check out: Phantom Regiment 1978 through 1983 27th Lancers 1979-'81 Madison Scouts 1980-'82 Santa Clara Vanguard 1978-'81 Guardsmen 1979

IMHO: 1. 1975 SCV 2. 1982 Bridgemen 4. 1979 SCV 5. 1986 Blue Devils

1. SCV 2. Madison 3. Troopers 4. Carolina Crown 5. Bluecoats

Affiliating with Indian casinos might be interesting, but the corps would have to figure out what it could offer the particular Indian tribe/nation in exchange for funding. In many areas, such as Sacramento, the rise of Indian gaming casinos has led to the demise of local bingo halls (there are only so many gambling dollars to go around). When I marched with the Freelancers in the early 1980s, we had a large and thriving bingo operation that funded much of the corps' operation. When Indian casinos were legalized and expanded rapidly into the '90s, the bingo business was crushed, and the corps eventually had to leave the field. There may have been some other organizational issues, but the drying up of the primary funding source was the real killer.

At the Walnut show on June 30, during Blue Devils' performance, I thought I heard a snippet from Garfield's West Side Story 1984 drum solo (remember when the Cadets' pit players put on the marching xylophones and ran around playing their feature?). It wasn't sampled; instead, one of the marimba or xylophone players performed it. Has anyone else heard this?

I just lost an old friend on Friday: Dan Burke of the Blue Knights. We marched snare together in 1981, and Dan of course went on to teach the BK winter percussion ensemble and serve on the board of directors. One of the nicest, best human beings I've ever known. I hadn't seen Dan in almost 30 years, but I'm saddened to hear of his passing. I've also lost two of my Freelancer tenor brothers: Dane Nelsen and Roger Jack.

The USC drumline were the first to test Yamaha marching drums in 1984. We beat the crap out of that first set of drums, breaking lots of lug casings, bending hoopes, and having many shells go out of round. Yamaha added plies and really improved the hardware after a couple of years. The tenors sounded fairly good, if a bit "pangy". We used Dynasty drums in the Kingsmen Alumni Corps. The tenors were extremely heavy, but sounded good. I prefer tenors to ring enough for the pitch (not just the attack) to be heard. Most of the tenor lines today that use sticks instead of mallets sacrifice projection for speed and articulation. Good for earning points with the judge on the field, not so good for people in the crowd hoping to hear the tenors. My all-time favorite tenor sound was that of the old Slingerland Cut-a-Ways. They project the best and were by far the most "sonorous" tenor design I've ever played. We've used Pearl pipe band snares since 1999 (the same set), and they hold up great and sound decent. As far as SCV leaving Pearl, I still think of them as a Slingerland line and am not over their switch to Ludwig for the 1981 season! Seriously, though, they did a great job tuning their Pearl snares the past several years, with a bit more "snare" sound and less of the modern "formica" sound. Maybe the new Rennick Dynasty snare will be an improvement over the usual flat sounding Dynasty snare.

I just logged in tonight to find that version 3.0 is active, and that all of my signature block content and formatting is gone! Did 3.0 wipe out everything, or is there a way to transfer my stuff into the new version? I don't have time to recall and recreate everything. Help!

Wow - My brother and I marched quads in the 1983 Freelancers! Those drums were beautiful in Black Diamond Pearl. One of our Tenor line, Robert DuPriest, and his brother John, a bass drummer, did the assembly on those drums when they were new in the spring of 1982. Here's a link to a story about the DuPriest family from the local paper in Loomis, CA: http://theloomisnews.com/detail/132292.html I believe Rob still teaches the drum line at Del Oro High school. As you might recall if you've seen old photos or videos, we set up the drums in an unconvetional arrangement, like trios with the smallest drum on the right front. The Freeelancers used this setup for about four years (1981-84). We used the commercially available Ludwig mounting belly plate, then bolted the three larger drums (12"-13"-14") together (each of these drums was attached to the belly plate). The 10" drum was bolted to the 12" and 13" drums. We also had some extra brackets underneath to solidify the setup. We used fiberglass carriers made by Ron Menke (of Blue Devils fame). Rob and John also created a plywood "stick table" that fit in between the three main drums and featured routed-out recepticles for hard (wooden beaded) mallets and felt mallets, plus holes that suspended a pair of puffy mallets. They also installed a PVC tube to hold a pair of timbale sticks (later we switched to regular wooden drum sticks, for use in the last part of our drum solo in '83). We also had a tambourine holder. In '83, we even used Ludwig die-cast hoops on some of the drums. Needles to say, they were heavy! The front edge of the 10" drum stuck out almost 3' from our torsos, creating a huge amount of leverage and lots of back pain! If you can find a mid-'80s vintage Ludwig bracket, you'd bee in luck. You'll need a bunch of bolts to re-connect the drums. Hard to say what you'll be able to find. By the way, where and how did you come across the drums?

It depends on the application. I personally have always favored metal shaft mallets with Lexan heads/beads over tenor "sticks", which are fine for indoor competition but, IMHO, are too light and fail to move the drum head enough to push sufficient air, resulting in a weak sound. For durability, nothing beats American Drum HG8 Lexans. The American Drum JB6 "Jitterbugs" are slightly ligher weight, with a flatter "disc" type head, and are a decent alternative if the Lexans are too heavy. After playing tenors in all sorts of bands and drum corps since 1979, I've never found anything that can match the quality of American Drum mallets. Plus, George Jacob (owner) is a fabulous person and is extremely helpful. Link: http://www.americandrum.com/catalog/marching/timptoms.html

This is pure genius! Agree 100%.

My mistake, you are correct!

I didn't get to see or hear Phantom live this year but did catch a few clips on the web showing they used mylar snare heads this season. Seems that a "real" snare sound was appreciated by the judges!

Thanks, Jim! BTW, did you ever know a soprano from Muchachos (and before that, Blessed Sacrament), named John Davis? He lived in Newark and then Livingston, NJ. He's one of my best friends here in L.A. and has led our pipe band drum line for about 20 years now. Great guy! You probably also know Mike Mindiak and his wife, Kathy (McLaughlin) from the Bridgemen. My wife (Mimi) has worked with Kathy on TV projects for many years. She and Mike are great folks who live down in Orange County.

John - By any chance, do you remember a bass drummer from Crusaders named Mark Blandford? I marched with him in Freelancers in 1982. It would be great to connect with him somehow. He was an amazingly strong rudi-bass player. Skinny little guy who hit the top bass drum harder and faster than anyone I've ever seen. He whipped our bass line into one of the best in '82.

Being from the Kingsmen, Tom no doubt had been drilled on posture a heck of a lot over the years. Anaheim's individual carriage and marching technique were exceptional.

Guardsmen's horn line at '79 finals was amazing! I believe they nabbed 5th place in brass execution. Of course in those days corps outside the top 3-4 had a shot at winning a caption (evidence the drum lines of Etobicoke and Freelancers in '77, North Star in '79, and Bridgemen in '82 & '83). Ahh, the tick system, where performance, not opinion or slotting, generally determined the outcome of drum corps competitions! Imagine a more objective approach to audjudication! Not perfect (tolerances varied of course), but it least it gave everyone a shot to excel on any given night. Why did we ever get rid of it?

Of course there are forms of musical expression that are not loud yet still are entertaining. And yes, I have been to a drum corps show lately, and except for the ridiculously overamplified keyboards, the corps generally are not as loud as they were 25-30 years ago. It's not all about being "loud", it's about dynamic contrast. I want a corps's fff's to hit the crowd like a tsunami, not a squirt gun. Today's corps simply do not play as powerfully as the top corps of, say, 1980. They don't even play large bore, G bugles today; this subject has been covered ad nauseum in these forums. You are of course correct that many college bands have greater numbers than DCI allows. My point was that to get the sort of amazing volume of, say, the 1979 or 1980 Spirit of Atlanta or Madison Scouts or Blue Devils (with tonal quality - I'm not talking about horrendous overblowing), the listener today must turn to a 250+ member college marching band, since you don't get that level of sound power out of today's DCI World Class corps. Of course they move faster and farther and play more notes, but they don't blow my face off the way I (and many others) like it. I guess I'll have to settle for today's "in your face" xylophones and marimbas, courtesy of the mixing board.

No hearing aid needed here. I just miss the sound (and volume) of Bb, large-bore bugles. Soprano bugles sound different from trumpets. Kevlar snare heads do not allow as much air to be pushed through the drum, so the sound is not as loud and gets lots when horns are in front. What was the first year that you attended a drum corps competition? Perhaps you simply have never been exposed to the power of horn lines of the '70s through the mid '80s. I appreciate the difficulty of today's arrangements, movement, etc., but if it isn't entertaining, something is wrong. Look at drum corps today: dwindling attendance, fewer contests, no TV contract, etc. The top 7-8 corps are ultra high budget operations with hundreds of kids auditioning. The talent is far more developed, the kids work much harder (I wouldn't want to have to run around the field carrying tenors, destroying my joints). They are techinically fantastic. But they don't sock you in the face any more. That's what my point was about. At least there a few college marching bands that can still hit the audience like a brick wall.

Thank you! They're pretty much all exciting tunes and arrangements, with actual melodies! Most audience members can actually remember them and even sing them after one or two times through the show.

I would like a staff member from every corps set the electronics' volume level to "zero", and permanently! They sound atrocious.

The pure, unadulerated sound of bugles and percussion. Wait a minute - that's been lost for a few years now! Seriously, for me, it's the music first, followed by the visual aspect. I keep coming back, hoping to hear the horn power of the late '70s and early '80s, but it just isn't there anymore. I wish we could teleport the 1980 Spirit of Atlanta to 2010 so all of the younger drum corps fans could hear a true "wall of sound", plus a monster drum line with 11 snares playing on mylar with scoops. Thank God they haven't added electronics to pipe bands!

Jeff Kievit, Muchachos, 1974-75 (and, I believe, 1972 & '73 as well) The North Star Soprano soloist featured in "Ole" 1979, '80, and '81. (Sorry that I forgot your name; I think we've chatted here before). Talk about "balls out"!