Jay B
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Posts posted by Jay B
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I came upon this recap of 1965 VFW nationals and noticed that one of the horn judges was named Royer. I know that for years Gail Royer stated that the Royal Airs 65 VFW was the best performance he had ever seen, but didn't realize he maybe judged it. Each caption has three columns, the third an average of the two preceding it. Horns/MM/Drums/GE. My question is, is that Gail?
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How about being on the field for over an hour during the Grand Finale?
The South Milwaukee Festival of Music featured bands and drumcorps in assorted classes, plus it was baton twirling Nationals. The units would play themselves on individually, then the prodigious awards would start. No one walked away empty-handed. There were about a half-dozen categories just for parade floats, and the mosquitos enjoyed a smorgasboard of marchers' blood as the announcer droned on "and now, 17th place, civic and industrial floats..."
Good old Festival of Music. Two days of drum corps heaven. If you weren't in a corps that got to travel east to CYO/World Open/Dream, or if nationals weren't in the midwest, this was the biggest show you ever marched in. I forgot about the bands. The midwest had drum corps style bands in the early 60's. Continental Youth Band (Milwaukee?), Racine Elks Youth Band, and the Lake Band (Kenosha?) are the ones I remember. These bands were well respected in the drum corps community, which wasn't a common feeling about bands in the 60's.
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How about being on the field for over an hour for a 13 minute show. Sometimes there would be four corps in the stadium at one time: a corps performing, one on the starting line, one being inspected, and one waiting to be inspected. In hot weather guys would drop like flies. Ever see a bass drummer roll over his drum?
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My all time favorite:
State of the Art.
This was the album that introduced me to Drum Corps. Best corps on the planet.
Others would be:
66 Dream. Vol. with Cavies. Best recording of that show.
Pride of Racine 1964
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Before you drop a needle on them, get them cleaned. Ideally with a record cleaning machine where the grooves are wet scrubbed and then the solution vacuumed off. Believe me it makes a difference. No sense in recording all the dirt and grunge stuck in the grooves. You might see if anyone in your area can perform this service for you.
Happy listening.
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I was watching a video of the 1971 Troopers the other day and noticed that the rifles started marching before the musicians did, the gunman ignored the rifles and shot the pistol when the musicians started marching/playing. I think the shot signaled the execution (tic) judges to start judging. GE judges would have started with the rifles. This is pre DCI so not sure how long this practice continued.
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It looks like Lawrence stadium in Appleton, but the reason for the show escapes me. Odd that it is a daytime shot, if it was during a game the seats and slope in back would be full of people...
Many of my DC memories are resurfacing just from reading this site and looking at all the photos
I'll need to get permission before posting more (the photos are not mine), but in the meantime, there are several hundred shots available for viewing at americanosalumni.org
I was at the Americano's 1962 show at Lawrence stadium which was held during the day as Lawrence had no lights. Could be the reason for the day performance. 1963 and on for a few years, they held the contest at the old minor league baseball field, which had lights.
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I marched in the mid-west in the early/mid 60's. Our corps used G/D valve/rotor bugles, as did every corps I can remember seeing during that period. At least in the VFW/AL arena, G-D rotor/valve preceded G-F.
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I suck at clues. I googled your quote Jeff and all I got back was information about babies and people being pregnant. Let's see - Kansas and a bucket of water, Crabby Old Neighbor, and I'm getting dizzy, when's lunch? I"m clueless ... I'll tune in tomorrow night and see if the clues give me any more information.
Dorothy got knocked out by a bucket in Kansas, the wicked witch was the neighbor, a tornado made Dorothy dizzy; I'm guessing the W. of Oz. Not sure how their music connects though, so I'm probably wrong.
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It sure is good to see something in color from that time period. Too bad its only excerpts. I wonder if the Kingswomen were the first to do the "Rockford" (for lack of a better word) file move? They are the first ones I remember doing it. By the end of the 70's it seemed lick everyone had done a version of it at least once. I do love that show, but one thing that I never understood was that drum solo. For some reason is sounds more like it should be accompanying music, and I think at some point early in the season it did. On its own, it falls flat. One of the top 5 uniforms of all time.
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1963 Wisconsin State American Legion Championships in Madison. I marched in it, but as we were off early in the show, I got to see most of the corps. Line up:
Madison Scouts
Racine Kilties
Little Shute Dutch Girls
Milwaukee Starlites
Milwaukee Militaires
St. Mathias Cadets
Racine Boys of 76
Appleton Americanos
Thats may not be all of them but ones I remember. I can't remember the stadium but it was the same where Drums on Parade was held and I think was in or near a park. Either the Scouts or Kilts won the junior side. There was a parade which moved up State street towards the Capital.
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1963 Wisconsin State American Legion Championships. I marched in it, but as we were 2nd off, I got to see most of the show. Corps I remember being there:
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With all of the hundreds photos I have seen, I never knew that Troopers ever wore cumberbunds and sashes!
I've seen pictures of this uniform before and always thought it was classy. It reminds me of a dress military uniform, something you might wear to a military ball. Not sure of the exact years they wore it but late sixties for sure. I didn't see them 66-69 and don't remember seeing this uni.
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Roundabout....didn't Kilties do that?
New Set of Threads....Oswego Black Knights did this.
MacArthur Park.......Madison Scouts
Dark Orchid......SCV
All good, though might also try Kilties 68/69 MacArthur; a little more from there era.
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I can't remember what year they came to the NT Open and won, either 74 or 75...but they were good! There drum line, I thought, improved from 75 to 76 big time.
As did visual. Did they have a change in that department in 76? If not, that person sure grew a lot in one year.
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I've been thinking about getting this one, especially with Hawthorne on it. Now if it only had 76 Madison at DATR. By the way, how does it compare to 72 in quality?
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I wonder what the echo was like in McCormick Place?
Fred O.
I was there and I don't think Lucas stadium could hold a candle to this place in terms of echo. The difference is that the McCormick echo was, in general, an enhancement, at least as far as I was concerned. Everything seemed sharper. Snares especially, who's sound was bouncing off the floor. Get the recording and you will know what I mean. Backfield sound was good as well.
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Wow, looks great!
Yeah, capri pearl finish is the bomb.
"The Fight?" Tell us more!
Holiday regards,
Fred O.
The fight? The St. Vincent Cadets attacked the Cavies after they won VFW. Buy the book "Making of the Green Machine". That story is in there as well hundreds more.
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Cavaliers 1964 World Open
Different snares (Ludwig?) than in the 1964 Larry McCormick picture that follows. Is this not 64 or did they get the Rogers snares during the season?
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The white plumes were a massive improvement over the original (1962) fuzzy pickles.
I agree, though I thought that the white shoes were a mistake. Black shoes with the drum majors black feathered plum would have been perfect, though probably expensive.
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Madison Scouts, mid sixties
Got to be 66 with white shoes and mellos.
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There have been a lot of great ones haven't there. There are a mess of them from the pre-dci too, especially seniors. I'm going to mention a person who I have never seen discussed in any thread and that was the Cavies soloist from the early 60's. He's the one holding that high note at the end of rainbow. I think his name was Dennis McCurdy (Cavie alums?). I remember reading somewhere that his nickname was Tiny (I saw him play and he wasn't). According to the Cavie website, he marched from 1956-1964, and died in 85. From a purely technical perspective he wasn't the best, but he had the most distinctive sound. The minute you heard the first note you new it was him. He had the most incredible breath control, and seemed never to breath. He wasn't a high note specialist, but he played with a lot of soul, and I enjoyed and still enjoy listening to him.
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I just received my DVD's today. What a blessing to finally be able to watch shows from my era. The video quality is kind of rough to say the least and sometimes out of sinc with what you are watching. Its been over 40 years so I really didn't remember a whole lot about the drills. Company fronts, squads, whips, pinwheels, even arm swinging by the horns (Cabs). I've always suspected that these shows were best seen from the front seats and these videos confirm that for me. From the blimp perspective, the drills are kind of boring. I didn't expect that reaction.I enjoyed the Cavies drill the most. The best thing for me though was seeing the Cavies first drum solo. One of the greatest ever done, and which had to be seen not just heard to be appreciated. Great trip down memory lane and worth the money
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I was reading Building the Green Machine and there was a quote from Frank Arsenault where he references "Connecticut-style open drumming". Any old (or new) percussion guys out there know what this is? Is this the same as Swiss rudimental drumming?
The full context of Mr. Arsenault's statement is that he is arguing with a judge in late 50's as to why he scored the Black Knights higher than his Cavies as the Black Knights didn't use Conn. style. Anybody know what style the Knights used.
Gale Royer the Judge
in Historical Junior Corps Discussions
Posted
Before anyone says anything, I noticed I misspelled his first name in the subject. My apologies.