leif

I live in Luxembourg. I would LOVE to see BD come here! It would be a good place to visit. Music is a big part of the culture here. All the little towns (and I do mean *little*) have brass bands. Luxembourg is also less than 2 hours away by bus from the World Music Contest in Kerkrade, in the Netherlands. Also, the drinking age is 16.

I went to the DCE finals last week and no woodwind corps made the final 10. Now, thanks to DCE, I know what a drum corps with woodwinds sounds like. It sounds like a drum corps. The Italian corps, Besana, that I saw in pre-lims marched about 50/50 brass and woodwinds. For the most part, the brass simply drowned out the woodwinds. This was with about 15 brass. Imagine 50 or 60 BD or Crown brass players against a woodwind section. The only way that woodwinds would ever make sense in a drum corps is to put them in the pit and mic them. Otherwise, they're just there for the drill. And yes, you are right about the fan appeal of the shows at DCE. It was a lot of fun!

Oh yeah. Pure low brass joy. They sure don't play like that any more!

I don't remember breaking down the score to that extent in either 86 or 87. Probably because the only thing I remember from being taught by Frank was how much pain I was in, trying to hold up my DEG euphonium during our daily 45 minutes of long tone exercises. Also, I just watched our 86 show. We were basically strolling on the field in formation. We didn't have to spend all our time learning 200 sets so we could spend a lot more time working on music. This is probably why we beat Garfield in Brass and Percussion, but lost big to them in GE. Suncoast was 3rd in field brass at semi's in 89. We were 1st in field brass in 86. (I think that was the only sub caption that the corps ever won.) Colorguard was 2nd in 88. I miss 'em too. But you know what? Between 83 and 89, we were in finals 7 times. Two of those shows, 84 and 88, pushed the boundaries of what drum corps could do. We had amazing hornlines that played shows that hold up against the best of any era, that people still listen to and go "####!" (You will not find a more insane opener than 83 Suncoast) We re-wrote the book on bass drumming. We did the first all original show. We beat BD in brass at their home show! And to top it off, we looked good. So yeah, I miss Suncoast, but I'm grateful I got to be a part of it because that was some high quality drum corps.

Probably because it had that "Wait, what?!" factor going for it and who's to say that there isn't a bass drum cadenza in the middle of Midnight in Miami? On the other hand, I'm pretty sure Johnny Richards didn't write any for Adventures in Time. Some trivia: The top bass (both years) won snare I&E in 89. Three of the basses were from one high school (Largo, FL). I marched in 86, and the basses were so tight, they pretty much stopped cleaning their show about halfway through tour.

Just checking the results for the decade past. Cavies have a 7 year streak, from 2000-2006, where they finish 1st 5 times and 2nd twice. This is just a hair better than BDs run from 1976-1982, where they also had 5 1sts, but 1 2nd, and a 3rd. (How about that for totally ignoring the title of the thread?)

I seem to recall reading, in that big drum corps history book that came out a few years ago, that modern drum corps in America was started by veterans returning from WWI. Now, I'm not a veteran, and it's possible that these guys spent their time together, when not practicing, discussing poetry and drinking tea, but my guess is that modern drum corps has its roots planted firmly in soil watered with copious amounts of alcohol, cigar smoke, and licentious behavior. Based on my own experience in the 1980's, when stories of the drugs and violence of 70's drum corps circulated among the members, and seeing the incredible level of fitness among members these days (when was the last time you saw one of those "big-guy" sop, er, trumpet players wailing on the sideline?), I would have to say that drum corps is evolving to a point of wholesomeness where it will simply be considered a branch of the Mormon church.

85 Suncoast: A Very Loud Day in Florida 2001 Crossmen: Best Crossmen Ever, We Love You Melissa! 82 SCV: Don't Leave During the Credits 93 Star: Well F%@* You, Too 97 Cadets: Note-a-rhea 94 BD: The Loud Loudness w/ special guest Victoria's Secret

Hey, send me an e-mail! I've got all the finals for the 90's and I'm willing to part with them!

Is this not the best description of drum corps ever written? (although I'd change the 20 to 70)

Stan Kenton, were he alive, might disagree with you! He had a mellophonium section in his big band for many years. (Maybe that's why Kenton charts work so well on the field. You don't have to arrange them, just transpose them.)

Amen! I would say, of the horns listed, euph is the easiest to play, but the hardest to march.

How about this? Star for best G bugle line (2 valve no less!) 2002 Cavies for best Bb line

Yeah, she did. I only talked to her briefly at the Lynn, MA show. She was pretty cool. My name? I'm not hiding anything. My name is Leif. I marched Suncoast in 86 and 87 on euphonium. My shoulders are still sore.

OK, this has nothing to do with the topic at hand, but where were you hot young baritone players when I marched? I met an incredibly lovely young bari soloist in Glassmen, too. Back in my day, we were a bunch of galoots with bad haircuts, now you're...you're ... PRETTY! :o

Part 3: Saturday, the day of the Southwestern championships, found me and Keith in a Holiday Inn about a mile from Rice Stadium. We didn't leave Houston till near lunchtime so we ended up missing the entire first part of the show. Along the highway we discovered the amusingly named town of Flatonia (I'm hoping that horn instructors will use the name of this place when berating their students in the future) and the water park called the Schlitterbahn. There was another town that advertised itself as the "Home of the Chzilispeil!" I'm not sure, but I think that it's a Teutonic version of a chili fest. At first blush, the juxtaposition of Tex-Mex and German cultures seems a little odd until you consider their mutual love of the accordion and beer. I was presented by more evidence of the German presence in that part of Texas when I went to the airport and saw that Lufthansa flew there. I wonder if they fly direct from Munich? What an odd route that would be! Texas has done a good job of hiding its German roots from the rest of the country, I must say. Once we got to the stadium and parked, we strolled around outside for a while, looking for drum lines. Most everyone had already performed, so we headed in for the clinic. What a warm welcome we got at the gate! Open up your backpacks! Throw away your bottles of Pepsi! Put your camera over here on this table! It's a brave new world. My favorite moment of the whole clinic was when Michael Cesario (the producer of the Donny & Marie show!) picked a euphonium player out of SCV's horn line and asked him about his instrument. He asked him how it was different from a baritone and the guy said something along the lines of "It's bigger and it sounds better." Michael made a remark about the baritone players giving him dirty looks. I guess Michael doesn't realize that SCV doesn't march baritones! Keith was duly impressed with the quality of SCV's drum line. I was not super impressed with their horn line. I like the dark sound, but they just don't sound very clean. I also didn't care for the music they were playing. The original opener, Trivanderslubaluminum or something, sounded like a lot of the other barky dissonant modern stuff that we hear on the field. They also played "from letter H to the end" of their closer. It was a lot of power chords and surprisingly few moving lines. I found the color guard presentation quite interesting. They did an exercise called "27 points of space," where they pointed to 27 points in space with their flags. It was fascinating to see what the guard does for fundamentals. However, they also showed off their flags with elastic bands that they swung around during part of their routine. I thought those were pretty gimmicky. When they had the corps make a basics block and invited the 3000 or so students to join them, Keith and I took off. I've been to 2 of these clinics so far. The actual content is pretty thin. There's not a lot you can do in an hour with so many people crowding around. I think the best thing that the students take away from them is that the kids in the corps, the big powerhouse corps, are just kids like themselves. I think that's a powerful message because with all the hype that surrounds the big corps, it's easy to forget that they're made up of students like you would find anywhere in America. (Anywhere with a music school, that is.) We checked into our hotel room, out by the airport, after we left the clinic. After a lovely meal at Denny's and me driving around for 20 minutes looking for a parking space, I managed to get in after the Bluecoats had finished. d###. I really like the Bluecoats this year. I managed to park over by the entertainment complex that's about 300 yards away from the Alamodome. The band "Kittie" was playing. I saw a couple of kids wearing black jeans and Misfits T-shirts loitering in the parking lot. Their faces were painted white. It must be awful to be Goth in such hot weather; the Goth clothes just don't work that well in the heat. I liked the Cascades, it was the first time I had seen them since quarterfinals last year. They're a d### good drum corps and they play music I recognize! It was so strange to me to see a new entrant into the elite top 12. It reminded me that motion up through the ranks is still possible although corps seem to bounce against 4th place. Bill Durst, Brass Caption Head of the Crusaders and my section leader in 87 sat with me for their show. I was trying to read his reactions to their performance since who would know that show better? I guess they screwed some stuff up but were improved over prelims. The big photos they put on the field were way over the top but they definitely had the desired effect on me. I finally listened to the lyrics they were singing and they, combined with the photo of the firefighter holding his eyes in an expression of grief, had tears rolling down my cheeks. The lyrics to "You are My Star" are: I remember you, all through my days, and into each night. Without you, on my own Oh, how I miss you. Gazing at the night sky, while the soft mist gently kisses my face, we're like two stars that shine together, and my heart feels your embrace. Then sometimes when I reach for you, I find you're not there. But each time I grow stronger knowing we share the warmth of every glowing sunrise. Your love touches me from afar, And even tho' we're not together, Just remember you are my star. It hit me extra hard because I assumed it was a rah-rah patriotic tune. I didn't realize it was such a melancholy song about loss. Boston has been very stealthy about inserting that undercurrent of mourning into their show this year. I also appreciate how they made such a national mood feel so personal. After all, the great tragedy is only great because of the sum of all the individual tragedies. I've written about all the other corps before with the exception of SCV. Maybe I need to see their show some more because it didn't do a lot for me. The one highlight was the euphonium feature towards the end of the show, when the horn line is in a large skinny ellipse. The euphs have this noble tenor sound that sounds like nothing but modern American music. If reminded me a little of the bari sound they had in 99. Lovely, but the rest of the show was forgettable. Hopefully I'll like them more the next time I see them. The big surprise for me was the Crossmen finishing 9th. They could have easily been a 5th place corps. The Bluecoats, Phantom, Glassmen, and the Crossmen are so close in quality; it's anyone's guess where they'll end up. After the show, Keith and I headed to the parking lots. Keith wanted to meet up with a bass drummer in BK, so we went over to their busses. While we were there, we ran into Mitch and his wife. They were looking for the forumites who were marching. We eventually scared up bjork and BK_snare. I enjoyed talking to bjork, she seems like a scary smart young woman. (Then again, I always enjoy talking to young women!) The bass drummer that Keith met up with, Sean, was a very tall and thin guy with long blond hair and a goatee and mustache. Sonja (bjork) asked me if they were related! Ask me in Madison about this and you'll see how funny it really was. After socializing in the parking lot Keith and I, as Mitch puts it, headed off for "God knows where." I got to bed at 4:55am and got up at 5:15am to catch my flight. I flew to Chicago with most of the DCI staff. They had stayed up all night, too, so we didn't talk about drum corps much. We just slept. I connected in Chicago, flew home to Burlington, and as soon as I got home, I went upstairs and straight to bed. My roommate woke me up a few hours later and we went to see "Minority Report." I'm still tired.

Part 2: Friday morning, we get up around 11am or so. I hike up two flights of stairs to the shower. It's in the water heater room. (I told you this place wasn't too refined.) Earlier in the morning, I had to pee so I just went out the back loading dock and peed in the bushes since I didn't have the key to open the gate which would allow me to get to the bathrooms on the other end of the building. I was wearing my Cadets American flag lounge pants when I slept on Keith's couch. Very stylish. When Keith finally woke up and showered, we took off for the diner near the hospital. There, we ran into some of Keith's neighborhood friends. One of them was a young guy who drove a #####in' Trans Am 6.6L and had a smokin' cute girlfriend. I thought he was a drug dealer but Keith corrected me, saying the guy worked at the hospital. An older black lady named Ms. Jimmy sat down next to us and she and Keith talked for a little while. I gave her my paper when I was done. I'm a terrible person to hang out with for breakfast because I can't get my head out of the paper. Keith also knew most of the crew at the diner by name although he was more familiar with the night crew. We set off for Houston at around 1pm. The show didn't start till 7 or so, so we weren't in a big hurry. Driving to Houston from Dallas? Not much to say about that. I did see a severely modified Blazer on a trailer at a gas station on the way. I'm guessing it was some sort of stock car racer or teenage fantasy car. It had about 1" of ground clearance and super low profile tires but it wasn't finished nicely enough to be a cruisin' and gettin' chicks car but it didn't look like a racecar either. In the battle between the Moon Pie and the Oatmeal Cookie sandwich, the Oatmeal cookie won and I bought one ($0.25). Gaaaah, it was sweet. Later on, we stopped at a gas station about 20 miles out of Houston to pee and buy a map. The station had some lousy septic system because they requested us to put paper in the garbage can, not the toilet. Eeewww, stinky! The map turned out to be very useful because Houston is a BIG city. We arrived at the Holiday Inn after passing through some very, very heavy rain. (Just like Florida!) I got the room for $40 on Priceline and it was only about 2 miles from the stadium. You could see the stadium from our room. We got changed and went to a little Mexican place around the corner. The salsa that came with the complementary chips (nice shirt! I like what you've done with your hair!) was hot. It was actually so hot as to be uncomfortable. Surely this was a sign of authentic Mexican food. Make it so hot it scares off the gringos. There were items on the menu that only a native would eat, like tripe tacos, or "beef guts," in the Spanish to English translation. Mmmmm. I had flautas. When we finally got to the show site, we encountered pretty heavy traffic. There was some odd zoning going on there near the university. We passed through a sort of college town main street/ strip mall area that abutted a residential street that had professional offices mixed in. (Maybe I"m the only one who notices this sort of thing.) Once we got to the parking lot, I set Keith loose with the DV camera. He managed to find the two young ladies from BD's trumpet section walking around the parking lot. They were smoking! Maybe that's how they stayed so thin. For the record, I don't think he was looking for them, he was looking for drum lines and horn lines and he did get some nice footage of Cadets, Phantom, Spirit, and BD. It had rained very hard there earlier, the same squalls we saw on the highway, and so everything was damp and humid. As I walked up the ramp to our seats, I passed the Cadets guard working on rifle tosses. They were about 20 feet below me and their rifles were flying up and spinning in front of my nose. That was a neat perspective for the guard work. Unfortunately, their outfits were too tight for me to see down their shirts. Darn. I bought a sausage and Coke from the Vietnam vets who were manning the concession stand. I try to thank vets for serving (in the military, not the sausage) whenever I see them in situations like this and I did this time, too. I hope they got a chance to see the Cadets' show. I was sitting next to a family that had really never been to a drum corps show. I was feeling kind of bummed out by the corps we had been seeing that day and the night before. Keith rightly took me to task for poor mouthing the corps in front of these people since it was probably the only show they would see this year, maybe ever. I set up my recording rig and proceeded to record the first 5 corps. I still missed the soft parts due to the auto record feature I had inadvertently activated. I also missed the Cadets for some reason. I listened to the recording and I heard the announcer say, "Drum Majors Sam Saunders and **** *****, is your corps ready?" and I heard myself answer, "No, they're not ready," because they were still setting up on the field. After that, nothing. I must have forgotten to take it off pause. Then, when the Blue Devils were warming up, a girl of about 16, wearing the yellow exSIGHTment of Sound shirt, told me to put away my recording equipment as it was strictly prohibited. OK, I conceded, I got busted so I put it away, trying not to pout too much. That was bad enough. Then, this other volunteer works her way into a seat behind me and starts chewing me out like a naughty student in boarding school! She's going on about how there's no recording allowed, blah blah blah. I told her I wasn't recording (I had put the gear away at this point), but she didn't catch the tense of my verbs because she said that 2 of her people saw me doing it and she would have the police come and escort me out of the stadium. I weighed in my mind how much I would enjoy telling her to stick it up her *** and throwing her off the upper tier with watching BD. BD won, so I meekly said OK and that was that. Still, I was steamed for some time. That wasn't necessary. If this woman ever gets any real power, you may want to consider moving out of the country. The corps that night seemed like they were performing under water. It was so humid, they might as well have been. The Cavies and the Cadets both got gonzo crowd response. We were up high, so I got a good look at drill. The Cavies are scary clean. I don't understand why BD isn't beating them in guard, though. I'm not a guard person, but it looks like BD's guard is far more together. Oh well. The Cavies are so strong in brass, percussion, drill, and GE that I think they're going to go undefeated. After the grand finale, we went down to the main level behind the stands and Keith was talking to a bunch of different Texas drum corps people he knew. Then, the big enchilada, Marc Sylvester, came into view and we ended up talking to him for about 45 minutes. I think Keith had a much easier time talking to him than I did. They're both artists and speak the same language. The most interesting thing I got from the conversation was Marc's statement that, "If the people in the stands aren't on their feet, then I haven't done my job." I don't understand why show designers think you need to have an opaque show to win, especially if a statement like that comes from one of the leaders of the activity. After we left, I whined about being tired but Keith talked me into going out again. Thanks, Keith! We had a great time. Again, if you want to hear about it, find me in Madison, cause I'm not going to post it on here! On a side note, we were supposed to look for Erin at the Houston show. Keith congratulated me for getting her to put the line "I don't consider myself hairy or bald," in one of her posts. (It was in response to my instruction to look for the "bald guy and the hairy guy.") I didn't realize how funny and inappropriate that sounded until Keith pointed it out for me. After we went out, we went back to the Mexican place where we had dinner (open 24hrs) and then went back to the hotel. We got to bed at 3:30am.

OK, here's part 1: So, I arrived in Dallas on Thursday, the 18th of July. As I was getting out of my seat on the plane, a guy behind me said, "Nice shirt." I was wearing my Cadets Hawaiian shirt at the time. It turns out he was Bill Speakman, one of the head honchos at YEA. We had a brief chat on our way to the luggage area where Keith (Inverted) was waiting for me. Keith and I picked up the rental, a Hyundai, and headed out for the wrong side of the tracks to get some barbeque. We stopped at Carter's, a building that hasn't seen new Formica since before Johnson was in office. Keith suggested I park my car near a window so we could keep an eye on it. Keep an eye on it through the bars over the window that is. The barbeque was everything I had hoped for. It was beef slices on wonder bread, wrapped in wax paper. $3. You just don't find that in Vermont, folks. We headed on over to Keith's after that. He lives in an old factory, a gin mill I think (cotton, not booze). It's been fitted with artist's workshops and Keith shares one of these with another artist, a painter. I checked out his spectacular stained glass creations and he gave me a tour of the building. Keith lives in an extremely cool building, all the walls are covered in various art installations, it's still industrial enough to be hip (you have to reach through an iron gate to unlock a padlock to get in) and not so refined as to be gentrified. Then we drove over to Lake Highlands to take in the BD practice/clinic. There were about 200 people in the stands. It was pretty hot, it made me wonder how I ever was able to stand out there for so many hours in that brutal heat. I guess the cool weather of New England has made me soft. We scoped two young ladies in boy shorts in the trumpet section that, well, they were really cute. One of them, in a part of the show where the horn line does a pose, holds her leg up, knee straight, by the ankle. I'm guessing she's done some dancing. Many times on this trip we sang the praises of Britney Spears for giving us the fashion trend of low rider pants and booty shorts. Yow. Oh! to be a dirty young man again instead of a dirty old one. While there, we ran into Sam. Sam is a friend we made last year at San Antonio. He marched 20 years in the USMC drum & bugle corps. He is in his 40's but looks about 28 and could probably bench press the Hyundai we were driving. Sam's old school. When we went out to his Jeep, he broke out the Coors Light and we listened to 70's 27th Lancers. In that parking lot in the hot sun of a Texas afternoon, I understood why American beer is so much like sex in a canoe. Try chugging a Guinness when it's 95 out! We all went out for Mexican before the show. Keith noted later that Sam scarfed a heroic ½ of his burrito in one bite. I was just glad to be having Mexican. There is no good Mexican in Vermont. We missed the first few corps at Lake Highlands. I set Sam up with my recording equipment, a MD player and a Sony stereo microphone. I found out later that I had accidentally set it to stop and start automatically based on input levels (It wasn't my player, it belongs to a friend of mine at work who is a friend of the singer for the Samples). The result of this was a set of recordings that only had loud parts. The quiet part of Cadet's ballad: gone. The trumpet solo in House of the Rising Sun: gone. Feh. Earlier in the day, Sam, Keith, and I were discussing Madison's recent poor placements. After the show, Sam had to concede that they deserved what they were getting. I think it made him sad to see them performing so poorly. For an old school drum corps guy like Sam to be so disappointed should be a wake up call for Madison. (Then again, they've been getting wake up calls for a while now.) Carolina Crown, in an amazing display of arranging and show design, has managed to put a show on the field that I like less every time I see it. What are they thinking?! A closer that isn't Barber's Medea but inspired by it? h###, Medea is on of the most reviled pieces of music ever put on the field (in some circles); a symptom of everything that's wrong with drum corps. The only reason Star got away with it (and whether they got away with it is still up for hot debate) was because they stuck close to the original, which is a great piece of music. Crown's "Medea" inspired closer is a mess. On the other hand, I do prefer their version of "Javelin" to Glassmen's and I'm always happy to hear something I recognize, in this case, "I'll Fly Away,"from Moulin Rouge. (Now why didn't somebody do a show based on that movie? I found Baz Luhrman's use of existing songs in his musical reminiscent of drum corps. I was hoping someone would do it.) I find myself humming (or trying to hum) Crossmen's opener more than any other piece of music I've heard all year. d###, that's a good tune and a good arrangement. I cannot believe they got 9th in San Antonio. I guess that speaks to the incredible level of talent in the top 12 this year. At Lake Highlands, the Xmen were the loudest horn line of the night, by a long shot. I asked Sam Saunders, Cadets DM and fellow Largo HS alum, what he thought of being the second loudest horn line in YEA. He said, "Been there, done that." Sam's a cool guy, he's the second major drum corps DM to come from my high school, the first being Gary Grothe, assistant DM in 86 and DM in 87 for BD. I really, really like BD's show this year for the most part. Everything except for "Channel One Suite" is magic. The ragtime is raggy, the "I Got Rhythm" (a faithful interpretation of the Rob McConnell arrangement) shows off the sheer talent of the corps and "House of the Rising Sun" is a drum corps moment I will be happy to say I was there for in the years to come. My only problem with "Channel 1" is the ending. It sounds like a marching band trying to imitate a drum corps. If BD can fix that, they'll be 2nd in Madison. (Nobody's going to beat Cavies this year.) The Cadet's show was the usual mayhem; lots of runs, fantastic guard work (2nd only to BD, in my book) and GE out the wazoo. Sam, the DM, told me later that night that they had had a pretty bad show. Maybe, but they were the only corps to get people out of their seats during their show. (This crowd was so dead that, when Madison came in 8th, behind Spirit, nobody booed.) I just had to go over to dci.org to find out that Boston and Bluecoats were also at this show. 4 days later, I had already forgotten. OK, there was something that made me very angry (it made a lot of people very angry) at the show in Lake Highlands. Some yahoo was squealing on his trumpet (possibly soprano) towards the stadium during the Cadets' show. It wasn't even playing a part or working out a solo, it was just noise that disrupted their show. I heard rumors of who it might have been, but nothing confirmed. Whoever it was, they deserved a good beating. After the show, we hung out with Sam the ex Marine some more. I suggested that they, Sam and Keith both former tenor players, get together and form a 2 man senior corps and march in parades. More beer was consumed and I talked to Sam the DM a bit more, too. After we left the parking lot, Keith cajoled me into going out to a club he knew of in the area. I met a nice young woman there. If you want to hear that story, find me in Madison and buy me some alcohol. It's a pretty good story. We got to bed around 4am.

I'd like to submit my experiences in Texas to your Performance Review forum. They're a little light on actual show reviews but I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. They were originally posted on the Blue Devils forum so there are a few references to members of that forum. (Mitch, Keith, sonja, etc.)

I'll second (or third as the case may be) that 85 Suncoast nomination. I marched in 86 and the section leader stood next to me and said that if I didn't play as loud as he did, he would punch me in the arm. You can hear him over the whole corps when the baris answer the soprano fanfare at the beginning of the show. Also, 85 Phantom. Sure, they sound like chainsaws, but they *all* sound like chainsaws so it's a pretty tight ensemble sound. And scary. This year, y'all need to check out Phantom again. Golly they're powerful! Did anyone notice how this discussion of baritones contains a large beer discussion? I don't think that's an accident.

w/Stp: I would have given the guard caption to PR also. They were so together on the white silks. I just unfocused my eyes to take in all the motion on the field (since it was wider than I could focus on) while they were doing their work. Flawless. I saw a lot of dirt when the Cavies were using flags, there were small ensembles, about 6 flags per, and they were not together. And Tim, thanks for the review and reminding me of the opening move of Bluecoats show! Remember the silks in SCV's show last year, how they went from morning colors to afternoon colors to evening colors? Bluecoats did that in reverse at the beginning of theirs, purple, indigo, blue, orange, and then finally, a single bright yellow flag made its way out of the block. Gorgeous.

Hey Sluggo! It was nice to meet you on Saturday and I'm glad you and Steve had something in common to talk about! I was hoping to find you after the show so I could show you the tape I was telling you about. Oh well. You'll see it soon enough.

I like 85 Suncoast a lot, but most people regard 86 Suncoast as the best line we ever put on the field. And, we beat BD and SCV in horns at their home shows that year.

1987 Suncoast, when we played inside a shopping mall in Jacksonville. ouch, ouch, ouch The loudest corps I ever heard that I wasn't playing in was probably 94 BD at Preview of Champions in Madison.

All these arguments are moot because the poll is invalid. Where's Suncoast?