MilesandCassius

I was in one in 83 with the Buccaneers of Merrimack Valley where we had a cross tempo of one beat for most of the concert number, I'm thinking we were off side to side for 1 1/2 minutes. Horrible. But 85 Finals with the Cadets at the beginning of Candide was the worst crash and burn we had all year. I'm still not sure what happened. On the field it felt like the world had ended for 5 seconds. After that, I remember recovering and thinking "OK, well that's that. Let's just show off. Because it's over." So we did. If you look at the broadcast, you'll see Hoppy actually leaving on the track before the show's over. Later he said that was one of the worst mistakes he ever made with the corps. His speech to us after our show before the scores was "Not this time. Sorry guys." Somehow, it didn't seem to matter. Most people didn't catch the mistake. But it felt shattering.

85. Having marched 85-86-87, 85 stands out as kind of a magical year. The corps was very seasoned, having only 22 holes from 84 in the hornline. The year also stands out as having almost a complete lack of drama internally. The veterans were legendary. Being a rookie, it was such a privledge to be a part of that corps. And the show itself was a players' show. Great music, great drill to march, really satisfying.

As a member of the '84 Alliance, Boston most definitely benefitted from Alliance folding, gaining a number of members including two of my good friends Julie Aucoin and Eric Gagnon, who went on to age out with Boston years later as color guard captain and drum major.

Not my favorite but easily my most memorable was the '81 recording (on tape!) with SCV. My first recording I ever owned. Wore it out of course. I bought it about halfway through the '82 season, my first season marching. I'd never heard professionally recorded drum corps before! Blew my mind.

Michael Klesch wrote '88. He started in '85 when the horn guy, (I won't mention his name, but he never wrote for the Cadets before) had like an emotional breakdown and had nothing ready for the season, so Klesch, then only 23-24 years old and the former drum major, started as the horn instructor in March or April I think. Ended up winning it all his very first year as a writer. Pretty talented guy.

Cadets always walk on the field in a block.

I think TrainWreck said it really well. I was impacted greatly by the years he marched. In fact, I had posters and pictures on my bedroom wall of BD. I marched because I wanted to be like TrainWreck, and I wanted to feel like he did on a football field as a kid growing up. And I, like TrainWreck, have had the ultimate satisfaction of being the inspiration to a newer, younger generation of performers. Firstly though, you're probably not going to get a lot of responses to this thread because the people who've won championships BITD by and large came up "through the ranks" of small drum corps and therefore know the entire activity pretty well, and most of us are going to find it a little distasteful to talk about how great it was to win, because it's bragging. All of us have respect for all corps members, from Open to C class. Winning was great, but it was a by-product of wanting to be the best we could be. I was fortunate enough to win in '85 and '87. Would it've been as thrilling if we just won a caption? Probably not. As nice as it is to win captions, winning it all means EVERYONE gets to feel great. It meant WE together were the best. I think my fellow corps members would agree that we cared if the colorguard were good or the drums or the horns were good. We were one corps. Not corps member(s)-plural, one. Winning as one reinforced that fact, and that's what made it satisfying. But I've said it before on these forums, in '86 it was a rough year in many ways and we ended up 4th. But I look back on that year as fondly as I do the other years I marched. I wouldn't trade those memories from that season for the world. Winning, caption or otherwise, is really great, but it's not why I or any of my friends marched. It was because of the people, the work ethic, the excellence, the pagentry, and the memories on the practice field.

Uuhhh, having marched in '86, I can assure you that having more horns is not always a good thing. But it's a different era, and the quality of instruction has gone way up, so I hope it works!

Remember when we would turn around to play on our own and play the exact same thing at the same time? And playing into the back of a certain California corps' warm up arc the night of finals, entertaining them (I'm sure!) by playing their concert number from '78? Good times, good times...

You know what? I don't remember. Honest to God. I remember winding our way through the parking lot single file humming "Simple Gifts", but how we got from the victory run to there, I don't remember.

Ironic that this came up as Dave Sullivan just passed away, (RIP Sully!) but Dave told me this story and always wanted the record straight. Dave was the baritone soloist in Bayonne in '80 and at I-don't-know-what-show, he was asked to play the National Anthem. As the show started, right on cue, Dave put his horn up and got through 3 or 4 notes when his valve froze! Thinking quickly he ran back into formation and grabbed the nearest kid's baritone he could find, ran back and played the Anthem. The crowd, knowing the Bridgemen, thought it was a joke! Half laughed, half were upset and he heard people complaining about how the "Bridgemen are such cut-ups they actually mess with the Star Spangled Banner!" He was always adamant that he wasn't screwing around, that it was the only thing he could do! Personally, I almost had the same thing. At some show when I was with the Cadets, I too played the Anthem solo on my baritone before the show, only to get to the second to last note, and feeling "home free!" when I fracked it big time! Grrr!! Lesson learned. Never let down your concentration.

Gotta disagree. In person '84 Garfield was an overwhelming experience. '83 was unbelievable and I remember thinking there was no way they could top it. In '84 they did. Someone said the hornline was bad, but remember, the equipment they were playing on was archaic. I joined in '85 on baritone (chrome DEG thank you) and spent that entire season marching next to a chrome valve/rotor contra. They weren't the most in tune, nor their tone the most perfect, but they were balanced, tight as hell, and LOUD. Incredible corps. Seeing them many times that year, I can't tell you how many times myself and the rest of the audience thought the end of "America" was the end of the show. It was that impactive.

Nice post and I agree: However, I think Garfield '87 was the first corps to use dance moves and ballet positions in the horns and drums as integral parts of the show. John Vanderkolff marched in the Garfield Cadets that year and went on to write for Star in '93. I think he wrote choreography for the horns in Star because he knew that horn players could do it. He'd done it himself.

And everyone thought that was a planted score with the idea that the last time Garfield and SCV met before finals they were tied. "Sell those tickets! Sell those tickets!" was the chant being yelled all over the place after the show at the US Open that year.

Sho 'nuff. Valley Airs at Ye Olde Manning Bowl.

I was waiting for someone to bring this one up. I can't find the topic in the Historical Drum Corps Forum, but that day was the craziest storm I'd seen in all my years marching. First of all, prelims was the hottest day marching I'd ever experienced. The old Busch Stadium was a bowl so no air circulated and it had aluminum bleachers for the sun, and astroturf. Walking on the Jumbotron said "141 Degrees on the field". True story. Performing was like working out in a sauna. That night we watched the storm approach and open up like I've never seen, being from New England. Within a minute the water pouring down the tunnels was almost a foot deep. Poor Star were on the field and just left all their circus equipment out there. 'Twas wild. Incredible storm.

Dude... I had that album! It's the opening from "Encounters of Every Kind" by Meco and it was a minor hit. I loved that album. Then again, I was 10, had never shaved, kissed a girl, or acquired any sense of taste or grasp of the sublime. Actually, yeah, it kinda sucked. Huh. Now I'm deflated. Anyways... That's a blast from the past. Hell, I won the world in '85, and then in '86 we did "Christopher Street", an "Ode to" the geographic central hub of, how shall we say, "alternative" lifestyle in NY. Not that there's anything wrong with that, just, well, it went over like a lead balloon. And this from the defending champs. We all have our crosses to bear. I empathize with you.

It's not.

I don't think any of this is true. People are getting their knickers in a twist about the OP when there's NO evidence that this is real. Even coming up with a name for this "Priory-of-Sion-esque" group of drum corps directors. I don't believe there's a Skull and Bones club existing for the expressed purpose of steering a summer youth activity. Nice try. I call Troll-bait.

The great Diane Gately on the far left.

Wow. That's the first time in all my years on this forum to see my first corps in print. At 10:55am, the Buccaneers. We would have gone on after Florida Wave?! Yeeesh. We would've got creamed. All for naught, as our bus driver got arrested a few days prior to departure and we couldn't get a replacement so we never made the trip to finals. A bummer. I jumped ship from there and went to Alliance in '84 which didn't field a corps, and eventually to Garfield in '85. Seeing the name Buccaneers in this context is a blast from the past! Thanks.

Hmmm... Which shall I pick... Hmmmmmmmm...

Back in '81, my first corps had 16 horns and 14 of us played. It was a great time to be sure, but watching the "big boys" made me want to do drum corps at that level. My only option was to move up. So I did, and had an incredible experience in open class for 3 years. It was the only way I was able to get my marching mojo met, if you will. Today, I think the level of expertise has gone up so incredibly that it's become an elitist activity. Not that there's anything wrong with that. The fact is that C, B, and even A class drum corps and the experience of marching at that level has largely been supplanted by marching bands. Marching band today is NOT the same activity it was 30 years ago. In fact, many, many marching bands today are on the calibre of the C, B, and A class corps of the late '70's and early 80's. Many marching bands at the highest level would easily make the top 25 of the lower classes. I would argue that there are in fact more young Americans in the marching arts today than at any time in the past. Not percentage wise, but just numbers. Marching band is huge nowadays. Now, is it the same as drum corps? No. The experience may not be as intense. But some programs are. Would I trade my class B experience for marching band? No. But for many young people, getting their marching mojo met is done at home, in the high school marching band. It's both a good thing and a bad thing. Everyone can do it. The performances are higher than they've ever been due to the talents of the staffs and the rich cultural history of the marching arts in total. Is it as comradre building as small local drum corps? I don't know. Certainly we all agree that there's something special about drum corps in particular because that's the reason we all communicate on this forum. I think all this is a big reason for the demise of the small corps. The niche has been filled by marching band which in turn is funded by the school committee making the finances a much easier issue.

6. Could've done 7, but I was tired, and then I had an accident and had my knee re-constructed during the off-season, so any second thoughts about marching my age-out were decided for me. I'm actually ok with not marching my final year. I did all I could do. Marching one more time would've been nice, but I'm not sure I would've got much more out of the activity.

LOL!