Feet
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Posts posted by Feet
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Argh! It's too hard... all I can agree with myself on is:
1. 2000 - absolutely fantastic show, one of my all time favourites. And HARD!
(props to 2001 as well
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Agreed. And I still think there should of been a 1 point bump just for the look James gave after his bari solo. Haha
Agreed
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I'm telling you. After 99 the Murf show has been bad for SCV. And in some cases, really bad. I still remember 01. Wow it was rough that night.
I was just going to say I remember Murfs 2001!
Yep, it felt HARD work that night. I remember after we were like... well, we're 4th now. After tying 2nd at SA not long before and feeling we had a shot.
Let's hope '09 SCV break the spell! Excited they're scoring so well.
Mark
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I had to buy towels and new shorts after wrecking/losing all mine by the time we left California!
I still have one of the pairs of shorts now... good old Walmart
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what DCE/DCUK/IMBA bands are coming to the states?
does traveling to another continent help or hinder a corps' competitive season?
Hardly any UK corps make the trip. The last I think was Mayflower in 1995.
The cost is the main factor, it's just so expensive to travel over. Plus the time commitment from members who don't have long summer breaks and many of whom work full time.
Depressingly almost all UK corps who've been to the states have folded a year or two afterwards!
Props to Beatrix and Jubal who manage to programme a visit every few years. Must be a huge amount of work (and Euros!) that goes into that.
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The 2009 production, titled "El Relampago", is the second installment of an exploration into Latin American culture. It will feature Latin-flavored musical selections that are becoming the trademark of the Madison Scouts style.
?
Age old DC formula... Latin(+Loud) = Madison Scouts
Good luck in 09!
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Great review. Thank you
(A non booing Dutch Fan)
My pleasure. Congratulations on the brass title!
Look forward to seeing what Juliana do next year.
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Just some thoughts on DCE finals.
I hadn't seen anything this year, in fact, I've never watched a show as a fan apart from going to DCI finals a couple of times. So it was nice to kick back and just watch, especially when they're letting you sit in the stand with your beer(s)...
Very enjoyable set of shows. Unfortunately we missed Semis due to a monster train journey down from Amsterdam, but really glad 4 UK corps were in finals. Not many UK fans in the stand though? Probably due to the change of venue to Kerkrade?
Anyway. Apologies in advance for not really (ever) mentioning drums and guard... And apologies to Wolper Lowen, Starriders and Millennium for missing you.
Poynton are a really tight, professional corps. Very uniform look visually and they all march well, plenty of their members march as well as anyone else who performed that night. Brass line was controlled and used that control to really good effect, drawing you in to listening to the show rather than just waiting for the next "hit". Something built upon by Juliana and Senators later on. Not surprised they moved up, but I missed the German corps, so couldn't compare. Really impressed by the approach taken by Poynton, 7th in Europe is a huge achievement for a corps that has had to rebuild more than once over the years. They must have some very good people up there.
I really enjoyed Black Knights show. The kits in the pit worked well, but I was kind of expecting them to really cut loose - animal-off-of-the-muppets style, which didn't quite happen. It was a really entertaining show, particularly enjoyed a bit of Muse in there. They could probably do Rock shows for the next 10 years with all the material available. Look forward to seeing what they do next year. Hopefully they can get a drum line out, but it'd be a shame to lose the kits altogether, I'd like to see them developed more.
Juliana I only caught the 2nd half of, which looking back was a shame seeing as they jumped score so much and of course won high brass. From what I saw the brass line were good, very tight with a solid sound. I was surprised they won brass, I thought Senators had it, but not amazed as they obviously have some really strong players and a good approach to balancing their line. After years of being overshadowed by their drum line, I hope the brass enjoy it! Juliana seem to have moved on a lot over the last couple of seasons. Maybe being a smaller Dutch corps has helped them adapt their style quicker to a more "UK" approach e.g. demanding visual and brass books performed to a high technical standard. I thought they would be nip and tuck with Kidsgrove and in the end they were only a few tenths off finishing third.
Kidsgrove had a really strong show. The first half I liked a lot and their version of Send in the Clowns was excellent, with a quality Bari soloist. The brass line had a good sound, and the 6 contras definitely had a say. Visually they might be the most striking corps under floodlights, really bright uniforms. Their drill was as effective as always with plenty of well performed set pieces, but some of the execution wasn't as tight as it might have been. The second half of the show I didn't get into as much. One section moved around a lot of familiar themes, entertaining, but I kind of lost the direction of the show. The closer I enjoyed, but it reminded me of Malaguena and that distracted me a bit, but I appreciated the nod to Kidsgroves history of latin jazz programmes. Overall really entertaining, and like I said I had them close with Juliana.
Jubal I really liked and thought they'd beat Beatrix. The first minute of their show was on fire and the brass line tore-it-up. Visually they seemed to be upping it from previous years and I saw more movement from them than Beatrix. I found them really entertaining and you could tell they were fired up after 3rd place last year and wanted to get back into the top 2. I was surprised that in the end they only just held onto 3rd.
Beatrix had a solid show that just didn't grab me. I can't put my finger on why. The brass had a great sound, the guard I really noticed, particularly in their Devils-like dance section. I think I expected a stronger performance from individual members seeing as they'd had all that time together in the states. Despite the visual design not being as challenging as others, I expected it to be clean as a whistle and that would put them in the mix. In reality visually it wasn't as tight as I'd hoped and the programme/music choice just didn't feel like it hung together very solidly. I loved the ballad though, which was probably the best musical moment of the night.
Senators simply took it up a level. Lots of people have said lots about it, but in the first minute you could see the difference in program and performance. I was surprised how obvious it was, not having seen anything this year. I'd thought the semis spread was surprising, but seeing the show it was totally justified and I think increased in finals? Just a great show that the corps nailed completely. I was amazed at the standard they've achieved with the number of rehearsals they've had. Individual commitment from the members was through the roof.
So are the Dutch right to be disappointed? For all their friendliness and relaxed attitude to ... everything, the Dutch can be sore losers! (Booing on retreat? Bad form old chaps) Especially now they haven't won for two years. The novelty of the "little UK corps" winning last year has worn off I think.
The Dutch corps are good. Caption-wise they are mixing it in Guard, Brass and Drums, all won by the Dutch this year. But they don't have the overall programme or the level of delivery to match Senators at the moment. I'm interested to see what they do next year.
Northern Star showed in 05 and 06 that a UK corps could potentially win DCE with a much smaller membership but with smarter programming and ensuring excellence while performing higher demand visual and (to a lesser extent) musical books, in short - Working Harder both in rehearsals and during the show. Senators have now nailed this twice, and who'd bet against them next year?
The Visual book and the way the top UK corps perform a high level of visual demand is obviously a big difference, and was with Northern Star as well as Kidsgrove. But I think there are two things at the moment that really set Senators apart.
One is the musical book. Having Andrew Markworth write the brass, pit and drums gives them such a well constructed and balanced sound. As well as that, the music book must be a dream to clean up. No more 3, 4, 5 writers and techs huddled together trying to find out where that extra beat is coming from, or why a dynamic doesn't line up. Also, the standard of the writing is great, complex arrangements and just some really class touches.
You also get all the transitions and developments in the programme from one persons mind, so ensuring a clarity and consistency of style and ideas that can sometimes be lost when "writing by committee" with what might be a great drum moment masked by over enthusiastic pit or brass scoring from a different arranger.
This would then have to be balanced out or re-written in rehearsal, or just missed altogether, and that drum moment never pops out.
The second is consistency of delivery. Every single set, flag move, horn move, passage of music is executed to a high standard and delivered with the intensity normally reserved for the last 30 seconds of a show. That generates an excitement and momentum of performance that other corps just don't achieve. Other corps have fairly obvious peaks and troughs in their performance and to a lesser extent their written programme. You can feel Jubal and Beatrix et al building up to a hit or a "moment" in the show, and when it arrives it's great, but the minute or so before that moment is instantly forgettable.
Senators keep up a constant level of performance and execution and the cumulative effect of seeing set after set hit cleanly and hear lick after lick of music ring out is really powerful. That level of consistency is almost all down to individual members committing to be where they need to be, playing what they need to play and doing it with heart that really sells that execution.
Congratulations!
All in all a brilliant set of shows, great to see the UK with the majority of the finalist corps, an excellent stadium and even the weather was great. DCE really impressed me.
Only complaint is that Kerkrade is MILES away and there's NOTHING else there. The train station is literally two tracks and a ticket machine, not even a bus shelter! I hope they move DCE back to the north, or at least centre of Holland for next year. I think it'd encourage more UK fans to go over.
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Watch Drum Corps Europe finals in Holland, September 29th?
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class... brings back all those "good morning santa clara"s, not that Darth was there...
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I love it, but I don't understand it?
How the **** did this kick off?
Cheers
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I haven't read any times regarding the shows in any other forums. I know that The Cavaliers show time has come up, and Bluecoats time has been mentioned too. But I haven't read anything about the times of BD or SCV's shows from this weekend.
There's a YouTube up of one of SC's weekend shows and the drill is static at the end.
Great hornline this year!
GO SC!
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There's so many great ballads...
My vote would be between SCV 99 (fantastic Baritone solo from Mr Gerard) and Cadets 2001.
Despite really wanting to go for SC, I think it's going to be Cadets seeing as I have a little story around that tune.
I remember Cadets playing Vide Cor Meum at one of the early Cali shows in 2001 (might have been Concord?) we'd just been on and had a great show. Rick was talking to the corps off the side of the field. We were circled up and I was stood with my Euph boys (and girls) it was a gorgeous evening, really clear and warm, and behind us the Cadets were playing their ballad... and it sounded beautiful.
That was the moment that it really hit me I was "doing DCI". One of my best memories from that summer.
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also when you first receive them they'll be tightly curled up. a lot of time and patience has to be spent to straighten them out and help them look glorious.
Yeah, good memories :)
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Saturday 23rd September
Sparta Stadium
Spartapark Nord
Rotterdam
Open Class
DAP
Southwest Union
DIO
Willem Eggert
Jong-Holland
Fidele Vogelsanger
Distant Thunder
6th Hove Scouts
Juliana
Starriders
Break
Black Knights
Federatieband
Wölper Löwen
Northern Star
Senators
Beatrix
Jubal
A great day is expected with the best drum corps in Europe coming together for probably the best day of drum corps across Europe. Much excitement surrounds the fight between the big 4, Beatrix, NL (the reigning champions), Jubal, NL, Northern Star , UK and Senators, UK.
Looking forward to a great day - hope to see you there!
Unfortunately I can't make it to DCE, but my thoughts will be in Rotterdam while I'm throwing shapes at the wedding disco...
I've signed up to the DCE SMS score alerts, will be interesting to see if that works?
Feet
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Why is it that the 90's has the majority of great endings? The 00's, with only a handful of exceptions, don't seem to wrench you out of your seat like the "old days"? Are we more refined now?
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I'm really looking forward to attending DCE finals this year, I've never been before and now as I'm teaching I might actually get a chance to watch some corps at a Drum Corps show! At least in the car park if nothing else.
I really think the top 5 you've listed could finish in any order.
Have a good few weeks off,
Mark
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Crown wins:
GE Visual
Visual
Colorguard
Ensemble Music
SCV wins:
GE Music
Ensemble Visual
Brass
Percussion
And SCV wins by .3, mostly due to winning Percussion by 1.5+
89.05 Cavaliers
84.75 SCV
84.45 Carolina Crown
80.20 Spirit
72.25 Mandarins (I doubt their scores will pick up where they left off)
68.00 Magic
64.50 Pioneer
70.25 Revolution
Go SC!
And Go Crown, in case anyone see's their 4th bass Steve, say hello for me and from his other Senators buddies :)
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Yeah, I know. I can't access it either.
The only National Express coach that would take me there is over a five-hour trip, somehow. Honestly, it's not hundreds of miles away! What gives? Anyway, I'll keep checking DCUK. Thanks.
Hi Mike,
DCUK shows run during the day rather than in the evening, so I'm sure Aldershot would be wrapped up by about 6pm at the latest, probably earlier.
I don't think it'd be easy to make Aldershot from Brighton by train, or National Express (at 5 hours it sounds like they might go into London first then back down?) But there might well be corps members from Brighton who are travelling to Aldershot on the day?
A message on the DCUK page discussion group could work?
Mark
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All-in-all, a great show! DCUK seems to be on par with DCA A Class, and it was great to watch them. Thanks from the USA!
Thanks for the review. Nice to hear an independant view point, something we sorely miss in the UK Drum Corps scene!!
Cheers.
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Clips of Vanguard 2006 - PP video on the website. Can't wait to see it in more solid form in a couple of weeks.
and the person below me is listening to ???
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Not in competition....
The three corps will meet the 30rd of June in Dordrecht on Evening with the Stars, a tattoo with Glassmen which Jubal organized, but it's not judged.
So unfortunately, that's how it is. I think DCE should have put up a regional like Courtrai last year in the end of June with most of the corps participating, but they choosed not to, so I guess the Championships will be very exciting with most of the corps not even competed against each other before.
30th June sounds like a good evening in Dordrecht.
Are you coming over for the East of England Invitation show with Glassmen on the 2nd July?
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This Saturday the second DCN Contest of the season will be held in Hilversum, which makes it a homeshow for Beatrix and Jong Beatrix. The contest shows a very strong field in the A-Class, which should be exciting!
Here is a list of all the corps entering in order of appearance:
Cadet Class:
Jong DAP
Johan Friso
Jong Beatrix
Percussion Class:
Harpe Davids
A-Class
Southwest Union
Showband 75
DIO
Willem Eggert
Open Class:
DAP
Die Tambourijnen
Beatrix'
Do Beatrix, Jubal, Northern Star not meet at any shows until DCE Championships? (apart from the Jubal/ N Star show a few weeks ago)
Santa Clara Vanguard...
in DCI World Class Corps Discussions
Posted
What Clint said!
Go SC