bass5

OK, for what its worth in the iconic old school photo from 1976 (unofficially of course) Left to right: Fred Bell, Ron Luce, Scott Beckman, Tony King, Brad Sherer and Todd Ryan. Now I won't feel like such an ### when I'm asked who's in the "old school photo" that was taken in a year I marched.

Yeah, that's why you never wanted to get stuck between 2 tall guys, you always looked like a slacker if you had "low knees". By the by, I got a PM with some more names so have them all (almost): starting at the left Freddy (need last name), Marty Mason (Jim's "little brother"), Scott Beckman, Tony King, Brad Sherer & Todd Ryan.

Well I just watched '75 Whitewater (from the DCI documentary of Scouts facebook page) and during the opener they have 2 or 3 shots of Chris (on the 50 of course) and he & Moto have their feet up to their knees (or pretty #### close) so I guess that "fact" can be put to rest. I do agree with your with Brad S. pick and Scotty makes sense so we're down to 2 guys we need to figure out on the left side. I do have one of the "Old School" tee shirts with that image. Sorry endy 29, I think all the guys you have listed except Metzger were gone by 76 and of course he's on the 50.

I know this photo was shot in 1976 but can only name 2 guys in the photo, Todd Ryan far right and Tony King 3rd from right. Can any alumni from back in the day help me out with the others.

The "49th year in DCI" must be a typo unless I aged 20 years over night. First of all this will be only the 38th year of DCI and unless they're counting the years of the St.Patrick's Imperials I believe Pioneer started somewhere around 1974 or 1975. That being said, I'm really looking forward to this show. Lots of very emotional tunes perfect for drum corps.

Hey Bill, I'll buy you a beer chaser for your cool aid if you make it up for the annual mtg. tomorrow night. Mike

The Hershey show was in the daylight if I remember correctly and this looks like its at night. I also don't remember the stadium at Hershey being very big and this looks like a pretty big venue. I was a tad hung over that day so the memory is a bit foggy.

One of the great things about being in the alumni corps was hearing stories from "really back in the day" from some of the alumni from the early Scouts. They would go to "Camporees" and "Jamborees" where they would sleep on the ground in pup tents. In the late '40s they went to Europe to the International Boy Scout Jamboree in France and were the only musical representative from the U.S.

Well it probably would be painful to watch anyway.

Just a brief comment on the Geno/Tom war of words. If I'm not mistaken, Tom Brace has stated on DCP that he contributes to the Madison Scouts and I know he continually encourages people on here to do the same. That's a hell of a lot more than I can say about the majority of Scouts alumni I marched with in the alumni corps in 2006. It brings to mind the ad campaign for the Milwaukee Symphony back in the '70s when I lived there "Don't Applaud, Send Money".

It would be interesting to see a video of the Scouts at DATR in 1976. There is an audio recording but to my knowledge no video has ever been released of Madison's first show that year.

Roark, Both 75 & 76 videos are on the Scouts facebook page. I just relived my youth again right here at work. Every time I see the "wedge" in Rhapsody I think about learning those show revisions in Whitewater in the pouring rain.

Listening to either 75 or 76 Chris Metzger's treatment of the clarinet solo hardly sounds like it was "mashed into a horn part".

30+ years later people still tell me that Slaughter is their favorite drum corps tune ever. Can't wait to hear what this team of arrangers will do with it. Suggestion to the visual designers: a company front may work well with this piece.

That is indeed the 1938 corps photo, the first year of the Madison Scouts.

We took 51st that year, my first trip to VFW Nationals. I remember going on really really early in the am. Thinking about it that left 51 corps that didn't make finals to be in the stands that night. With staff and volunteers it probably accounted for 4,000 + fans.

I believe Phantom was the only corps in the top 17 not to use synths this year (someone correct me if I'm wrong) - I pick them.

I agree that Dann and Chris did their best in handling a tough situation by talking to the guys etc. but your example really doesn't cut the mustard for me. If they decided to replace the bass drum line with the concert bass drum in the pit and the entire section was eliminated then that would be a comparable situation. These guys definitely "will never walk alone" in life because they were Madison Scouts and will always be Madison Scouts. What don't you understand about them being a bit taken back by their section being eliminated, especially when it was one of the top lines in the country.

Well you're right about that! The Scouts cymbal line is gone (AGAIN) and there are a #### load of people mad about it.

Thanks for handling this with an air of class 'cymbalmom'. Matt marched in 2 of the best cymbal lines Madison has ever had. Having played cymbals myself for the Scouts (back in the stone age) I still can't get it in my head that they cut the line AGAIN after all the work that Pepper and the guys put in the last 2 years bringing the line back after that 5 or 6 year hiatus. Best of luck to Matt, Vinnie, Gabe, Alex and Pepper in whatever the future has for them. This is one alumnus that will miss one of the best cymbal lines in the country.

The guy posting the "it's official" response is in the cymbal line so I think we can safely assume that it is not conjecture.

If I'm not mistaken Cajun, who is still active in the U.S. Army, was deployed to Iraq in 2009 or he probably would've been helping out with the Scouts last year as well. I got to know Cajun a bit in 2008 during my "ride guy" gig and it will be great having him around the Scouts again. Truly a top notch Madison Scout alum. Nice to read positive things about the other newly announced techs.

Worth a lot to this old plate crasher. Lets hope it's worth the Scouts keeping their plate line.

I have 2. Being on the field at finals in Philly at the end of the Scouts show in 1975 and knowing we had nailed it - the crowd was going nuts through out the show but at the end they were absolutely crazy. 31 years later at Camp Randall at the end of the Scouts Alumni Corps show - waiting to troop the stands and just soaking up the crowd response.