East

I don't think its a member-talent issue, certainly for the top corps; there's a large percentage of these corps who are DCI vets, with many other members missing out purely due to lack of funds/lifestyle choice, etc. I think it is much more to do with rehearsal schedule and staff experience. European corps only rehearse at weekends, many taking a month off in the summer as well. Additionally, all staff are volunteers, with non-band jobs to go to during the week (High School marching bands are extremely rare in Europe!).

Agree with that.. And I agree that the are very Senators-like (understandable considering some of the people involved). I guess it was your comment about most of the members being ex-Senators that made me reply - I think there are two (may be wrong though).. The corps organisation is (again, as far as I'm aware) is an "evolution" of Northern Star.. Anyways, a good show from Co and Kidsgrove.. I think Kidsgrove have it...

I think you mean Northern Star rebranded.. They have a few ex Senators staff and small number of ex-Senators members, but I believe are 90% ex-Northern Star.. And they are up now...

It's back again - http://www.drumcorpseurope.org/home/webcast.html#

Well, as far as I know there's no plans for the main corps to travel to the US just yet. Thinking longer term, being an open-age corps as it is now, I would love the corps to tour in DCI like Beatrix/Jubal do, and who knows, possibly one day compete for a title in DCA - How cool would that be.. As it is though, we're going to enjoy our first major finals outside of DCUK Saturday week in Rotterdam, that should be great! However, thats not to say you won't be seeing a Senators unit in the US very shortly.. All the best, Kev

Kevin, If you're still interested, video clips have now been added to the Senators site: Senators Media Clips. All the best, Kev

I'm not completely sure on the development of the age rules, I know that in the BYBA the three overage members has been in for a number of years, but I believe that 1999 was when this rule entered DCUK. That year we had a 30(ish) year-old rookie march in Senators :)

Hi Dan, Currently there are two open-age corps in Britain, Senators and Northern Star. Senators became open-age this year, and I believe Northern Star became open-age in 2005. Both corps are competing at DCE finals this year, with Senators also doing exhibitions at DCUK shows (where the age limit is 25 with 3 "over-age" members also permitted) and Northern Star also competing on the BYBA circuit (this has similar age restrictions to DCUK, however Northern Star I imagine are dropping a number of "over-age" members for those shows to fit into the competition rules). I believe the sort of number are as follows: Senators, c.65 members, with approximately 20 over 25 Northern Star , c.55 members, with approximately 10 over 25 (Someone might like to confirm these figures??) The way things are going at the moment, I would not be surprised if both DCUK and BYBA introduce a competitive division for open-age corps next year, allowing more UK corps to march over 25's and therefore compete on a more level field with corps in mainland Europe which are not bound by age restrictions.

Hi Nick, When tears start flowing something is wrong, I was hoping that post would have some impact, but going from today on the DCUK discussion page, obviously not. Its not that people don't have the right to an opinion, but there is a way of getting thoughts across without resulting to repetitive abuse, and that is something that the drum corps community as a whole in Britain really has to learn - both the DCUK dicussion page, and the DGUK are a total disgrace, forums such as this and drum corps talk put us to shame! Anyways, hopefully all the abuse will die down, and people will start concentrating on the important things, such as the future of the activity. Maybe a thread along those lines would be worthwhile in a controlled environment such as this. Hope to see you at the Glassmen show in July.. All the best, Kev

With all the organisations now in Europe, things are a bit complicated if you're looking in from the outside.. The corps will be competing at DCE (what is now regarded as the European dc finals), but exhibiting at DCUK shows during the season (DCUK is the competitive circuit for junior corps in the UK only). Hope that makes sense, Kev

Kevin Recordings & Video clips from later in the season will be available on the Senators site shortly. FYI, the two mp3's currently on the site were made just a week after switching horns mid-season from G to Bb. For the time being, I've pasted a link to another clip from the 2005 DCUK warm-ups thats been doing the rounds on Google Video, and I've made two audio rips from the originals if anyone wants them: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9...38&q=drum+corps - Welcome to Cuba Cuba mp3 (pre-finals 2005) Mission Impossible mp3 (pre-finals 2005) All the best Kev

If you're interested, I have tons of pictures of the 2003 DCUK Champions: 2003 Pictures page 1 2003 Pictures page 2 Enjoy!

Mainland Euope think yourself lucky, the last time England had a DCI-corps visit was the Madison Scouts in 1988 (who ofcourse went on to win DCI finals), although we did have the Empire Statesmen visit us in 1998 (of course, they then returned home to win DCA finals).... wait a minute.. Why dont more corps come over here, guranteed championship victory :) It would be great if both Cadets and Devils would visit England, both have large numbers of alumni here (especially Cadets, who could probably field a full-size corps of British alumni).... I know BD tried to get DCUK to sponsor them in 2000 during their European visit, I hope this isnt the plan this time as it would financially cripple DCUK.... Iheard BD might try to compete in the 2004 world showband championships in England, is this still the plan???? (btw the last corps to win this title in England was Empire Statesmen in 1998)

Cainan, Just to let you know, the DCI DVDs are multi-regin so they work fine on British (and European) players. I ordered the 2002 set recently and the quality is great (even on my region 2 player!).. Kev Smith BAC 2001 Senators (UK) 1999-present Blue Jackets (UK) 1989-1998

I'll try and answer these as well as i can... For Open Class (the top division) , i guess the average corps size is about 45-50 members. Usually around 20 brass, 9-10 field percussion, 6 in the pit and about 10 guard (obvously numbers do fluctuate).. The number of members has gradually gone down since the 80's where many corps were 100+ strong, however the demand on members and individual technique has gone up ten-fold... This year there were 12 Open Class corps, the junior class and cadets class i guess had similar numbers, but amazingly only 1 A-Class corps. There are both G and Bb corps, this year a Bb corps won the championship (Southern Aurora) and a G corps won high brass (Senators). The competition season is totally different to the states. In England there is only a 6-week break in the summer so there really isn't enough time for a full tour. Instead corps rehearse and compete on weekends, with the top corps taking a week off school/college/work for a week before finals to clean things up... Similar to the "super-6" in DCI, there are certain corps in DCUK which are really in a league of their own.. In the 80's we had the Dagenham Crusaders (who made a brief DCI apperance), Conquest Alliance, Southern Knights (who made a brief DCA appaerance) and the Blue Eagles (who also did DCI one year). In the 90's the 2 dominant corps were Blue Eagles (7 time DCUK champions) and the Senators (the only corps still active to have won more than 1 DCUK title (currently 4)). Currently the top DCUK corps are Senators, Southern Aurora, Cadence and i guess Encore can now be added to the list... Hope this has been some help...