VKMello84

Have you thought about what a hardship it is going to be for some of these eastern corps to have to travel to the west coast this year with the fuel costs being so high? I was just thinking about this today. DCI gave them a large lead time to try to get their funding in order, but most could not have budgeted for the fuel cost they will end up with.

There was no other year that it could have been. This was the only year that I was in drum corps that Freelancers played off before us. I remember your playing Bellavia standing still and then marching off to Minotaur. This was the only time that I ever heard the corps play Bellavia live. Let's see how anyone else remembers this.

VK used a record skip in 1982 and 1983 as well.

I remember thinking at the time that this corps was going to be impossible to beat for years to come. I believe that they were undefeated the entire year. Then at finals "BOOM" third place. It was one of the few years where finals retreat was actually exciting.

Hello For the past few months I have been trying to get the word out about a Velvet Knights Alumni Group on Yahoo Groups. Currently, we have over 100 members with a couple hundred photos as well as other content available there. The group membership is restricted as an anti spamming measure, so you would need to apply for membership to view the content other than messages. Anyone indicating an interest in the corps is approved as soon as possible. While my main aim here is to try to piece together an alumni commuity of the original VK, anyone with an interest in the corps is welcome to join. http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/velvet_Knights_alumni/

I liked 1989 a lot. The very beginning of the show was just so exposed and so clean. That was a very effective show. The other year that stands out for me is 1983. Pretty entertaining and solid package overall. My favorite thing though was their drum major (I think his name was Carl). He was one heck of a showman. My favorite memory of Freelancers actually came in 1985 though at finals and no, it wasn't Barry and crew with their "M*O*N*E*Y*" blast. This was my third year in drum corps. I had done dozens of shows with Freelancers at this point. I had heard them warm up and play off at retreat numerous times. That night when they played off, they broke out with Bellavia. I had never heard them play that live before. I had no idea that the current horn line even knew that chart. I was truly blown away, especially standing about three feet away from them. It was awesome to see another example of a corps that had tradition they could break out when they wanted to.