migs

Having worn both the Riverboat uniforms and the Cesario designed 86 uniforms, I can tell you I loved the old orange coats. They weighed a ton, but were different to anything else out there. As for music, I will be biased, of course, but 85 was just an amazing year musically, and we had a hornline good enough to do it justice. This was after the Greg Blum era, but we still had Dave Lang, and a whole plethora of great sopranos.

For me, a little more room to the right would have made a great pic even better. In terms of exposure, extremes of the dynamic range, together any kind of shadow over the face in a night shot is a pain to deal with, and he did it really well. Also, In terms of fixing the moire problem, it can be done with hefty noise reduction, but the image itself degrades considerably, almost to the point of having a chrome filter applied...

On the old Colts buses, the centre 4 seats faced each other. In 86, 4 of the Contras had one side and we managed to arrange our legs in some weird sort of criss cross, which meant we all had tons of room. It was no mean feat, seeing as one of us - Hal Kleinsmith - was about 8 feet tall. By the way, when I arrived on tour at DCM in 86, as a vet (doing a full season from the UK was almost unheard of in those days), the 3 other Contras had actually saved me one of those seats. A stronger feeling of being wanted, I don't think I've ever felt. Cheers Bart, Hal and Mike!

Whether you replied or not, something went right for them. The 2nd Brighton were, IMHO, the best of the early UK drum corps but never won a championship until 1984, the year after they broke from the scout movement and became the Imperial Knights. Brighton has supported it's share of succesful drum corps and colour guards through the years.

1986 in Madison. See that ruggedly handsome Contra player on the Colts page in the '87 DCI yearbook? That's me, and what an age-out gift from DCI. Add to that the interview I did in '85 for the Colts' paragraph in the '86 yearbook (before they started giving full pages to non-top 12 corps), and I have enough to remind me I was once that young and that physically fit

Suncoast Sound 1984 Although other corps had included certain elements of controversy, Suncoast's 84 show was all about the 60's and the peace movement. It created quite a stir at the time, seeing as how the cold war was still in full swing at that point.

Shows I keep returning to. Some based on seeing them live, some on DVD and some no more than the music... Muchachos 1974 - One of the greatest shows ever. Phantom 1979 - I still get the urge to stand and scream like a girl when the horns kneel down in Elsa's SCV 1982 - I don't care if Bottle Dance fell apart, really I don't. It's one of those "wish I'd been there" moments Garfield 1985 - This show, for me, took the activity to a whole new level Colts 1985 - For personal reasons, but I still love this show SCV 1987 - To see this show in the flesh was to be in the presence of greatness Madison 1988 - Needs no justification Colts 1993 - When I got the phone call to say the corps had made Finals, I almost cried.

Without knowing that Madison had won seni-finals by a country mile, that night was the greatest of my Dcrum Corps spectating life. I didn't fancy Madison to win and still think Blue Devils were probably the better corps on the night but what a night to be a drum corps fan. Add, as well, Garfield taking 2 1/2 points off Madison and over 2 off Phantom to go from 5th to 3rd in 1982.

I've drifted in and out of discussion forums and newsgroups for years, and have seen this debate a million times. I can assure you it's the same in every country that has drum corps or band season, however small. What's constant is that the "old" people always seem to have an interest in drum corps in the years before, during and after they were involved, whereas the "young" people only seem to be interested in the activity during the present and recent past. I can't tell you why this is, but it's a theme which runs through all discussion groups. There seems to be a line at about 1995 which divides the 2 groups. I sometimes wonder whether it's the "winning is everything" society we now live in, where our own competition is all that's important, and everything else is irrelevant. Anyway, my vote, for what it's worth is to keep it separate. I've spent many happy hours in the past few days browsing through here, and I'd hate to have to wade through a mass of almost unreadable drivel in order to pick out the good stuff. The butchery of the English language is something I don't want to get started on. Disclaimer: I know there are exceptions to all this, so don't bother.