Tekneek

Since each corps has already had all this time to work out the kinks, I think they need to decide whether to judge them or take them off the field. By many accounts, amplification has not really been judged since its introduction. You could argue that they've been getting a free ride to work out the kinks and the problems aren't going away. It's time to decide if you want to start losing points for your bad amplification or simply leave it on the truck. So, in other words, the moratorium accomplishes nothing (other than teasing fans with an amp-less experience, only to see it return the next summer).

I simply cannot wait for the days when each corps comes out and does sound checks with their amps before the show starts. Then we will get to see some GREAT INNOVATIONS in the activity... After a half hour of running stops and starts, and warmup songs to get the balance right, we'll get a beautiful 10 - 11 minute show, and all 6 drum corps actually left in the activity can play to the smallest audiences in DCI history. :(

Now you could just have a standup routine on the field. You won't have to rely entirely on visual gags thanks to amplification. I wish somebody could pull off a parody of The Cadets.

I was surprised just how different some guards were when you got up close and personal on tour compared to what it seemed like from the stands and on video. So, it is best to find out from the corps you want to march with because what it may seem like from the outside is different than what it is like once you get there. Still, you are going to have to fit the 'look' they are going for. A lot of people of various sizes can mix into a horn line and often do, but you don't see much out of the 'norm' in drumlines or guards. It's unfortunate. Disney doesn't just have weight requirements, they also have height requirements. Some of the best performers at WDW are relegated to lower roles simply because of their height.

####. I wonder how I managed to avoid gold bond on tour. Especially since I can't make it through a family vacation to Walt Disney World without it these days. I was lucky back then. All I got on tour was pneumonia, right at the beginning of championships week.

That is an issue for the old Velvet Knights entity, its Board of Directors and officers. I suspect it has little bearing on the new entity in any legal sense.

That isn't unethical. That's the way it works. They aren't "changing the name." They've created an entirely new business with a different name. They may claim inspiration from the Velvet Knights entity, but they are not the same entity. Nothing unethical about this at all, from best I can determine. You can call it nostalgic, or lacking creativity, to use the same logo as that previous entity, but unless the Velvet Knights entity sues them to prevent the usage, they are free to do so as I understand the law.

March corps. It may change your life. I would hope that the other organization would understand how important this opportunity is to you and how you would love to return to help them out in the future. If they don't want you pursuing your goals, you might want to change the way you think about them.

When I was in high school (1988-1992), I can remember seeing a marching band at a competition that had a guitar. They marched it too, and I seem to think there was an extra member or two pushing around an amp or something that the guitar used. It was a long while ago, but I got a great laugh out of it. It was easily the loudest part of the show.

At least one person that did this was looking for money. I don't know if they would have refunded all funds when it went bust, but it seemed a bit scammy to me. Are you doing this in the Atlanta area? I would love to get a corps going. I wouldn't be very useful from a teaching end, but I can work hard (when time is available). I've been thinking for a while that I would love to start a non-profit that might one day operate a corps, but until that time could sponsor members into corps or just sponsor particular corps. I have not put anything on paper yet so it is just something swirling around in my mind right now. As far as the thread goes, I agree that there is no shame in not having marched corps. I don't think it devalues an opinion about the state of the activity. After I marched, my opinion on the activity has forever been shaped by having spent one summer on the inside. I am pretty sure I have no idea what the non-marching fan thinks of the activity anymore because of that. I find myself stuck wanting things to be the way they were back in 1993 for the most part. Also, anyone who rips on another person for their corps placement is scummy. I busted my ### all that summer for a 17th place finish and I won't let anybody take away from that. We worked long days and paid a lot of dues for the opportunity to go on first at Semifinals. One thing that non-marchers can do that devalues their opinion is try to make fun of someone who actually marched because of where their corps placed that summer. Like I said before, I think it takes being on the inside to understand that every corps works very hard all summer regardless of where they come in at Championships. A 17th place finish does not mean they were 17th in hours worked to achieve that goal. I knew kids that had this sort of attitude.

Incredible. How did someone like that even know who Royer was? To me, it seems impossible to know who he was without knowing what happened to him. One thing I learned over the summer that I marched is that the experience from inside a corps is so completely different than what it would seem like from the outside. I can't see how anyone could pull off these ######## stories when confronted by anybody who has marched drum corps. It may work amongst their band buddies, but I firmly believe that you have to live through a drum corps summer yourself to know what it is really like and pretenders can be discovered because of that.

:lolhit: That is great. I can almost hear somebody saying it!

Obviously you would have to buy good equipment if you wanted to start, or improve, a bus charter business. If you bought an existing successful one, all of those bases would be covered. Maybe it doesn't make sense to get into it today, but it seems like it could be a hedge against other expenses to have some ownership stake in transportation that you could fall back on. No doubt it is capital intensive, for sure, and most startups are going to have to look elsewhere unless they have a lot of money to jump right into the deep end. My personal experience with drum corps involves trying to make a go of it on membership dues, donations, souvie sales, show money, and perhaps trying to manage some idea of a 'sponsorship' that may not ever actually pan out. This can lead to a corps coming up short on funds before tour is even over and only those with more love for the corps than proper financial sense bail them out so kids aren't left on the side of a street somewhere. There are lots of small businesses that can turn profits into the millions per year. I was an employee of two such companies while in college and despite having no more than 20 employees at any given time, they made lots of money. If someone were able to tie just one of those to a drum corps, they would be on pretty solid financial footing. If you could somehow pull together three or four of them, there would never be a worry. I know these were very well-performing small businesses, but you never succeed without trying. Maybe times have changed and most, if not all, corps try to do a better job today with it (of course, so many are gone now) but in the early nineties financial problems seemed to be a big part of the activity. Could a charter bus company 'donate' bus service to a non-profit drum corps? I'm not sure what sort of accounting you might be able to do along those lines that would help both the corps and the bus company.

I only met one person who claimed to have marched when he had not. The truth was discovered in quick order and he turned out to actually be a nice guy. Worse than people making up fictional corps affliations/memberships (to me, at least) are the people who say every year they are "starting up a drum corps" and it never gets beyond the business cards and hype talk they bring to marching band practices. I don't know if other people had that happening in their areas, but it happened almost every year in the North Atlanta area in the early-to-mid 90s.

This is brilliant. I had been wondering when/if somebody would do something like this. It's the only way to get some control over fuel expenses. If prices somehow go down below the prices they are locking in, you just buy the cheaper fuel.

I picked the broadcast moving to ESPN2. I'm not sure the other 'innovations' have really improved the product in a way I find appealing or necessary.

I don't get this list... but I'm sure at least one bus had a cone on it in 1993. I remember watching a Southwind contra leaving retreat with a cone hidden away in the bell at Mid-America.

Ok. I admit I don't know a lot about the charter bus business. I do know that there aren't enough "Open Class"/"Division I" corps out there these days. I personally remember when Top 25 meant something because there were still big corps that were being left out. I've read and talked to people who remember the Prelim days where seasons ended on Wednesday instead of Thursday at Championships. That phase of drum corps ended just as I was getting into it. The activity has seemed to have fewer big corps each year since then. ####, seems like there are fewer corps overall. I don't know why they are all gone, but I know some are gone because they were chasing their tails when it came to money. I know some have lost some/all of their identity after being sold/merged/etc. I feel strongly that the activity needs more entrepreneurship throughout the ranks. More people that are willing to finance the corps through more than bingo, donations, souvie sales, and membership dues. I give credit to corps like Bluecoats, who at times have seemed like they had one foot in the grave. Great work there. Crown has been managed extremely well throughout its life. They had a plan and managed that growth extremely well. I was never close to Cavies, BD, or the Cadets, so I don't know what management wizardry they required. Since they've been very successful during my entire personal involvement with drum corps, it always seemed like they just required that you not screw it up. I know the Blue Stars have been able to stay active, but have been quite small compared to how they once were, right? I'm not trying to take anything away from any of them, but there have been lots of corps that came and went due to financial issues that they somehow couldn't find a way out of. I think that fewer corps would fold just because of money issues if every one of them was actively looking out of the usual drum corps box for funding ideas. For-profit businesses that serve primarily to finance the corps. For many in the activity, this sort of thinking was frowned upon when I was most involved. If you weren't scraping the bottom of your finances at the end of tour, you had some sort of unfair advantage over the rest of the corps. If more people had embraced the idea that the absolute worst thing you could do was run out of money, things would be a lot better.

Interesting points made by a lot of people here. I was hoping to be able to find some good discussion and I appreciate the effort of those who participated. The obvious competitive disadvantage is having to teach everyone (pretty much) how to play a G bugle when they may walk in off the street knowing quite a bit about the Bb horns. That's instruction time that another corps may already be spending on music/drill at some point. If the purpose of the amped pit is to improve the technical performance quality, then that would certainly be considered by the judges and a corps without that benefit has to work a little harder to both project to the box AND play with competitive technique. That's just my take on it. The competitive demands of the activity will pretty much require that you march with these 'improvements' or face extinction after finishing 15th or lower for many years and watch funding/membership dry up. Few, if any, of these types of changes will not be exploited by the top corps which will require any lower corps wishing to challenge them to either spend the money or work twice as hard to achieve a comparable result.

I thought it was resolved years ago that judges do slot corps. Each corps is judged against the others that have already performed that day/evening.

Fair use might allow an exemption to some of that.

The 9 bass drums was an interesting touch. I think the drumline placed in the top 12 that year, despite a 14th overall finish.

Don't remember that, but I seem to recall reading in Drum Corps World once that there was actually a corps that played "Don't Rain On My Parade" while performning a reenactment of the JFK assassination. Any truth to that one?

I suppose the overall reduction in volume was an unintended side effect of the change? One of the things that made me a fan was the volume/power.

I think the backlash against Star really came to a head in 1991. I don't remember them being booed in 1990, which was one of my most favorite drum corps shows of all time. After winning in 1991, they were booed a lot until they left drum corps...and people continue to be surprised at the decision to leave.