DRB

1980. Stone Ground Seven.

As the "yutes" would say, back in the dark ages of the 1970's, I had been in the school music program for many years and had noticed the corps and the unique sound they had and the great music they played. When still in high school a number of us went to a show and saw some big time corps, Oakland, PR, Kilties, Garfield, Squires, Blue Stars. I felt that I would be good enough to be in one of the corps and of course I was told by my peers that would never be possible. So I went to a small local corps who was happy to have anyone as back the the dark ages there were no tryouts. If you wanted in, you were basically in. After a couple of years I finally got to march in a finalist corps - what an experience that was. To this day I miss it and wish I could do it again.

Up until the early 80's the standard snare was 15" with a silver dot or occasionally a Remo clear dot. I enjoyed the sound of the TDR's and Challengers much more so than today's Kevlar. Today's snares just do not have the tone quality - they sound like someone playing on a Formica countertop. Marty had PR marching a 40" bass up through about 1980. Brought a lot of bottom end to the sound. Tenors were 14-16-18 and went to 12-14-16 with the Ludwig Power Toms. Then Slingerland came out with the cut-away toms and I still question if anyone has produced as fine a tenor sound as the Slingerland cut-aways.

Keith, a friend of mine, a well known judge, judged a non-sanctioned event about 1985 and was given the old tic sheet to judge on the field. He later confided in me how many more tics were there than he would have guessed. This was from a judge who had years of experience with the activity. It would be interesting for DCI to run two sets of judges at shows to evaluate scores/results based on using the tic system compared with the system of today.

The absolute best ballad closer of all time is - 1979 & 1980 Spirit of Atlanta Let It Be Me Topic Closed

1979 & 1980 Spirit of Atlanta - What? The reaction of drum corps fans after having the ears blown off by those magnificent horn lines.

I was there. I was convinced Friday night that Madison had beaten BD and won the show. As smooth as BD was, Madison was pure, raw corps power - probably unlike anything of the modern brass band era. Madison won fair and square.

Totally absolutely agree 1000% and more. These youngin's have no idea what they missed. I've never heard a horn line play with that intensity and volume of beautiful sound since. No recording could ever capture what they did with Let It Be me.

Agreed.

I think it was about 1978 when the Kilties had three small toms mounted on their snares. Did they have some type of carrier back then?

While I was certainly not a close friend to him, I remember him and will always think of him as a first rate person. He was nice enough to respond to an email I sent him a few years ago and remembered me after many years. Marty moved the activity forward. He is a legend.

I would also say 1980 Spirit of Atlanta. The problem with the recordings is that no recording could fairly capture the power of that corps. It was incredible.

I really did not become aware of the corps activity until 1976. However I've read that maybe the best overall line of all time was 1975 SCV. I heard they approached perfection. Also agree that Oakland Crusaders should have been in the mix. They were absolutely fabulous. I would have pulled the 84 SCV and the 99 Cavies for these two. As I was not following corps at the time, no tenor feature that I have ever seen compared to the 2000 Cadets. That was amazing.

I'm drawing a blank on the name but let's not forget the soloist for the Colts in the early 80's. Pretty good as I recall.

1978 Phantom Regiment 1987 SCV

Much has been written and documented about that drum line. I have read that the tenor line did not receive a single tic the entire season. Can anyone confirm this? If this is indeed accurate, this would likely be a record which will never be broken.

I would be interested in attending DCI if the activity were closer to what I experienced. I have no interest in the current narrated and amplified Bb brass bands (what they truly are). Bring real corps back, and the crowds will reappear.

What is incredibly sad is the list of corps who no longer exist. I miss DCM.

http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/20...school_ban.html

Regarding 1981 finals, there was some sort of labor issue with the championships in Montreal. As I recall (and this might not be totally correct) the Canadian govt required a Canadian TV crew to man the broadcast and DCI did not want that.

Brilliant.

Hopkins and the other G7 people - if you want to move this direction, go start an organization which has competitions between marching woodwind bands. Go ahead - do it today. I'm sure you will get a lot of people who want to go watch a flute, clarinet, & saxaphone marching band. Go do it today. I do have one request though. If you do this and take the Cadets in that direction, leave the name Cadets and the heritage of that organization with DCI. Go make this a clean break - a fresh start. Eventually someone will want to reform the Cadets and bring them back into DCI. The name and heritage should stay here. Just like the Browns did when they moved to Baltimore.

I have a 1980 Ludwig Challenger that I've not used for years and it is unlikely that I every will. How do I find if there is a market for such a thing? 14" drum, 12 lug, chrome over wood. Great condition.

Are there shows in Whitewater? If not, that fact would be a tragedy.

1980 Spirit of Atlanta For all the "YUTES" out here who think the current brass bands are loud, you have no idea what you are saying. Regarding recordings of the 1980 Spirit, the recording technology of the day had no chance to capture what the did. It is so unfortunate but that horn line simply could not be recorded like they can today.