Dale Lofgren

Good info above Sue. I have gotten pretty good at identifying pre-cancers and basal cells. My first and only (so far) squamous was a complete surprise though. I was in for the usual 3 xs a year check and was almost finished with the appointment. Then, just for the heck of it, I asked the Dr. to check what I was sure was just a mosquito bite. He looked and asked the dreaded question, "How long has that been there?" I replied, "Two-to-three weeks." It turned out to be a squamous that was surgically excised a couple of days later. Watch for those mosquito /spider looking bites that do not heal in a week or two that may actually get a bit bigger.

Yes, the Kingsmen shot above was posed of course in front of the replica of Independence Hall at Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park, Orange County, California. I think the year is 1970 (tassles on the sashes). Cool shot.

About that partial SCV drumline photo...It is definitely 1976 (I marched in the line that year). Visible left-to-right is Stolzman, Carson, Kenny and Allan Kristensen. There were 3-4 more snares not seen in this particular photo. The next year in 1977, the SCV line went to green tunics, red snare drums and to matched grip for the first time. Take Care.

The old Kingsmen had Tom Float ('71-74), Ralph Hardimon ('71-73), Mike Ellerby ('69-72), Sam Kays ('73-74) and Al Murray ('74) graduate out of the ranks.

I marched in drumlines in the 1970s (Kingsmen and SCV) and am primarily Swedish heritage-wise. I had a facial basal removed over 15 years ago. I remember the dermatologist being very surprised that I had had a basal so young. I also had a squamous removed from the left arm two years ago. I usually have a few pre-cancers frozen off 2 xs a year. Loads of fun! I always joke around that when I die, I am going to ask God, "What's the deal with the sun and teeth?" in a Jerry Seinfeld kind of way! The one thing you do want your dermatologist to say when you are in the office is, "How long have you had that?"

John...cool about '75 SCV and '74 Kingsmen. But having marched snare in both of those lines, I cannot judge nor be objective. It was "All business". Nice of you to mention those lines. I was very lucky to have been a part. And "Hey"...I was serious about those sugar packets. I am glad that some enjoyed my pain of trying to re-order the line for the sake of the notes!

Kelly, You, Scott and I need to catch up. Back on topic, how great would it be to go back in time and see your favorite lines play your favorite solos? The first line that I would love to see first hand again is the 1972 Anaheim Kingsmen. I remember seeing these guys with their eight man pyramid (tall guys in the center) chromie snares swaying as they marked time and marched, blue, black and white stripie sticks, powder blue cadets with the shiny buckle, and the shakos and black plumes that made these guys look like formidable giants. They were all military and all business. These guys were intimidating before they even played a note. When they got to the notes, the music was intricately intertwined with visuals that seemed to have no end or limits. They worked hard and just kept going until they won the first DCI percussion trophy. The solo that year, Play in Time by Jethro Tull, was deeply and richly melodic using only the trios, basses and timps for melody. The stick visuals, split triplet down-the-line notes and stick tosses were simply awe inspiring, like watching an amazing Cirque Du Solei act that combines difficult physical moves with live music. The second line that I would see is the 1974 Santa Clara Vanguard. These magnificent seven snares strapped with copper drums, cut-off white pro-mark 3S sticks, and white plumes softly flowing in the breeze were simply inspiring to watch. They were art and musicianship in incarnate. They were smooth, flowing, powerful, precise, musicians on drums. The Fred Sanford parts were intricate and orchestral, pure genius in many ways. The Young Person's Guide drum solo was an exhibition of musicianship, rudiments, and state-of-art drumline presentation all in one. The intensity and soul that these guys put into their playing was awe inspiring. The opener, solo and production push took me and many other fans to a loftier place of rarefied air and notes that we had not visited before or even knew existed. Simply magnificent! Moving on to another variation, how fun would it to be to have your chops and then jump in and play some notes with lines that you enjoyed? If I could actually do this, I would play some notes in the 1976 Blue Devil line with their 10 snares and North tenors rammin' that drum solo with the raw and brute upbeat rim-shot tap sevens. I would also enjoy flipping my left stick over and jumpin' in matched grip style into the 1979 SCV 12 snares and rip on Lez, especially the smooth as silk diddle part before the horns re-enter. Lastly, give me a handkerchief because I would strap up and and come down the 50 doing a bunch of left handed isolated taps in the Bridgemen snareline before hitting the sideline and slammin' out the drum-to-drum visual notes without a tic inner city style. Those would be some cool notes to play for a night. Maybe there is a business venture there waiting to happen? Have a convention, learn some solos and then play them with some guys from these lines and others.

"Hose it" = water or simplify a drum part that is tic'n or fuzzin' (suffering from some clarity problems).

Kelly, is that you? I am happy to show and play Clock with you. It will just have to be at half tempo!

Hero Sandwich, man...to see that solo discussed some 37 years later...Wow! I first heard it on a 1971 World Open Recording. I later learned that the Kingsmen had a five man snareline that year made up of Micheal Ellerby, Mike Hubbard, Terry Walker, Ralph Hardimon and Tom Float. What a line that would have been to be in. It was not only the difficulty of the piece but the speed at which those dudes played it and how smoothly they flew through it.

I can start this off (DCI Finals' High Drums): 1972: Kingsmen 1973: SCV 1974: SCV 1975: SCV 1976: BD 1977: BD 1978: SCV 1979: SCV 1980: Bridgemen Who wants to continue with the 1980s?

I was at the DCI 1975 finals on the field as a rookie first year SCV snare. I had moved up to Santa Clara from southern California to be in SCV in October of 1974. Out of my four DCI finals as a performer, 1975 was my favorite. This was partly due to the fact that in 1973 and '74, I was still a kid living at home. When I moved up north, like many imports probably, I was on my own as a young and independent adult for the first time. In addition, it was a big adventure being exposed to all of the new to me northern California geography like the local redwood forests (Big Basin), Santa Cruz coast and mountains, Monterey, Carmel and San Francisco. I got around on a ten speed bike and later a Honda 100 motorcycle. SCV 1975 was also a very mature group of SCV members. This was probably the age out year for many of the charter members. SCV was coming off of winning two DCI finals and had a made good run of it in 1972 as well. Marching with the drumline was a dream come true for me. These guys were fantastic players and people. The whole SCV organization was very homegrown at the time and family based. My belated congratulations to everyone who competed that night. There were countless committed musical warriors on the field and Madison came out as the champions. My congrats to Madison. And thank-you to the fans there that night. Regardless of who your favorite was, thank-you for being there to hear us all perform. We played to excel, to entertain, to compete and for you.

Great chart! The drum titles seem to run in groups looking at the longitudinal view. I have seen most of these lines from 1972 on (consecutively from 1972-88). My attendance got a little spottier after that. The winners were all great lines and showed a passion, love and commitment to the notes and activity. I have greatly enjoyed the varied styles and approaches over the years and decades. Having marched in three corps in my playing career, people would sometimes ask me if I was bummed that a certain alumni line of mine was losing given any particular year. I would usually respond that I was not necessarily loyal to a uniform but rather would pull for the line with the cleanest notes where the passion and perfection was that causes one to want to jump in and play because the line is so good.

For me it was Tom Float in '74 when he was our center snare for the Kingsmen, Bob Kalkoffen of SCV (snare genius), Curt Moore (my listen into snare on my left in 75) and Paul Siebert (SCV center snare in the early-to-mid 70s). I could write story after story. I will say that marching with Tom in the Kingsmen was a hoot. We would take the work very seriously while at the same time joking around. It kept us loose.

Please feel free to e-mail me your question(s), contact information and relationship to the Troopers (or write that on this forum). I will forward that to Bob. He may or may not e-mail you back though.

I saw The Countdown in Huntington Beach. It was a small crowd in a nice theater with the volume at just the right level. I drug my wife and 14 year old son to see their Pops on the big screen in powder blue. Being an old drummer, I really enjoyed the 2007 BD drum solo. My knees hurt just watching the snares' body work. The previews of the coming season were great. Again, the BD snareline looked strong. I love the Blue Stars comeback story. The Candide teaser was great (being a fan of the '74 SCV show where SCV played Candide as their concert). It was exciting for me to see the Kingsmen Alumni Corps at the end. As a snare, I would have loved to have seen one of the two KAC drum solos but, "Oh well...". It was an honor, pleasure and treat just to be on the screen. Surreal actually. The whole KAC experience was dreamlike. I could write volumes. For me, when we took the field last summer some 31 years after my age out year, it was very familiar, comfortable and a hype. My only regret was that after two years of pretty intense effort, I could only get to approximately 50% of what I had been as a DCI performer in the mid-seventies. We so much wanted to represent what the Kingsmen had been in an accurate and favorable light as a living history lesson of sorts. In the competitive years, the Kingsmen were very intense. People would watch in awe and appeared to be somewhat intimidated as we had this air of being unapproachable. The response to the KAC struck me as being very different. The audiences were affectionate and we seemed to be very approachable after shows. It was like the love one has for a favorite older relative and you have just learned something previously unknown and delightful about their youth. Case in point, current DCI members may have heard about marching timps before; but, to see five real live timps marching across the field was close to unbelievable. For me, the best part of the Rose Bowl show was seeing the faces of the uniformed DCI junior corps members as they watched the show. Overall, they appeared to be really into it. The delight showed in their expressions. It was as if there was this connection of sharing the same field under the same lights the same night. They were seeing their future in us and we saw our past in them while at the same time we saw the future in them and they saw their past in us. I wish for them all that they will have an alumni experience down the road. It really helped to connect many of us old timers back to the activity and to DCI. I also again knew all about the current sticks, practice pads, percussion companies, harnesses and related equipment and drum heads. The next night at finals, I got to watch all of the top 12 junior corps compete on the same field that we had been on the day before. I watched in amazement at the physical demands necessary to perform their shows and had a whole new appreciation of the activity! I saw my Goddaughter perform with SCV and knew that the activity was in good hands. Kudos to our predecessor DCI alumni corps. 27th was the inspiration that proved that it could be done. Seeing the YouTube video of Madison's alumni snareline warming up in 2006 playing their drum solo clean set a bar of performance level that we did not want to fall short of. And, I am looking forward to seeing the Cavies next summer with snare straps no less. The hardest part of the KAC was learning to carry a snare on a harness. I still much prefer to wear the drum with a strap so that the drum is connected to and moves with one's body. I am glad that the Cavies will have that experience.