Joe Salvatore

1980 is still my all-time favorite year. So great a finish and 4 or more corps that had a shot at the title. Prelims: 1 Blue Devils 90.400 2 27th Lancers 89.350 3 Spirit of Atlanta 89.000 4 Bridgemen 88.650 Finals: 1 Blue Devils 90.600 2 27th Lancers 90.250 3 Bridgemen 90.050 4 Spirit of Atlanta 89.800 The sheer diversity among the top 4 programs was a real treat.

Danny Boy. Enough said.

Yep, I was a member of that line and do recall that; but, I think that East versus West was on a lot of minds (recall we had our 1st Eastern champion in 1983). Plus we in the west we just more familiar with each other having travel together all of June and most of July.

I seem to remember that the Kingsmen already came back as a junior corps in 1985 (played the new Olympic theme I believe). They were rather good and it was unfortunate that they did not continue to compete. I have often wished for the return of many of my favorite corps (no slight to others). 1. Bridgemen 2. 27th Lancers 3. Suncoast Sound 4. Velvet Knights (not VK - what can I say I am alumni of the 1st 2 finals years) 5. Freelancers

Good luck this year in World Class Teal Sound. I enjoyed hearing you perform at the Palm Coast preview and was quite surprised how you have progressed.

I seem to recall the video featured a Madison performer who had a really bad accident on the way to the "championship" corps banquet. Does anyone have any updates on him since that time. I think that would be an important story to include in anything related to the 1988 Scouts.

RIGHT ON, Fran! I listen to all my DCI era recordings during my work day (at home) and in all the live and recorded performances I have heard that was my favortie mello and mid horn section performance ever. I shout out to many of the Garfeld\CB\HNC\Cadets shows, but for me STAR 1991 was Mid-Horn Excellence!

Wow might have... I know I was drinking some adult beverages really upset at not beating Star and Troopers (sorry TerriTroop - a good friend who marched Troopers that year). unny how being in the right place at the right time pays off... I was upset but nothing like Marcia Hanson, the DM of Phantom Regiment. We literally ran into each other in that tiny small parking lot outside of the U0fW Stadium... she said I really want one of those blue metalic VK ties... so I traded for her shiny silver gauntlets with her name on the inside. Classic. Funny you mention those sunglasses... we, VK, really could not march well so add the shades and instant improvement, right? One show in Iowa, our drumline got these silver metalic Dominos pizza wrap shades and decided to wear them instead. We had a clinic that day and rehersal and looked really good in these wrap shades. That night we nearly killed guard, brass, judges, and our own fellow drummers cause we could not see a darn thing at night with the stadium lighting in those wrap shades.

I aged out with SCV in 1989 and we did get our Green Feather at the Parade of Champions in Santa Clara (often refered to as the Green Feather parade in those days). I have a great photo of all of the 1989 age outs lined up with Gail Royer passing out the feathers and a local news camera man recoding this ceremony. Next I nervously tried to remember/reherase all the cymbal visuals and parts before the parade. I had the honor of marching a custom made pair of 22" Zildjian Cymbals and at the time was 125lbs; so not having practiced in over 2 months took it's toll in that parade. We also had the annual banquet that evening back in those days.

Yes, 27th was 4th in 1975... I was just posting about that and would love some insights into 27th Lancers 1974 season. See post "27th Lancers 1974 - What Happened?" Thanks all!

In honor of the late George Bonfiglio, during work all day yesterday I listened to all the finals performances of the 27th Lancers. One thing, however, caught my attention; 1974. I turns out they finished 20th that year. I was shocked as they placed the best of all eastern drum corps in 1972 (4th) and 1973 (7th). Also, in 1975 they returned very strong finishing 4th. I'd love to get more information about that 1974 season of 27th. Anyone have anything to share?

In honor of the late George Bonfiglio, during work all day yesterday I listened to all the finals performances of the 27th Lancers. One thing, however, caught my attention; 1974. I turns out they finished 20th that year. I was shocked as they placed the best of all eastern drum corps in 1972 (4th) and 1973 (7th). Also, in 1975 they returned very strong finishing 4th. I'd love to get more information about that 1974 season of 27th. Anyone have anything to share? Sorry, I moved thread to Historical Drum Corps forum... did not catch that this forum is really post 1989. Wow I feel historic having marched all my years prior to the 1989 cutoff for Historical Drum Corps forum.

Procession of the Nobles / Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is probably most well known in the DCI era due to the efforts of SCV (who George Hopkins had great admiration for during his marching years). A good site to view past corp repertoires is http://www.corpsreps.com/ . I often will use that site to locate who has played that piece in the past so that I can (if they were finalist that year) go to the DCI fan network a view the performace of that piece. Always adds to my enjoyment of the performace by a current coprs.

If you attend other performances it is unacceptable to enter late or leave early. Additionally, it is unheard of to interupt or disrupt performances. One of the most noteable exceptions was with Booth's Ford's Theater assasination of Lincoln. Not implying that the pre-show crowd disruption is in that category and not implying that it should be handled as was Booth. I am not advocating pre-show as I feel that as others have stated, enjoying breaks between corps is part of a drum corp show. That said, I want to reflect on pre-show should this ultimately be the way drum corps shows of the future are organized. I feel that the difference in our beloved drum corps shows is the cultural starting line mentality and resulting transitions between the end of a performance and the starting line of another. We have to start somewhere so perhaps a well orchestrated pre-show leading directly into the start of a competitive performance is an effort to restate the cullture to mirror other performces such as opera, symphony, and broadway. The key as others have pointed out is marking out a discernable period of performance start and intermissions. To be successful means changing the culture from separate individual corps performances to that of a single performance having several parts somewhat akin to a symphony performing several pieces before an intermission (we don't enter/leave between each piece). I agree with usher and fan education but am more inclined to emphasize that a well orchestrated the time between a performances pieces (corps) is executed as the really effective way to ensure minimal disruption. I guess to that end I have some concerns as this is being sold as optional for each corps. To be successful this needs to be consistent otherwise the intended effect is lost and audience members will not be able to discern when it is acceptable to banter between corps and when it is not (Ok during SomeCorp without pre-show but better settle for SomeWorldChampCorp that has a pre-show). Lastly, I have concerns with how pre-show impacts adjudication anyhow. At least mentaly it has got to have an impression. (aside: I recall my age-out year with SCV 1989 we felt complled to implement drill during our warm-up of Phantom of the Opera's Point of No Return as many other corps were doing that... until DCI East in Allentown, our first effort with the moving warm-up, where in morning prelims the corps ended up being about 4 yards off of our starting postion... our moving warm-up lasted exactly one pre-show)