Antique Brass

I got knee walking drunk the night before a circuit individual championship. I had planned to play 'The Fox Hunters' but when I tried to warm up I realized that would be impossible as my teeth itched and my tongue was asleep. So I settled for a Glenn Miller tune instead, forgetting about the high "G" near the end. To no one's surprise I finished dead last. I was amazed that I got a score at all, much less a 50. Don Angelica was the judge and to this day I appreciate the humanity in his final comment, "Good spirit and good tone quality throughout...but your performance was not enhanced by the beer foam dripping from the bell of your horn". A few years later,(when I was judging a DCE show for him), our paths crossed again and I reminded him of the incident. There was a sudden gleam of recognition in his eyes and he said, "I remember that performance, you looked and sounded like two miles of bad road!" "And by the way, you owe me 20 points". Ah, the humanity.

Dear Mr. Fallon, THE CORRECT SIZES ARE, "OLD", "REALLY ####### OLD", and "NEARLY DEPARTED. In future correspondence please remember that large text or Caps are appreciated. Thank you. Sincerely, Grumpy Gus

Keep your eyes on SUN. They have a new management group, an excellent instructional staff, a ton of people at rehearsals, and new money behind them. They probably won't win it all but they will upset some apple carts this season.

Sun went with an all female guard in midseason 1969 and co-ed brass and perc in 1972.

My dad got our family started in drum corps when he joined the St. Amselm's Boys Fife, Drum, & Bugle Corps (Tinton Avenue, Bronx, N.Y.) in 1932, an organization that was dedicated to excellence for over 50 years. He played bugle and drum. My uncles, Jack and Alan were also members of the corps. My dad got me started in 1957 on a $5 U.S. Regulation "G" bugle. I'm still at it and probably will be for as long as I can hold up a horn. A lot of things have changed in our activity since my dad learned "Squads Right" but one thing has remained constant, when it comes to developing long lasting friendships nothing compares to the true "drum and bugle corps" experience. Here's a tip of the shako to all of the drum corps folk who have come before us and to all that will continue our activity when we're gone. Thank you my brothers and sisters and pick up your feet!

Excellent! Work hard, play loud, and enjoy yourselves. Best of luck on your awsome voyage.

How sad. Ralph Silverbrand, the ultimate 'Good Guy'. Our condolences go out to the Silverbrand family and his Caballeros family. A.B.

OK. We have the when, where, why, when and who....but can we get tickets at the door?

To answer the original question posed on this thread (Why isn't Fusion in Open Class for DCA), I believe that each corps has to declare, before the start of the season, whether they would compete in Open Class or Class "A". Once the date for that declaration has passed, corps are not allowed to change their class. Personally, I believe that the management of FUSION made the right decision to stay in Class A for this season. They are drum corps savvy people and given their success so far, I'm sure that when they make the move to Open Class they will finish much closer to the top then the bottom.

Could that be Moe Knox?

Selden Cadets Alumni, West Sayville Golden Eagles, Romeos, Brooklyn United, Brassmen Alumni, and Sunrisers Reunion Ensemble are still using Gs. Sunrisers field corps recently switched to Bb although the last I heard from them was that their new equipment hadn't arrived so their kids were using their own horns.

Yo Brooklyn Mario, Are youse gonna share Bobby's email address or what? AB

Boston Crusaders Senior Corps The Defenders Alumni The Muchacho's Alumni The Seldon Cadets Alumni The Connecticutt Alumni THE LEGENDS OF DRUM CORPS AND, Your host's The ST. Kevin Emerald Knights Senior Corps Quite a group. There's nothing like the smell of Bengay and valve oil to get the old juices flowing. Rock on brothers and sisters, rock on!

Ah,Yes! In any competitive endeavor when one cannot defeat one's opponent it is always best to change the rules to achieve one's goal. To quote a phrase from Carolina Gold's 2010 show, "Dum Da Dum Dum"! If you can't beat them, go home and practice!

Sorry Mike, that wasn't my intention. My mistake was not including a "?" in the thread title. I only posted here when I couldn't get through to anyone on the CorpsReps site. PS Thanks to whomever corrected my mistake.

West Sayville Golden Eagles Minicorps Inactive! At least that's what CorpsReps says on their site. WRONG!!! I caught the WSGE act at rehearsal last week and believe me, they are far from being inactive. They have a new and improved perc section, some new (old) faces in the soprano line and it appears as if they've reorganized the bari line. Whatever they've done they sound a hellofalot better then they did at Bridgeport. Their show consists of Echano, Night of the Capricorn Moon, and a medley of Come in From the Rain and Over the Rainbow. Dynamite tunes and the boys and girls were deep in their rehearsal groove. Great attitudes. Their execution and dynamics still need work but Ponzo and Roberts still have 6 weeks to get it all ironed out. I don't know if they can win the DCA mincorps title but they will, positively, entertain you. Good Luck Golden Eagles.

Are there any videos of the Selden Cadets Alumni corps?

By George, Tommy Leonard it is!!! It looks a lot like Charlie Howell but even more like TL. One thing bothered me about suggesting Charlie...I really can't picture him being nice to little kids and the guys in the picture looks like he's diggin' it. The think the Pittsburg Rockets played Joker as a feature in '65 or '66. Nice chart.

Hi Guys, To answer the Qs about the middle picture. It's not Steve Buglino. It does look like one of the best and least known french horn players in Sunrisers history-Charlie Howell. He never got the ink that Buglino and Sasso did but he was rock solid and ruthless in his pursuit of excellence. Sun changed from white satin blouses to cadet/military jackets in 1965 so the picture has to be from 1963 or 1964.

Judged the East Brentwood Raiders at a circuit contest on Long Island in the middle '60s and by unanimous agreement the judges stopped writing at the end of"'concert"(remember those?). It wasn't so much that the kids were bad, it's just that they made SO MANY MISTAKES. They were literally written off the sheets. Interestingly enough, the circuit had a rule that, for the sake of the morale of the kids, the lowest score that would be announced was 50. Good rule.

Congratulations to all the new inductees! Wow. Two more Sunrisers...I think that makes an even dozen. Not too bad for a bunch of farmers.

Pardon my ignorance but it's been almost 40 years since I attended a DCI Rules Congress so maybe the rules have changed. Perhaps someone could enlighten me? Is George Hopkins the person that makes the rules changes that so many people appear to dislike or is he just the person that proposes the rules changes that the business men/women running the DCI member corps approve?

Veteran's Day 1956 on a clunky, clumsy, tunable, old tenor bugle. I was about 4'10" and the horn was about 2' 4". I've been lovin' it ever since.

Does anyone know which corps will be performing at the Garfield BHOF I&E show?

This is a digression from the topic but I think it's something worth mentioning. I was chatting with some folks from the Selden Cadets Alumni Corps at the last Brooklyn United show and inquired, in jest, why, since most of their horn players are reputed to be non-readers, they used music stands. The serious answer that I got was that one of their horn players had neurological issues that prevented him from remembering new music and rather then leave him on the side line or spotlight his infirmity they all elected to use music stands. Nice folks.