Geneva

I completely agree. Those were beautiful arrangements and the level of musicianship was high. I have always felt that the reason they fell short that year was probably low drill GE and demand.

My best memory of that 1971 season with Geneva was U.S. Open finals. We started very slowly that year and were lucky to have fielded a corps at all at state. We gained momentum quickly over the next couple weeks. Sure, the 7 horn players we used from Tri-Town helped, but we had a solid 37 of our own! Ahh, the memories.

Utica Yankees filed the protest.

Keith, in reference to St. Joe’s being “snubbed” by DCI, I think more likely is that this was a corps at the end of its game by 1971. It is perhaps an indelicate subject, but this was a corps that perhaps set a high water mark for overage members. To be sure, it was not uncommon for many of the national contenders of the day to have some overage. However, with St. Joe’s it was more than a few. I competed against this corps week in and week out from 1966-71 and I can remember standing next to them at retreat as a 13 year old in 1966 thinking that when our average age was 18-20 as theirs appeared to be that maybe we could be as good as they were! The only problem was that by the time I was 19 many of them were still 4-5 years older than me! They were disqualified from the NYS championship in 1971 after their drum major was cited as overage. Years later I remember reading a posting by their corps director/former marching member/soloist joking that the DM was actually one of the younger of the 20+ overage members that year! Let me be clear that I loved the quality standard they set and this is one of the reasons I came to admire and love drum corps over the years. They were a good corps and I appreciated that fact. Later I marched in their alumni corps. But, these are the facts.

(Left to Right) Norm Peth, Bill Calhoun, Jack Pratt

Sad to hear. He was a valuable source I used when I wrote the history of the Geneva Appleknockers for Steve Vickers’ “A History of Drum and Bugle Corps” vol 2. He was a snare drummer in the Appleknockers senior corps circa 1947-51 as a young man. When he learned that one of my sons was a drummer, he mailed me several of his drum solo books for his use! I was impressed by his kindness and generosity.

Anyone else note the irony of Madison’s, “A Young Person’s Introduction to the Orchestra”? It was first played by SCV and was a part of their 1974 show which upset Madison for what would have been their first DCI Championship.

I think this show concept has promise especially if paired with some of the movements of Carmina Burana. Having performed some of this work of Carl Orff it’s power and beauty would be well suited. Phantom has not had the power and drama for which they are reputed for several seasons now. This could be the ticket. I hope they steer clear of being overly literal with their presentation or making this into a female version of Spartacus.

My thanks to N.E. Brigand for filling me in on the competitors prior to my group (Brig Juice). The quality of the performance space was much appreciated! Crowd was enthusiastic, but I would like to have feen a few more butts in the seats. Nice to know that we also had an online audience.

Yes, mesmerizing and driving at the same time!

What I like a bout BK is that the music is more central to their show

Well, definitely not your dad's drum corps! I think they broke some new ground which is hard to do in today's corps world.

Fits their weird theme.

Nice feature on Mandarins with whom I am less familiar.

I wish that Flo would fill some of the dead time between corps with some program notes on the upcoming corps. I feel that I am missing a lot about show intent.