EKBari

Were there lots of complaints about BD's "Tommy" tarps in 1990? Yes. But mainly because it didn't look very much line a pinball machine. posted from the DrumScorps app

They told you there's a policy, leave it alone. If you or a potential member has a question, then there's a perfect way to get it answered: Call them and talk to them personally. You don't know what's going on with CT, and you have admitted that you don't. But instead of approaching them maturely, you're trying to shame them.

Doesn't matter about today, his comment was a response to somebody saying a corps in 8th-12th place would medal in the past. And they wouldn't. Different rules and expectations like he said. In fact if a corps from today went back to the 80s, they'd be disqualified immediately.

89 Spirit got off to a slow start and then spent part of the summer doing standstills because at any given moment, half the corps had food poisoning. 86 Garfield was just tired as hell. In addition to cleaning the show they had to learn additional music for the Statue of Liberty celebration. That meant late nights trying to perfect charts that had nothing to do with the show, only to get to NY and find out they were only going to play one song. The fact that both of those corps got as high as they did is a testament to the commitment of the members and the staff.

If Stephen King (or your favorite author) wrote a book and then did an interview in which he had ABSOLUTELY no idea about what the book is about, would you buy it? Show designers have been pushing the idea of using themes to tell a story and in the one moment in which they need to have concise explanations about their shows, they blow it and basically ended up talking out the side of their necks. More than anything it just demonstrated their is no real "story" to be told and the shows are built upon a vague phrase with music shoehorned in to fit said phrase. I would much rather hear that explanation than to see a drum corps staff member mumble, bumble, and stumble through an interview. If you wouldn't put up with that in any other situation, why would you accept it just because it's drum corps?

Do you have any idea how well Aimachi, Vanguard or the Robins are doing this year?

Blue Stars and Limited Edition played it that year too. Imagine how sick I was of Carmina Burana after a few shows on the DCM tour.

'87 was a good show, but when you look at '86 and '88, it had the misfortune of being... well, 1987.

No it's not discrimination. By it's very nature alone, drum corps is an exclusive organization because as a performing arts group they can and do pick and choose who their members are based on their needs for a particular performance.

You keep using the word "discriminate" and I'm still trying to grasp what you're talking about. I could see if there were no other opportunities for men to be in a color guard. That's discrimination. But as we all know, there are plenty of opportunities out there. And I'm quite sure the men in last year's Phantom guard knew far in advance they were not going to be used in the 2011 show, so they had ample time to go see if they can get into another guard. As for the all-male corps, Cavies and Scouts aren't discriminating against women. They are Boy Scouts units which is the reason for them being all male.

Is size going to be an issue? That's the title of the thread. I go off that. Or... We can just stop beating around the bush and say what some are thinking? Is BDB winning because they're big? Not because they have a great staff, great recruiting, and the one thing people tend to overlook is regardless of their size, their shows are written for the talent level of the members. Failure to do this has tripped up more than a few corps even back in the 80s when I marched. Corps would manage to field a 75-80 member corps and suddenly the staff would think they were the next Boston Crusaders (ask an old head about this reference). It's one thing to have difficulty in your shows, but it is another thing entirely to put so much difficulty in the show that the entire summer is spent cleaning the same thing over and over, eventually, the members start to tune out and next summer your corps isn't so large anymore.

I'm slightly amused at some of the posts. Only in Open Class can someone argue about how being in a larger corps is a problem. "You have to work harder to clean a larger corps." Really? I mean REALLY? I'm quite sure every corps since the very first drum corps hit the field knows full well how much work goes into cleaning a large corps. But then again, only in Open Class would a small corps have a chance of beating a larger corps. This says more about the scoring system in Open Class than it does the corps themselves. Remember when Magic only won D2 by 3 points over Capital Regiment, but then went into D1 competition and put a 10 point gap between them in D1 semis. Do any of you honestly think Pioneer has a hope in hell of beating the Blue Devils? Yeah, a few small corps have made WC semifinals, but that's just it... a few. But all in all, the big boys win out, because how many of those small corps made Top 12 or was in position to win it all?

S I have a copy of the 77 show on my iPod and the 88 show can be bought on preserveourcorpsmemories.com.

Let's see, back in the late 80s when I did march... On the Jr. side - Boston On the Sr. side - Bushwackers

Am I the only one to notice that all the corps listed above competed in OC/D2/Class A?

I marched both years at KC. The main thing I remember was how friggin' hot it was on that astro turf. As soon as you hit the field you could feel it through your shoes.

Which is why I included the above line in my original statement. Regardless of whether it is a open class corps or a local activity, price is still a barrier.

B.O.A. is pretty big with the Metro schools, especially in the more affluent suburbs. They're the only ones who can afford the high priced staffs and such. The Cobb County schools have always had these awesome bands and it seems like it's either Lassiter, Kell, and Kennesaw Mountain in B.O.A. finals. Right now, there are generally 3 types of bands going in Georgia right now: Show Bands, B.O.A. Bands, and the non-B.O.A. corps-style bands. I really haven't kept up with the Tennessee Bands. Back in the 80's when I was in high school we used to compete against Cleveland High. They usually showed up at the contests in North Georgia. We had a decent band, but Cleveland always cleaned our clocks.

Naw, I'm never rambled. But here's a fun fact for you: If you come to Atlanta and ask who has the best show band (high school and college) in the Metro Area, the answer will more than likely be Southwest Dekalb High School Marching Band. Strong alumni support, a HUGE fan base, had their own reality show and practically prints money. When the Metro Atlanta High School Battle of the Bands takes place, SWD is the standard other bands have to reach. To put it bluntly, they're #### near superstars. If you were to place a small open class corps in Panthersville, where SWD is located, unless you have something that can top their marching band experience, it will fail. They have so many requests for appearances, that unless the corps is affiliated with the school, you will get very few members from them. The same can be said for Lassiter H.S. with their multiple B.O.A. championships, on the other side of Metro. You will have to work hard to top what they already have.

Well, let's look at the one thing that we need to keep in mind that will stop you dead in your tracks: PRICE Whether it's good or bad economic times, drum corps has priced itself entirely too far out of the range of an inner city kid to even think about marching. Tell a parent of one of these kids it's going to cost upwards of $2000 bucks to march and you've lost before you even began. Also, (and this is not stereotyping) a lot of inner city kids don't own an instrument even if they are in a marching band. So unless you got a good sponsor or some deep pockets, start up costs alone will shut you down. And here are some things we as drum corps fans need to truly understand: 1) If an inner city kid is in a marching band, they are more than likely in a show band. And I hate to tell you, a good number of them really don't like drum corps. There's a few they think are cool, but they won't march because to them drum corps is not the end all be all. If they plan on marching after high school, they want to march at FAMU or Grambling. Not the Cavaliers. 2) And this has to be said in no uncertain tones. More than a few students I've instructed have come back to me and told me they've come to this forum and read statements that have all but condemned show bands to hell. Just like some of us say we need to remember there are kids in the corps we criticize, we need to remember these are truly high school kids and if they come here and see that their type of band is being mocked, why in the world would they come to this part of the activity?

The problem as I see it is that when DCI does advertise to high schools, they only send them to schools with a certain type of marching band. For the past few years, I've been working with show bands in the Atlanta area and for the most part, the only exposure they get to drum corps is when I bring in my DVDs and even that is a tough sale to them. To be honest, they really get into Phantom, Devils and Vanguard, and after that, interest falls off drastically. But there is some interest that can be built upon only if there was something to pull them into the activity, because even when the DCI show takes place at the Georgia Dome, they get absolutely NOTHING as far as advertising goes.

Gotta go with the home team: Emerald Knights (IA) 1986 - 19th in Class A-60 1987 - 2nd in A-60, 34th in Open Class

I thought those guard uniforms looked familiar...

Emerald Knights/Nite Express Drum & Bugle Corps Alumni http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=23136758625

If I won, CorpsVets and Alliance would suddenly find themselves flush with cash. I'd also help out the 7 independent guards and and 3 independent percussion lines going to WGI.