Wort

I am getting to this conversation late and some good points have been made. Here's my 2 centavos. First, in my experience Drum Corps is different than high school marching bands because of the level of committment is much greater for even a small regional corps. The kids are there because they really want to. If their parents insist they take music of some sort an hour of band class or a piano lesson a week will suffice. Giving up 2-3 hours one night a week (starting in November or so) for a small corps represents a bigger committment, so the amount of effort willing expended will be greater. Second, in my experience (Guardsmen '75 - '77) there has to be a critical mass of population in a given area to support a corps. The fact that Rockford, IL, for instance, has been so successful for so long is an exception. For that reason I like the small corps initiative. I found out my family was moving to rural GA between the prelims and finals show at nationals in '76 (Yeah, threw me for a loop). At that time the only corps I knew of in the south was Spirit. After moving to GA, and a county of 20,000 people, and absolutely no marching music tradition I did not give them a thought and traveled back to IL for the '77 season. The rural population pattern here, and the oppressive summer heat, convinced me that there was no future for drum corps in the south. However, the indoor, small corps format can negate both of those problems. This is an idea who's time has come. BTW, so very happy I was wrong about Spirit, and I am looking forward to them having a GREAT season! Excellent discussion, folks!

Was that the year they played that killer Tower of Power chart? Awesome....

1976 finals. Bridgemen. After the last note.

The Guardsmen (Illinois) pretty much always had this "thing" about the Cavaliers, even though we had instructors that had marched with them and there were frienships between the 2 groups. Phantom Regiment and the Guardsmen, had a great relationship. They saluted our colors several times at parades, and we did theirs as well. We even stayed at the same school at least once, and I remember them as being very friendly. As far as seeing them on the field, they were very different corps, but they were both excellent. We had a lot of "new" members in 1977, many of them from out of the area.

I may be the exception but in the three years that I marched ('75 to '77) I had trouble during a show a grand total of once. Prelims in Denver, and it was breathing trouble. I played contra and didn't smoke at the time so my 14 year old lungs were pretty good. We had been in the area for a week. Coincidence? Maybe. I love Colorado, and have been skiing there several times. I just think drum corps at altitude is not the best idea. MHO FWIW

OK, I'll give it a shot. It might help to tell you that I was 12 when I started, in 1975. If you get enough answers it might be interesting to see if the year has anything to do with the answers. a. A guy I knew from YMCA camp the previous year (he was a consuler) came to my band class in Jr. High and showed us a movie about drum corps. I can't rmemeber the name of it, but I saw it a few times here and there after that. Anyhow, he invited us to come to the next practice. I did, and since I played tuba (for all of about 6 months at this point) they did not hesitate to give me a horn and put me in the line. b. Let's see... 12 years old and hanging around all of these older folks who pretty much treated me like one of them. Oh, yeah, and when the horn line cranked it up it was pure power, like nothing I had ever felt before. Then came the first season and the crowds. And the applause. Better than drugs. c. I know for a fact that if a group of people has good leadership and agrees on the direction they want to move, they can accomplish miracles.

Maybe they will do a D&B corps version of Rush's 2112? That might be really cool, but tough to pull off.

We used to shower with our contrabasses. Suckers are heavy when they are full of water.

I can remember a black contra player, a few hispanic guys, and Jan Uchida, who was asian and was the world's coolest guard captian, in our corps. We all got along just fine, aside from the occasional stuff any close group is going to have. I don't recall any waitress incidents or anything like that, either, but we did not go into the south much.

I think we may have done it (Guardsmen "75 to '76) but I have absolutely no idea how/why.

Thanks, I really appreciate it. That was the only show I ever had where I almost went down, so my personal performance was AWFUL. Had to quit playing about halfway through the closer. I did leave everything on the field, but I think the altitude got me, so what I had was not enough... To this day it still hurts. That was my last show ever. The nose in the air was part of the British thing, and it was not just the guard, although I can't really remember the drummers doing it. Again, your kind words are very much appreciated

Why thank you. My last year was '77, so I missed that. I do recall one year, likely '76, maybe '75, where one of the buses broke down on the way home from Philly and we slept that night (I did anyway) in the parking lot of a tollway oasis. Our equipment bus had to be a relic of the early 1960s. Somehow the dads kept them running. We had Mrs. Meyers, Mrs. Palace, and a few other moms that traveled with us. They somehow fed us 3 squares (mostacholi (sp?) to die for) using those large metal glorified crock pots. They also kept our uniforms in shape. Oh yeah, we did have laundry service. They took our uniform jackets to the dry cleaners a couple of times a year, Looking back, I am not too sure we would have survived without them. If we did, it would have been a lot rougher. Things were simpler then. Work your butt off and care about nothing but tonight's show.

All I will say is that we did our own laundry, and that fact lead to an incident that I will not go into here, but suffice it to say that it got ugly rather quickly, And that is not sarcastic. nuff said.

My belated congratulations on a most excellent performance!!!!!

No, Keith, close. 1976. I'm at the top of the "F".

Man if someone did that with my old corps I'd be fuming. Totally uncool.

Thank you very very much. I remember thinking it was the best, most perfect show we had EVER done. Oh, to be in that zone just once more. I wish that somewhere there was a tape of it. Seems like I remember one of our guard girls had a sister in the Troopers. I remember them crying in the stands after the score was announced. I don't think we were dead last, but it was close. It was blistering hot on that astroturf, and my chops were completely gone after the show. Again, my heartfelt thanks.

Oh, no!!! The enemy!!!!!

I don't recall that, but they did a day of shooting with just a few of us. One of the shots was where Larry B (not going to try to spell his last name), the baratone player, stole a drumstick from the picnic table. So, it is possible. I sure wish I had a copy of that commercial. One of the moves we did was a large circle around the table, shot from a helicopter. The All-American boy, a member of the All-American family, was a world class brat. In order for all of us to hear the count from our drill instructor (wish I could remember his name. He was a Cavalier and a heck of a guy) got under the table. The little brat kept kicking him, so he tied the boy's shoes together, a fact the kid did not realize until he went to get up. Hilarious. FWIW, Al Lamert was a Ludwig executive and our corps Manager. The story goes that he was the key in stealing the commercial away from the Cavaliers. That's the rumor, anyway. There were actually 3 days involved. One day of rehersal, 1 day with the small group I mentioned earlier, and 1 day with everyone, Colonel included. What a great guy. We played our show for them after lunch and had him sign a bass drum head. He did so with a tear in his eyes. Anyway, for the day of rehersal instead of using an expensive helicopter the ad guys rented a hot air balloon. We did the commercial in the front yard of another Ludwig person (a heir, I think) and the field was next to a bunch of trees. Several ad guys got in the balloon and when they released it the wind caught it, dropped it over sideways, and dragged them quite a distance before they could get it to stop. Fortunately nobody was hurt.

Any idea what ever happened to Mike Rameli, the horn instructor?

Part of the reason was that they were very serious about winter guard. And quite good at it.

I played Contra with them from '75 to'77, with '76 being the sweet spot. '77 in Denver hurt badly. My favorite set of music was in '75, but we didn't quite have the fortitude that we got in '76. We didn't work as hard in '75, and in '77 the chemistry just eluded us. Still, a great bunch of folks. It just does not seem like it was so long ago.

I know things are a LOT different now, but in the mid '70s we had at least 1 show every weekend starting about the first weekend in June, and we often had 2 shows and a parade. From suburban Chicago you could go to a show just about every Friday and Saturday night within a reasonable drive time. Of course since I moved to GA a couple of decades ago there have never been a lot of shows nearby...

1976 was, simply put, one of the best years of my life. I was 14 years old and played Contra with a bunch of amazing people in the Guardsmen. We made a commercial. We made DCI! I don't know about the rest of the members, but I cannot remember working so hard on anything else. Working, eating, sleeping, it seemed everything revolved around the show. I remember Whitewater. What a great place. My favorite place to play, by far. About halfway through the show the inside seam of my pants leg started coming apart, and by the end of the show it was pretty much completely ripped. The uniform ladies just laughed at me. Like most corps, daytime prelims shows were not out best performances. For Philly, though, we somehow pulled it off. I wish we had pictures of us in the stands when our score was annouinced. Absolutely one of the high points. By finals my chops were totally shot. I reached back for all I had left and it just was not there. Wish our prelims show made it to the album, but can't have everything. If you listen to the recording though, a half second before we started the opener someone shouted "chicken sucks!", a refeerence to our KFC commercial! Hilarious. Yeah, 1976 was a great year.

When I called home after DCI prelims and before finals in 1976 to tell my folks we made it, they told me we were moving to GA. I was able to march the next year, but as a 14 year old it was kinda hard to pull off. My point is that for young people a lot of things are out of their control. In situations like mine, what would happen if a 14 year old did not have $800 laying around to pay off the contract? Could it even be enforced? Would we sue? I appreciate the thinking behind the proposal, but I think that there may be problems actually executing it.