shostahoosier

I think the Star of Indiana actually played very little from "Pines"...(that amazing company front that came out of nowhere to the end of the opener). Either way the way that Jim Prime put it all together was fresher than what any corps has done since.

I think the decreasing traffic of this site can partially be attributed to the trickle down of fewer corps = fewer marching members = fewer alumni = fewer people keeping in touch. I know there are a lot of posters here who have/will never march....but I feel like most of the long term die hard fans here are fmms. I aged out in 2001 and was still crazy about drum corps for another 5 or 6 years. Now I just check in from time to time to reminisce or see what the latest strange gossip is. I will always LOVE corps but my day to day interest in the activity has waned considerably and continues to do so. I know I'm not the only one that feels this way, but as they say..the plural of anecdote is not data.

Have you never heard of John Brazale?

Quit trying to make "The Cadevaliers" happen...

May I ask, what the point was in the bitter tone of your reply? Do the Colts threaten you? As for your statement "The Colts may not place as much emphasis on winning and securing the best of the best youth as do other corps, but they are no more a 'true' youth based organization than all other corps in DCI who utilize youth as performers and adults as staff." I would beg to differ since this thread acknowledges that the Colts find a way to support a feeder corps for kids that are too young to compete at the World Class level.

It's been months and the site is still down. What a loss of a great resource.

Sorry, by "dynasty" I meant an era where Phantom Regiment consistently wins (or is in the hunt for) a DCI title. I'm more than aware of the "Pharaohs" dynasty. Tim and Dan Pharaoh....let my people go.....and march and play with freedom.

What I find so funny/sad about Regiment's inconsistency is that several key members of Crown's current staff were at Phantom Regiment together and were let go after the 2001 season. I've heard it was in part because Regiment started to sound less like Regiment and more like an eastern coast corps. I thought 2001 Regiment sounded like a young, unpolished Star of Indiana (the 2001 hornbook written by Klesch is way underrated). Imagine what Regiment would be like today if they had retained that staff (Michael Klesch, Leon May, among others) and just let them do their thing. I'm not privy enough about Phantom Regiment's internal workings to say that the corps is being managed poorly. They do field a full corps every summer and it sounds like their debt problems are behind them. However....when will Phantom Regiment have its "dynasty"? If it's not visual problems, it's percussion. And now the horn line is placing in the middle of the pack? I always thought brass (and in a previous decade, visual) was the strength of the corps. I hope they get off of this need to tell a story and get back to putting the brass and music front and center. Though to be fair...part of Phantom's inconsistency in the past came from them switching away from a style that was working for them.

Why would you bother with an inferior, televised/recorded experience if there were plenty of opportunities to see local, live performances? .

You can say that again!

1. 1973 was only the second year of DCI so it is entirely possible that the number of DCI shows increased after that season. 2. Weren't there other circuits around back then besides DCI? Were those included in your numbers? Maybe 5X was a large estimation but I could see 2X or 3X.

Or there could be multiple shows happening on one night throughout several parts of the country. Now we have basically have 2 or 3 shows at most happening on a "busy" night. Not trying to start an argument about the demise of DCI or anything, just saying its totally possible to have more shows.

I know they haven't competed in almost 20 years, but I enjoyed visiting their site from time to time for the memories. Today their site didn't load in my browser. Is that the end of Star's online presence? Even though though it hadn't been updated in maybe over 10 years, it was still a very well done site.

The Blue Devils are a well oiled machine and deserve nothing but respect, but I almost feel like the fans who constantly chime in to brag about the Blue Devils when they're not being mentioned make the corps a little bit less likable for some. It shouldn't be a total mystery when people single your corps out in the summer, even if they do perform a perfect re-enactment of 1986 show.

I always thought John Vanderkolff was Zingali's protege. What happened to that?

She comes from a great pedigree (Regiment, Cadets) and she has taught some monster guards. If she's taking time off maybe she just needs a break or she's looking for a better fit.

Couldn't disagree more. The satin Cavaliers uniform was dated and cheesy. The Blue Stars uniform was timeless and one of the most recognizable uniforms in all of the marching arts.

I agree with you Dave (no Regiment/ Blucoats helmet for the Blue Stars) though I will admit their uniform was probably my favorite in all of DCI. I can understand the corps wanting to modernize but they moved from a uniform that was instantly recognizable to a cookie-cutter uniform that any band could have worn. I could see how the special helmets were hard to fit but as for the off-centered plumes...they seemed to work fine for Carolina Crown. Im sure there is a way to construct a helmet that won't fall off. Personally I'm all for the blue uniform, white cummerbund, white pants stripes, white shoes, white cross buckles, white helmet, and RED plume. If I recall, the guy who made their uniform posted a lot of his samples on DCP a few years ago. He made some great stuff (including a few modern takes on the Blue Stars uniform). Maybe they'll be going back to one of those sketches. Either way, good luck to the Blue Stars next season!

I think Star 92's horn line is still the best of all time! The nuance and control that they had with those crappy 2-valve bugles is insane....and the sound was just incredible. I agree that they should have won but I can understand how they didnt. Their show was quite clean EXCEPT for that part during one of their drum breaks where the hornline forms a serpentine line and the guard passes through them. That set/manuever was beyond dirty, and how, I don't know as they basically did the same set in their '91 show but they were able to clean it (I would say that visually a lot of things were taken from the '91 show). Could that set alone have costs them the championship? It is arguable, but 3rd place behind a very strong but somewhat sterile Cadets show, I still can't buy.

I totally agree! Every year when I see the "pre-season predictions" threads, I'm always rather shocked at how low people put Regiment. It's rarely above 6th and usually between 7th-9th. Regiment hasnt been consistent when it comes to staying in the top 3 (lately) but I think they've been consistent enough for people to expect a little better. Out of the past 20 years they've really only had about 3 or 4 "bad" years...

I think you might need a refresher in US geography, but I know exactly what you meant to say. I think the edges were Iowa and (western) Pennsylvania. I felt like most of the shows were in Wisconsin, Illinois, or Ohio (the places were most of the DCM corps came from). The DCM tour was a lot of fun and DCM Finals itself was a blast. I always enjoyed the DCM social/potluck/sports day that we had the day after. I don't think the BOD will care that much in the end though. People say that Div II/III corps are the recruiting grounds for the World Class Corps but the truth is that top corps can recruit from high schools just as easily. It's easier to teach someone how to march than it is to teach them how to play. How is attendance at the Div II/III only corps show doing?

I totally agree! So many people on DCP complain about DCI not giving much support for the small corps...but how many reviews do we read that start off with something like "sorry, had to park my car and get a hot dog so I missed the small corps" or "sorry, I really wanted to watch the drumline warm up in the lot so I didn't get to see the first few performing units".

Blue Devils 1996 - I'm still looking for pieces of my face that were blown off by that insane hornline.

I'm guessing the OP mentioned that they had been discussing this a lot but I'm guessing the chatting didnt happen here on DCP since this is their "first" post.

I remember in the late 90s hoping that Drum Corps South (DCS) would finally turn a corner after having two solid finalist corps (The Magic of Orlando and Carolina Crown) headline the tour. Even though they were able to have shows in the region there were so few corps. I think in the mid-90s DCS consisted of Magic, Crown, Southwind, Spirit, Delta Brigade and Lone Star. Anybody around at the time know much about DCS? Were the shows well attended? They had really small lineups. I imagine it would be tough to have a regional corps in the south now since there are so few (maybe just Carolina Crown and Spirit of Atlanta). Strange how some of the states with the best programs have almost no local corps.....or is it?