JimF-LowBari

Wow Jeff, sorry about the corps dropping from competition. Best of luck in the local programs and we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Had 72 on record and have 79 on CD and problem is you can barely hear the beginning of DB because the corps is (really) facing away from the mics. Is there any recording where you can hear the intro without cranking the speakers?

Never even thought of corps outside of North America or Europe. Typical Central PA thinking. Thanks Cliff. And Jim, PM coming on the Regionnaires, don't want to post a name without permission.

OK thanks. In my day DCA was top 10 corps were full members and corps 11-14 were associate members. And anyone else was "Thanks for coming to Championships, have a nice trip home". Not sure how DCA handles membership today.

Check out what happened to two big organizations started by the boomers parents and grandparents (aka American Legion and Veterans of Foriegn Wars). AL was started after World War I and AL/VFW got another huge influx of members after World War II. As those members starting passing away things went downhill. Lots of posts have either closed their doors or membership has gotten so small the posts can't support things like they used to. Tried to find the number of posts over the years but can't find anything nationally. Very On Topic as a lot of Posts that sponsored corps are gone.

Could you explain "DCI limiting it's membership"? I had a brownie and can't quite figure this out b**bs :P

Thanks Cathy, thought FAMQ and ODCA had disappeared years ago. Hearing about Emerald Knights is a downer as have some friends in Mississauga. Just a real shock considering how many corps have disappeared from Quebec and Ontario. Jeez, last new corps movements I heard from Canada were in the Alumni world (Guelph from a year or two ago and Regionnaires about two weeks ago).

My bad on using the term "local shows". What I should have said was "non-major" or non-regional" shows. IOW - DCI shows with 5 or 6 corps competing instead of however many usually compete at a regional show. The (extinct) Hershey combined All-Age/Jr show with five Jrs competing would be a "non-major show" example.

As a past and present member of smaller Drum Corps I've always felt they should be considered when judging the "health" of our activity. Thinking about trends for the four (yes four!) areas of DC and need help to understand the Junior area. What I have so far is: 1) All Age (aka Senior): DCA starting Class A division brought the smaller corps to better public attention and gave some a goal to shoot for in the Class A title. Some corps that would not have gone to DCA weekend under the old system are now attending. Number of corps attending 2005 and 2006 may be the highest two years ever since DCA started in mid 1960s. With some new All Age corps feeling it's worth while to start out by doing local gigs before hitting the competation trail this a good sign. 2) Alumni (aka Non-Competing) corps: Hitting a moving target but there are small Alumnis that even I don't know about. Lot of these corps have the old "local corps" attitude and are open to members regardless of age or previous DC experience. At least one I call "A town band that happens to be a drum corps" :P 3) Mini Corps (here's the fourth area): Really started up around 1993 but 10+ years later the prognosis is good. Only one competition a year but they can perform outside of that one time. 4) Junior corps: All I really hear about Div II/III is on DCP so 'nuff said 'bout that. What I'm looking for is any "Junior" corps that are not part of the DCI umbrella so may not be know to the public. Only corps I now of are two High School corps (CA and FL(?)) and a Canadian corps used to help handicapped children. Any additional info or opinions would be welcome.

Not trying to wizz in your cornflakes Pee-Wee :P but that does bring up a question I have. Does anyone have a list of the number of DCI shows held over the last few years. And hopefully that would be broken down into regionals (still not totally sure what a regional show really is) and others. Asking because it seems DCI is moving to more major shows (aka regionals) with "local" shows as stopping points in between. Or just seems tha way 'cause regionals get the publicity. And before anyone else says it, the DCM shows would skew the numbers.

Time to bring up another old time question that never seems to get a definite answer: What corps get to vote on the proposed rule changes? If I remember right some of the Div II/III corps get to attend the meetings but can't recall if they have any say in what goes on. This popped in my head when I was typing: What ever happened to Div III going their own way and breaking away from DCI about two years ago? There was a lot of heated posts for a few months then nothing.

Dang, thought that "ruin your chops" bit was over by the 1970s. My assistant HS band director was actually the DM of one of our rivals. Didn't find out about his "outside gig" :P until the end of the season. Think he never mentioned DC because he was in line for the directors job when the main guy retired (about 5 years later) and didn't want to upset the school board. (That and he was in a tough situation because of the corps rivalry.) LOL, wished someone would have given me the "ruined chops" line. Main reason I joined corps was because after High School my playing days were over as there ain't a marching band in a Community College. :P "Ruin my chops after High School, what the #### do I care!".

Saw and heard the whole range of thoughts of the Cadets show at the Gettysburg pre-season exhibition in June. Newer people to DC thought the show was good and had promise (show was incomplete at the time). People who had followed corps for decades were split. Some enjoyed and couldn't wait for Madison and others thought the show was good but "ruined" by use (or overuse) of vocals. Then again, some people had a chance to watch the show for free and decided not to come in the stadium.

Have to agree with a lot Stef posted (pick yourself off the floor Stef :P ). IMO, what killed a lot of Drum Corps (Junior and Senior) is the demise of local sponsors and less interest on the part of prospective members. This led to the loss of local circuits due to not enough local corps to keep that circuit going. The Senior side had Penn-NY, New England (forget the name) and other local circuits that went under in the 60s or so. So the only way for corps to make shows was to travel more and more until Jr corps have the touring model. Now the better question would be what to do to reverse the trend of lost corps. I'd say smaller local groups with members unable or unwilling to do the big touring "thing". Possible? I'd say not likely as all the attention gets shoved on the top 12 DCI corps. IMO (again) the biggest damage DCI is doing is focusing too much on the corps that bring in the $$$$ and ignoring the smaller corps which (IMO yet again) shows the real health of the activity. Almost forgot: it ain't just Drum Corps that have declined badly since the 50s/60s. Same is true with young groups like little league, Boys Scouts, city church groups etc. etc......

Hershey PA 1974, which was about 7-8 months after I joined my first corps. (Thanks to www.srcorps.com for the scores) 1 Reading Buccaneers 82.25 2 Hawthorne Caballeros 80.75 3 Yankee Rebels 77.90 4 Rhode Island Matadors 71.65 5 Erie Thunderbirds 58.95 And in exhibition a Class B "Kiddie Corps" that I never found out who they were but average age looked about 10. For those of you who have been to Hershey, the front stands were SOLD OUT so we sat in the back. Great seats to watch the corps march out. Guessing attendance was about 10,000 people. #### I miss those days. :(

Forgot to mention our first (half) performance was opening act for our home show in Carlisle. We only knew the first half of the drill so after the concert number (yeah, I'm old) we played the rest in a standstill. Learned the end of the show about 2 hours before we scored 37.35. Legend is first half of the tic sheets went from light gray to totally black as the show went on. Still looking for a recording of us in 1974 (the 37.35 year). Finally got my cassette from the next year cleaned up and put to CD. Then a copy of another 1975 show was mailed to me. :P And PioSop06 - yes, it definitely counts. Hope you make it back next year. And love the avatar as I'm a Unix programmer/system admin and know the feeling. :sshh:

Watermelons and Oranges..... Where's Gallagher and his Sledge-O-Matic when you need it? ^0^ :P

Lot of theads recently about how "Drum Corps is about winning", GH not happy with Cadets placements, etc, etc. OK, let's focus our attention on some moments that made us cringe but never took anything away from our love for the activity. Here is how my Drum Corps "Career" started: First corps folded three months after I joined. We were a "start up" corps that never quite started. :P First show was week before DCA (my second corps). The corps had been inactive and started very late in the season. We set a record for lowest score ever achieved in DCA competition 37.35. Record stood for a few years. First DCA Prelims was week after the 37.35 show. Came in 15th....... out of 15 corps. Second season we did a lot of DCA shows to get needed $$$$ to stay on the field. Got our brains bashed in by Cabs, Buccs, and other big corps. Wasn't until week before DCA we actually beat another corps. (And one of those corps folded after DCA that year.) OK, let's hear your story.... B)

Lot of theads recently about how "Drum Corps is about winning", GH not happy with Cadets placements, etc, etc. OK, let's focus our attention on some moments that made us cringe but never took anything away from our love for the activity. Here is how my Drum Corps "Career" started: First corps folded three months after I joined. We were a "start up" corps that never quite started. :P First show was week before DCA (my second corps). The corps had been inactive and started very late in the season. We set a record for lowest score ever achieved in DCA competition 37.35. Record stood for a few years. First DCA Prelims was week after the 37.35 show. Came in 15th....... out of 15 corps. Second season we did a lot of DCA shows to get needed $$$$ to stay on the field. Got our brains bashed in by Cabs, Buccs, and other big corps. Wasn't until week before DCA we actually beat another corps. (And one of those corps folded after DCA that year.) OK, let's hear your story.... B)

Last time I checked. Unless my wife beat me down any more recently. :P

That's it Kevin, we're taking it out back. ^0^ And I think I have a whole two inch height advantage. :P Why apologize for the actions of others??? Wonder if the apology was about immature, uncalled for comments directed GH and the Cadets way or just 'cause some of us (including moi) don't appreciate the "genius". Sheesh.... And like Jim, having a conversation with Hop over the whole thing would be very enlightening. Sure I'd still disagree with the man but should be an interesting dicussion.

At least I can blame some of the tone un-quality on the horn. :P Ain't "Tenor Baritone" an oxymoron??? But not as bad as a "Soprano Contrabass" (that would hurt). :sshh:

Picturing Rochester Humane Society pulling up next year and hauling us both out. "Had a report you two were torturing cats in there". And Steve I'm shooting for "Bari with tone quality that makes your skin crawl the most". :sshh:

Thinking of the growth in number of All Age and Alumni corps today. The missing ingredient IS touring. For some of the smaller All Age groups the "tour" is DCA weekend. Ding, ding, ding.....

4. CONTEST SITE: The contest field shall be in the shape of a football field 160 feet wide by 300 feet long, with the outside lines and the 50 yard line marked, with visual markers at each corner and at each end of the 50 yard line. LOL, forgot about mid-field stripe only. Anyone else remember the first time a show was run on a field with all the yard lines? That's when you found out that symetrical drill wasn't that symetrical at all (by up to 5 yards off at the ends).