KeithHall
-
Posts
7,917 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Posts posted by KeithHall
-
-
Kingston Grenadiers are from Canada and are a "Hot DCA corps!!!" More Canadian DCA corps would be awesome, but your statement comes across as if you don't think too highly of the gang from the north.
I can't believe I forgot you guys!!!
I just think of you as a NY corps since we were always at the same shows with ES and Brigs, I am sorry. I'm dumb some times.
Well, there were several corps in the Toronto area and the Kitchener area too.
-
"Midwest Hall of Fame"
Belleville Black Knights
Quincy Debutants
Norwood Park Imperials
Milwaukee Militaries
Chicago Royal Airs
Racine Kilties Jr.
Preston Scout House
Did they move from Canada?
and Madison Junior Scouts
-
Why do we have to have these arguments comparing apples to oranges? DCI does their thing and DCA does their thing. The activity itself is what's important. We don't need to drive a wedge between the circuits because of differences some people have. Let's appreciate the activity and everything it has to offer, rather than criticize the fact that BD's narrator used the word Yowza 13 times (which I do admit is quite hilarious). Let's support the activity. DCI finals, what I saw, were great. DCA finals are gonna be awesome. Bush, Brigs, Empire and Reading are all up there, with MBI and Renegades in the mix. Couldn't ask for anything better. Go Team.
I don't believe I bashed DCI at all. I was just saying that DCA has been growing and that's a GREAT thing!!!
Oh yeah, GO CRU!!!
-
Dude,
Were you at any of the DCI shows last week? 53 corps competing in Div I, II & III prelims & finals with my guess of 15,000+ at semi-finals and well over 25,000 at finals hardly seems like a "slow death".
Wow, 53 corps! I didn't think there were that many junior corps. I remember when there were 80 corps and not to long before that there were probably over 150. So what that 25,000 people saw it this year, how many people came to Buffalo to see it? More than that and that was over 10 years ago. The last junior corps I saw played half notes and quarter notes and were top 15.
The corps put on fantastic performances and the audience was eating it up. (Yes, I was there.) The corps members, instructors, designers and administrations deserve a lot of credit for putting on another great season of drum corps.
I have been involved with drum corps for 20+ years, both DCA & DCI and the one thing that has been constant is change. Change is good, especially if it allows more people to participate and attend shows.
CHange is good and I agree! You just mentioned more people to participate
but, if there are less junior corps how can more people participate? The could go to a DCA corps because that is where the growth is right?
DCI & DCA are circuits made up of the member corps and they are put together to serve the best interests of those member corps. They vote on all of the rule changes and they have very intense debates about the pros and cons of each of them. No one is trying to change the activity for the worse.
It's fine to not like a certain style or the use of certain effects or equipment, but it is important to not lose sight of the fact that the members of the drum corps, DCI & DCA alike, are still doing what they always have been doing....working their ###es off to put on the best performance they possibly can for the audience and for themselves. This is what has always been and will continue to be so appealing about drum corps, no matter what changes come to the activity.
I agree they work hard, that isn't the issue. The issue is this (once again):
Look at the numbers of corps that participated in DCI, US Open, A-I Open, etc back "in the day" and then look at 1977 until now and tell me that there is growth in junior corps.
By the way, my name is Keith or Mr. Hall, nowhere in my screen name do I have Dude.
-
Add
Belvederes
Saints
Meadowlarks
Kingston Indians
Monarchs
Gauchos
Midlanders
Firefighters/Seneca Princemen
Lasalle cadets
Chordaliers
Mello-Dears
"...and the band played on...."
-
DCA id definitely growing.
Six corps competed at the first DCA Championships in Millford, CT
1. Reading Buccaneers...............84.50
2. CT Hurricanes........................84.36
3. NY Skyliners..........................83.16
4. Yankee Rebels.......................80.25
5. Interstatesmen......................79.95
6. Pittsburgh Rockets.................76.95
This year there will be how many?
Here are the # of participating corps through the years
1966....10
1967....10
1968....18
1969....10
1970....15
71........17
72........15
73........19
74........15
75........19
76........17
77........16
78........15
1987.....23
2005.....?????
DCA is growing and growing all over the US, in the South, West and Mid West as well as the North. It would be nice to see Canada put something together. So many Jr corps in the 1970's...there's got to be enough up in Ontario to put together a Hot DCA corps!!!
-
Skokie Vanguard
Norwood Park Imperials
Beverly Cardinals
Nisei Ambassadors
St. Paul Scouts
Ottawa Crusaders
PAL Cadets
Spectacle City Mariners
Thunderbolts
Queensmen
Polish Falcon Cadets
Oshkosh Warriors
Chevaliers
Southern Tier Grenadiers
Windjammers
Maple City Cadets
Appleknockers
Angels of Bellefontaine, OH
32nd Hussar
etc
-
I.C. Reveries, Revere, Massachusettes, 1957 to 1974
We had a member march with I.C., his name was Joel Lamarr, red headed mellophone player. Remember?
-
One of my favorite pics from the weekend:
Kelli looks almost like my wife!!!! Her hair is a bit shorter than my wife's but same color. WOW!
Great running into you JJ!!!
Heat Wave in Space...FOREVER!!!!!!!
-
I guess I forgot the question mark at the end of the topic.
Childish? Pathetic? Please!!!!
It is a proven FACT that DCI (Jr Corps) are down in numbers. In the 70's at DCI's peak, there were at most, around 80 corps competing. How many corps total participated in DCI last week? Point made and proved.
How can this be childish and pathetic? What is pathetic is that the number of junior corps have diminished to a number that worries and concerns all of us. Am I correct? Am I blaming DCI, well, sort of I guess but I am also blaming former corps directors who killed their particular corps for mismanagement, etc.
Continue on!
-
My corps was the Royal Coachmen from North Tonawanda, NY. They died in May 1977. The previous year, August '76 the corps had just won the NT Open Class Championships and met the next morning to prepare to leave for Philadelphia. The director sat everyone down and resigned. Reason.....family and a number of parents were trying to take control. He left and then the corps got on the buses and went to Philly. We arrived and the hotel reservations were screwd up. We rehearsed briefly the next morning after getting very little sleep, did prelims and did a boring show and ended up 16th or something. About a week later, the director returned and we began preparing for the 77 season. Rehearsals were pretty good. The hornline wasn't as big as the year before (we had 36), we only had 30. In May of 1977, the director resigned again. The person who took over the corps decided to merge with a local corps called the Frontiersmen. I never understood what happened, but we gave up our name, our uniforms and became the Frontiersmen. It was a huge let down for all of us who had been with the corps for 4 or more years. To this day I'm not sure who to blame.
So that's my story...how 'bout yours.
-
Having been there that year as a marching member of a Class "A" corps- I remember that like it was yesterday!
That was also the year of "The Storm".
The torrential downpour during Blue Rock's show caused them to re-start twice.
When they were called off mid-show the last time because of the rain, they said ####-it and finished their show. The crowd stayed in the stands,gave Blue Rock a thunderous ovation(not to take anything away from AK!) then ran for cover.
The following year, The U.S. Open sold T-Shirts with a play on it's eagle logo-it was the stately eagle with the stars and stripes shield holding an umbrella in it's beak!
(I still have one!)
AHH-good times........great memories!!
I was there for that show LOL!!!
Royal Crusaders were doing the saloon portion, members in white pants sitting on the ground LOL. I believe they couldn't even finish the show because of the downpour.
-
DCI is not dying. It is changing, there are less corps that can sustain the DCI lifestyle, and the average kid from a small town has less chance of joining these corps than ever before, but the money coming in is astronomical, the fan-base is ginormous, and the number of competitions is mind blowing. DCI is far from dying.
DCA is not traditional drum corps. It changes as much as DCI does, but a little less radically. The tradition of senior corps lies in the American Flag Squad only. If you don't believe me, watch a tape from DCA from twenty years ago, then tell me DCA is traditional. Drum corps in all form is always changing.
The future of DCI and DCA will be different. The DCI corps are going to a more all-star drum corps situation with members migrating from around the globe to march in corps in all three divisions. DCA will still be a weekend warrior club that has the advantage of tons of experience throughout its participants. Both are beautiful organizations promoting their own versions of the drum corps evolution tree. Both are doing what there organizations need to, respectively.
I, personally, love drum corps and would appreciate those who don't love it or have stopped loving the evolution of drum corps to take their lame prognostications and stupid biased observations to take a flying leap.
Viva la drum corps!
The amount of corps in North America has dropped so much since...lets, say...1977 that it is dying a slow death. Yes it has evolved BUT .....
-
This was brought up in the Historical area, so I brought it over. As DCI dies this slow death and DCA grows, I believe that we will look to the Senior circuit to keep the activity growing.
What do you all think?
-
DCA....The savior of the drum and bugle corps activity! I like that idea. I will take that over to the DCA side of DCP and see what happens.
-
I just would like someone who has time to research the amount of corps in the 70's, when did the number begin to decrease? I say after 1976. Did the addition of DCI sanctioned competitions drive corps to compete more out of state, thereby folding corps due to financial issues. Corps that wanted to be competitive had to compete at certain shows in order to "be seen" by as many DCI judges as possible.
Whadya think?
-
why is it that it automatically assumed that any co-association of the two groups is bad?
DCI has there agenda and DCA has there's. You would think that the two groups would be alike but not so.
I would guess if you took a DCI corps and a DCA corps, lets say the two champion corps and had them do there show you would see a difference with some similarities.
Creative vs. Entertain
-
It began to die after the 1976 season....a very, very sllloooowww death!!!!
Look at my post
-
This is not a tribute to The Alan Parsons Project!
The Decline of Drum and Bugle Corps. What happened? Who's at fault?
I bought this wonderful book on the History of Drum and Bugle Corps and found it crammed with scores and stories, etc. So I turn to page 255 to see how many corps competed through the years.
1972, 39 corps competed in Open Class
1973, 48 " " " " "
1974, 57
1975, 46 in Open, 19 Class A, 10 All Girl Total 75
1976, 47 Open, 25 A Class, 9 AG for a total of 81
1977, 44 Open, 26 A Class, 7 AG for a total of 77
and then by
1990 -25 Div I, 19 Div II, Div III 23 Total 67
2001 - 23 Div I, 5 Div II, Div III 12 Total 40
So as I was looking at corps participation and find the big year was 1976. Not sure when the DCI regionals began such as DCI East, West, North , Canada, etc. My belief was that as DCI gained more control of shows it forced corps to tour more extensively, including the smaller corps. These smaller corps tried this and due to directors who had no idea how to handle finances and lost money, saw their corps die. These same smaller corps could survive before because they didn't travel extensively. They traveled within their state or to states next to them but not on a tour. It was weekend drum corps! That's why there were so many corps in the 60's and early 70's. Most corps got on buses Saturday morning, traveled to a show, rehearsed, competed and went home. In the Royal Coachmen (NY), we rehearsed on Tuesday and Thursday, and did the Saturday routine. In 1976, we traveled to DCI in Philly. We also did US Open and A-I Open too. We never went on the road for weeks.
Look at the Jr. corps scene now...how many jr corps are there? I don't know how many total are competing this week. Anyone?
I'm not going to blame DCI BUT if they were more attentive to what was happening in North America this could've been dealt with better, and maybe we would see more corps today.
Add your opinions please.
-
That would be Alumni corps. LOL
All kidding aside, the participants of a junior corps no longer consider senior corps to be the next step in their drum corps career.
That has been the norm for many years I know when I was in Jr. corps in the 70's I never wanted to march Sr corps. I did it in 90 with a pretty good Crusader corps and returned to the corps in 2001 and was happy I did.
-
Dance, dance, dance!!!
As Danny Kaye sang in "White Christmas,"....."there doing choreography..."
If you want to see old color guard stuff check out the alumni corps.
My only observation is, as time moves on, everything changes. What can you do about it? NOTHING! Accept it and move on. Well we all could complain BUT no one listens to us any way, right?
Nice being back.
-
This post jogged my memory about a time...(harp music)....long ago in the 1970's, like '72. We were at some show and one of our new members decided he wanted a sop from the Tri-Town Cadets and stole it. As the bus was pulling out he lowered the case from the window to return it, and we all had a good laugh. He called them a bunch of hicks (Tri Town wore straw hats and plaid shirts, hehehehe).
-
After speaking with Donny the other day I became more respectful of the Crusaders organization than I have ever had. To know that money is not there and the corps is doing remarkably well...Mike, YOU ARE DEFINITELY MY HERO as is Donny and the staff and the members of the Rochester Crusaders.
I hope that your dreams this year come true...God Bless You All!
Keith
-
Donny,
Call me! I sent my #'s to you via e-mail on DCP. The sooner the better.
My mother-in-law comes in this Saturday so my wife will have company the next month.
Keith
DCA 1965 - present
in DCA - All-Age Corps Discussions
Posted
I was just thinking, even with 14 high school kids strumming guitars in guitar class, (they all know how to play the beginning of Sweet Home Alabama), thank God I don't teach this class.
Anyways......I was reminiscing to a time when we used to go to Junior shows and we competed against
Seneca Optimists
Oakland Crusaders
Flying Dutchmen
Midlanders
Opti Knights
Krescendos
Precious Blood Cardinals
Man! Think of the kick butt Senior corps
Now add Guelph Royalaires, Niagara Regionnaires....too bad no one took advantage of that.