Jeff Ream

as of earlier this month Five Star was assuming the show was on and had been told nothing different until recently. no offense, but the deal was known what was what when set up. Given, IMO, that the MCA show generates nowehre near the income the evening show does, I'd day if they paid people to show up and perform, Five Star would lose on the deal....big time. Five Star doesn't pay people travel costs to the show at night. They pay an appearance fee. There's a difference. Five Star was notified they didn't have the mini corps secured to attend any more as promised. What would you have them do? They already lost a ton of money after HERCO ####ed them on the Hershey Spectacular. No offense, but mini corps didnt draw all that well. In fact, i'll wager if admission was charged DCA weekend, the crowd would be smaller. oh...I know who sent the memo...far from a moron. Way to bite the hand of people who actually promoted you guys while you're usually creating more drama on here after DCA weekend than the competing corps do

Hopkins has already publicly stated he will try again

I strongly disagree that what we saw and heard pre amps was inferior musicianship Mike. and I could go back to RAMD 10 years ago and see you defending what was done that as good musicianship

no we shouldnt scrap the quality. But we're not trying to play in the Met either

yet many of the best rock musicians ever never took a lesson...they taught themselves. Some look #### ugly playing too...but they packed in 30,000 fans a night. I've been to the symphony, and I've seen people...at major halls....attack a snare drum in ways I've never seen in any setting, outside or the concert hall...yet they are playing with name symphonies. Maynard had horrible technique according to many trumpet players I know...and look at his career I'm gonna say here you're 50% right, because if you were 100% right, the top 6 corps would have all the bodies and the rest would be gone DCI is struggling now...for many reasons. One is because they try to approach things like they aren't drum corps anymore. and I think there are and should be differences in how approach it to the field and the concert hall......and I think too many people use the concert setting as their justification for what good technique outside should be. I've NEVER seen the NY Phil's mallet players play like a DCI pit.

funny....i hear more complaints from keyboard players about wrist problems now than I did pre amps. so tell me the current technique...which is really not that different from before...is better. IMO the only real change has been in mallet selection

ya know...you're right. Why baseball should have a larger ball, more people on the field too. Nascar should turn right at every racetrack too. Hockey...that puck is so small....i mean how old school. Football....why...you get tackled, and people should be able to just lay on you to kill the clock. why....holy cow.....35 year olds should be able to play college hoops too. I mean let's destory all traditions. oh and everything listed outdraws drum corps by millions a year......and have made very few MAJOR changes to the product over time hmmm, maybe there's a reason for that

well put

no we're not supporting a stupid move. that doesn't mean people aren't supporting DCI. I predict Allentown will have their biggest crowd in 20 years because people will want to hear everyone outside.

well if we want to have the experience we had as you say, then we want them to be outside for finals

The comment that made me the most upset was at Allentown, when die hard boosters of a certain corps showed up 30 seconds before they started, turned and asked the person behind them "how bad were all the sucky corps before (insert corps name here) came on the field?" the funniest part was the response: "well, I liked them better than what is coming in 20 seconds"

recently...Crown and Phantom some old BD Madison most years between the 70s and 2002 Spirit 80

don't forget to stop by!

this really is the biggest reason i am going to sufer thru the echo

how about drum corps just stayed accoustic.

ok...and why must drum corps change what it is for someone else's possible career aspirations? I didnt join drum corps to learn proper jazz set drumming. I know hundreds of people that didnt join drum corps to learn how to play for the symphony. People joined drum corps to be in a drum corps. See...this is where DCI's education tag fails... great musicians learn to adapt to many styles. DCI is too busy trying to be like everyone else and not themselves.

show no longer held because Herco cancelled it in favor of Beyonce. but the show averaged 6-8k fans annually. and funny enough...in 96 when they had no DCI corps, they had one of their biggest crowds ever for 10 DCA corps

I dont remember if it was DCI or DCW, but I remember being asked in the marketplace in 94 if I would answer the questions. I dont remember the specific questions, but the first half of the survey were great questions concerning fans feeling about DCI,, and the 2nd half was fluff I felt would be used to pad stats if they didnt like what they got for answers in the first half. and I do remember DCW giving considerable space to it that fall. I also remember seeing like 20 people asking the questions

spoken like a true diva

eh, you got your revenge in 82

and and the early 90's was when attendance was starting to drop, but I still think that number is way too high. I'm thinking they had to count alumni of some type in that number

i agree. and the amount of time required to rebuild the fan base would be a long, long time

sorry Mike, but as the Cavies proved prior to amps, you can use good technique and good mallets and not "beat the ####" out of the equipment

wasnt there a survey done by DCI in the 90s that Steve published that expressed this view?

great post