oldsoprano

True story: Spirit's buses in the mid-80s were such pieces of crap that one of them broke down on the drive home from finals in 1984. Home (the bingo hall) was only 6 miles from the stadium. But as crappy as those 1953 buses were, they were OUR buses and we were proud of them! (Well, sort of, LOL!)

A couple of things gleaned from the reports coming out of today's media day at Mercedes Benz Stadium: Concession prices will actually be very reasonable! For instance: Hot Dogs - $2 Bottled Water - $2 Popcorn - 2 French Fries - $3 Nachos - $3 Soft Drinks - $2 with unlimited refills! Specialty items such as Mongolian beef, barbecued brisket sandwiches and hand-breaded chicken sandwiches will all be less than $10. For events that allow beer sales, a 20 ounce domestic beer is $7, and 20 ounce craft beers are $9. I also heard that for Atlanta United soccer games, they have large blackout curtains that they will use to block off the upper deck, so I would guess that some of those curtains could also be used for sound buffers at a DCI regional.

Agreed that indoors, while bad for acoustics, is good for taking weather out of the equation. Like I said earlier, the GSU stadium would make a great alternative IF DCI couldn't rent Mercedes Benz Stadium for whatever reason. At least the GSU stadium would have some seats in the shade and lots of concourse space to get out of the sun.

Yeah, it's a real shame that Georgia State's new/old stadium wasn't ready a couple of months earlier because it would have been a great alternative to the Georgia Dome since the new Mercedes Benz stadium wasn't nearly ready in late July. And it would still make a great alternative in the future if negotiations to use the new MB stadium go south. I think it would be a much better alternative than Georgia Tech, simply because of the lack of parking at Tech and abundance of parking at Georgia State's stadium.

I'm pulling for a 1978. :) (23rd to 6th for the younger generations on here.)

One of the DMs was Rick South, who was drum major in 1979 (and possibly other years - he marched SCV 74-79). FYI, Rick's wife, Lisa, marched sop with BD, also aging out in 1979.

And here's video of 77 Spirit of Atlanta from our home show. The show starts at the 7 minute mark. And check out the size of the crowd at 20:30. I'll check with the guy who came across the that tape and see if the TV station that recorded it also recorded Oakland, who were also at the show.

I remember several guys from Oakland's 77 line followed Float to Atlanta. Randy Wickstrom, Dave Morton, Dwayne Lewis, and I'm pretty sure I'm forgetting a couple.

We usually head up there on weekdays (one of the joys of retirement, I guess), so we haven't run into any problems with obnoxious bikers.

I never had that problem. I always pull over if I come to a safe place whenever I see bikes in my rear view, because even though I'm driving a Jaguar and COULD drive fast, I choose to take a more leisurely drive and not wrap the car around a tree in one of the 318 curves.

We live about two hour south of the "Tail of the Dragon," and we love occasionally driving our convertible up there and taking a spin on the Dragon. Such a gorgeous area from there all the way up to the Salem area.

I remember staying at Homewood finals week in 1979, and rehearsing some just across the highway at Samford (site of Thursday night's show). That's where part of the documentary, "One Night in August," was filmed.

Gotcha.

That is apparently not an iron-clad rule (or perhaps it is a new rule), because Atlanta's new MLS team, Atlanta United, will eventually play their home games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which will also be the home of the Atlanta Falcons NFL team. Of course, they have to finish MB Stadium first. Construction delays have forced Atlanta United to play their inaugural season home games so far at Georgia Tech's Grant Field. (Last game at Ga. Tech will be on July 29 - which I guess is one reason that site wasn't considered for the Atlanta regional that same day - and they are scheduled to begin playing in the new MB Stadium on Sept. 10. Atlanta United is owned by Arthur Blank, who also owns the Falcons, but the new stadium is owned by the Georgia World Congress Center Authority, the state government agency that also owned the Georgia Dome and operates the adjacent convention center.

Hmmmm. So you think that Cavies and Cadets scores will jump .8, Boston's score will go up 1.3, Colts score will improve .9 and Surf will improve by 2.2 over the last show in Orlando. Oh, and Spirit's score will drop 12 points. Even if it was a typo and you meant to predict a 63.35 for Spirit, why would you think that everyone's scores would go up between .8 and 2.2 points and Spirit's would drop 2 points? Then you finish your post with "Good luck to all." Sure you didn't meant to say "Good luck to everyone except Spirit?" :)

Freddy started me on trumpet in the 6th grade his first year out of college, and was my band director the next six years, then my corps director the following three years. I was sitting with him at Spirit's rehearsal yesterday and we were talking about how far back we go. When I was voted into the Spirit of Atlanta Hall of Fame earlier this year and they asked me who I wanted to do my introduction at the HOF banquet a couple of weeks ago, it was obvious to me that it HAD to be Freddy. Not much I wouldn't do for that man.

I aged out in 1979, and as much fun as that year was, my favorite year to march was actually 1978. Having finished 23rd in our first year in 1977, no one was expecting much from us in 1978, and they certainly weren't expecting what hit them, especially early in the season. Jim Ott had been telling the hornline all spring that we were in for an amazing summer, but I don't think we really believed him until about the second show of the season in Cedarburg.

Don't feel too bad. Many years ago (WAY before auto-correct), I was editing the program book for Spirit's home show, and I had written a piece on drum corps funding. I wrote that one of the ways corps raise money is by selling t-shirts and other items. Unfortunately, I didn't notice that a letter was dropped from "t-shirts" until the programs came back from the printer. I'll let you guess what letter was missing.

While McEachern has hosted drum corps shows in the past, the true original site of the Atlanta show was Grant Field in the 70s, beginning with Drums Across America in 1976 (part of the very first DCI southern tour). Source: My high school band sponsored the show, and I marched twice that night. (High school band marched our previous fall's show in exhibition at the beginning of the night, then changed uniforms and swapped my trumpet for a piston-rotor soprano and marched right back out onto the field with the Charioteers, the first corps in competition.) Spirit's home show was at Grant Field for several years in the 70s and 80s, and of course, DCI Championships were at Grant Field in 1984. McEachern hosted Spirit home shows in 2004, 2005 and 2006, then DCI took notice of the big crowds we were drawing and decided to start the Georgia Dome regional in 2007, I believe it was. Source: My wife was the Tour Event Partner for the shows at McEachern. Other stadiums that have hosted drum corps shows in the Atlanta area that I can recall off the top of my head include Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Tara Stadium, Milton High School, Kennesaw Mountain H.S., Alexander H.S. and Decatur H.S. There have also been some Div.II/Open class shows in metro Atlanta, but not sure where they were held. And that's probably more info than anyone wanted to read about drum corps shows in Atlanta over the years, LOL.

quote: "I wish I could take everyone in a time machine back to that period to listen to Spirit. "That sound! That sound! That's ... PERFECTION!" gushed brass GE judge Lloyd Pesceola on his tape." I so remember the judge's tape that you are talking about - 1979 prelims or finals, I believe it was. And of course, Lloyd joined Spirit's horn staff the following season. He was very badly injured in the van wreck that took Jim Ott's life the night before the 1980 Memphis show.

Not only do I remember that sign, but I could tell you where it came from and who "procured" it, but I won't because I'm not sure if the statute of limitations has expired under Tennessee law. :)

Not sure what documentation DCI requires for proof of age these days, but back in the 80s, each corps was required to independently acquire certified birth certificates from the state where each member was born. No, the member couldn't turn in their own copy of their birth certificates; each corps was required to order them themselves from the state department of vital records. And each corps was required to have those certified birth certificates physically with them on the road, and DCI could request to see the at any time. I don't recall DCI ever asking to see ours, but they kept on one of the buses just in case.

I apologize ahead of time if this link doesn't work, but here's a link to a video that Zendrum made at Spirit's preview show Saturday night. Pretty sweet sounds.

Tasty indeed!

no/yes/no/ :) No, there is no show in Atlanta this year. Yes, there is a DCI Southeastern regional. No, all of the world class corps won't be there, and it will be held at McEachern High School in the metro Atlanta suburb of Powder Springs instead of in downtown Atlanta.