Jump to content

MikeD

Forum Support Team
  • Posts

    25,286
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    75

Everything posted by MikeD

  1. No, it was 72, part of the No More War show. 71 was the amazing Revolutionary War show. Ironlips was the brass arranger and primary instructor; George Tuthill the percussion guy that year. Bobby Hoffman did the drill both years.
  2. I had left Garfield after the 71 season, where I was a tri-tom player. The Cadets let go of George Tuthill, and as he was teaching the Cabs as well in Hawthorne, a lot of the drummers went there. I wanted another year of junior corps, so I returned to Garfield in the winter. However, I refused to play drums for the "new guy".....Fred Sanford! 😮 So, I joined the hornline, having never played a brass instrument. I was a 3rd baritone, and our brass instructor was Don Angelica, so that kind of made up for the above/ Don was an amazing teacher. He would invite groups of us music majors to his house in Bergenfield, and he would teach us how to arrange music. He gave us assignments. Mine was to create a brass chart of "Johnny". The hornline played it, and Don critiqued it. I had the bad habit sometimes of not stopping air, but using my tongue to stop the sound (I had not had brass class yet at college). I still recall the one time a rehearsal when Don, who was standing 50+ yards away, heard me release like that at the beginning of our opener, "Sinfonians" concert march. He stopped the entire corps, and yelled my name, and that was all he said. I knew exactly what he meant...that was my last time forcing the release that way. 😀
  3. That is the primary job of the drummers! Good to see they were doing their job. (said this drummer). 😀
  4. This in response to the person who mentioned having HS bands march DCI but no WW allowed.
  5. Better approach is to allow woodwinds in drum corps. Been saying that for decades.
  6. The rise of the VFW/AL era of drum corps began after WWII and later Korea. Those vets came home and had children. They joined their local posts and some of those posts started drum corps. By the late 60's, the post members were aging, as were their kids. Membership declined in the posts, as well as the corps, especially the small "mom and pop" corps that were the the parade corps or local level competitive corps, such as the Garden State Circuit in my area. I marched in a parade corps from 64-67 and then a GSC corps in 68-69, before joining Garfield. I later taught in the GSC in the mid 70's and judged there mid 70's to 80'ish. The circuit was imploding all through that era. Corps would combine just to stay alive. I taught the Wayne Monarchs in 76, who merged with the Greenwood Lake Lakers mid season and became the King's Regiment for a couple of years. They eventually folded a few years later. Times were changing. The gas crisis in the early/mid 70's...huge inflation late 70's...everything cost more. That drove sponsors away, and corps folded, leaving the relatively few that made it into the 80's. Kids were just not joining these local corps anymore. In NJ, the rise in corps-style marching band provided an alternative for the kids who used to join these corps.
  7. The churches started to pull away well before DCI. Holy Name dropped the Cadets in the late 50’s as one. Newark NJ had a few church corps that did not make it to DCI, a couple of them powerhouses in the 50’s and 60’s…St Lucy’s Cadets and the Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights (my favorite corps in the 60’s). Also s GSC corps St Martin’s Troubadors who were disbanded after having an on field fight with St Andrew’s Bridgemen at 1969 GSC champs in Dover. I think Fran’s corps, the Manville Crusaders, started as Sacred Heart Crusaders. That is just a few.
  8. Yes. I said that same thing on one of the FB groups. Great minds and all that! 👍
  9. I recall from RAMD days that the history of drum corps book written way back said there were 440 competing corps in 1971 just prior to DCI. i’m sure there were lots of parade corps as well. I marched in one in the mid 60’s. No idea how complete or accurate any of these numbers are. So many corps came and went before DCI came along. Churches who ran many corps in the 50’s and 60’s were dropping out well before DCI. Heck, the Cadets are an example of that. Today there are thousands of competitive bands that replaced the small local corps, numerically speaking.
  10. Mod hat here: Posters need to stop making personal attacks and badgering other posters. We do not want to close down this thread but it is moving in that direction right now. I think everyone here has been around long enough to know the guidelines.
  11. You may not have meant it, but I love your description of the costs! 👍
  12. In 70-71 era Blue Rock had their own lousy busses. One of them had no reverse, so they had to be careful where they parked. Another one could not start unless a bunch of members got behind it and pushed it. We (Garfield) had to get out of one of our busses on the way to Miami, as the full bus could not drive up a steep hill. We walked in front of the bus, just in case! 😀
  13. Back in the 60’s there was a corps on Long Island, the Islanders, that was sponsored by 7-UP bottling. They wore green unis with orange and white trim, had the 7-UP logo on their unis, as well as a logo on the bass drum heads. Also a senior corps sponsored by Balantine Beer, the Brewers.
  14. Mod hat here. Please refrain from making derogatory comments about others who are posting. We want to keep the thread open, but personal attacks on posters goes against DCP guidelines.
  15. I know in NJ you need fingerprinting to work in a school position. I had mine done at a state site when I was becoming a substitute teacher 5 years ago. I had them taken way back (mid 90's) at our local police station when I was working with the marching band.
  16. Mod hat here… Can we get reasonably on topic and get away from the stuff about Crown and BAC. It is verging on getting personal between posters.
  17. Even for some sadly no longer with us, I can’t believe they would dislike modern drum. People like my instructors drum guy George Tuthill, drill guy Bobby Hoffman, brass people like Don Angelica.
  18. I like the longer video where Hatfield and Medley talk with Andy Williams before the song.
  19. That is two of my faves. The "Unchained Melody" performance by Bobby Hatfield in 1964 on the Andy Williams show is amazing in color video and remastered sound. Karen Carpenter another great one, esp her drumming videos. Procul Harum with the Danish National Orchestra in 2006 is amazing, especially "A Whiter Shade of Pale". I watch as many reactions as I can to those and a bunch of others. Cool to see young folks react to our old music.
  20. Well, I am old, and I watch them all the time in the evening. I tend to focus mostly on people reacting to old music, 60’s and 70’s. I have some favorite folks. Not sure the attraction, but they are fun.
  21. Reaction videos? If that is what you're asking, they are huge on Youtube. Some reactors have a hundred thousand followers or more.
  22. In NJ if there are people in a school there has to be a black seal (furnace) certified custodian on site.
×
×
  • Create New...