MikeD

Folks have said some of my favorites...I'd add to it three more.... Blessed Sacrament Golden Knights...yes, there is an alumni corps that is wonderful...but this thread asks for competing and they were my personal favorite growing up in the 60's. Blue Rock...for 1971 alone...what a great corps...with the worst busses in the world! :) St Lucy's Cadets....1966 and 1969 shows are two of my favorites.

Nothing...but that is not what your original quote implied.

Well, IMO if the corps director is 'asking' the young members to do soething, kit's pretty much along the lines of the post I replied to: "We are simply expected to attend..." We nearly always had a bus available to take those who wanted to go to church if we were on the road on a Sunday (this was pre-DCI, after all), but I don't ever remember anyone in authority "asking" that we attend.

I fail to see how forced attendance at a church shows "a sense of class and to stay true to our origins". My corps was origially a Catholic corps, the Holy Name Cadets, yet we were not dragged to churches while on the road.

71 was their best year....you can purchase their 71 show, though B&W, on drumcorpsvideos.com...along with a bunch of other junior and senior videos the Haas family recorded. I have Garfield 71 and 72...the quality of the DVD is pretty decent.

If not for that darn "Neal Hefti'ish" drum part in the Largo..I'd agree.

Why would any of those things EVER be "essential" in EVERY show? It all depends...as always. Percussion features can indeed be amazing...they can also be mind-numbingly boring...depends on the score, the performance and who is dong the listening. As well...ballads can be VERY emotional and moving...they can also be drek. There can be advantages to not having a percussion feature...like if the show design doesn't call for one, for instance....sams as with a ballad. Wedging stuff into a show "just because" is, IMO, a terrible way to design a show. If one fits...great....if not....also great.

IMO.... Shows are designed to please a large variety of audience, though no single show can be all things to all people. Don't like the Cadets '05? Maybe Regiment will fit your needs. Or possibly BD...or the Scouts...etc. There are still lots of legacy fans in the stands...at least at shows I attend, and from reading posts on these forums. If you don't like corps X and prefer corps Y, that's not corps X's problem, IMO. Others will like corps X more than Y. If you don't like any, for whatever reasons, than maybe it IS time to not go to shows. I'm sure that some legacy fans just do not like anything modern DCI drum corps does and leave...that is their right. There are plenty who DO attend shows...plus the newer fans, a lot of them from bands, who are coming along by the busloads at shows. I'd hardly call the recent changes 'fast'; it took a decade or more to get amps passed. As for "like it or leave it"... that is up to the individual attendee. I understand where the corps folks are coming from on that. It's the same way it was back in the day....many legacy types in 1976 were aghast at Bayonne...today they are revered as one of the all-time great corps...and rightly so. It's funny to me that some of those who speak out against DCI today because it is so alien to what they did 25-30 years ago were amongst those who participated in an amazing explosion of show design changes from the 70's thru the mid 80's. You look at a show from 1980 and compare it to 1955...and then to 2005 and IMO the scale of the changes are greater from 55-80 than 80-05.

Yes...which is why I like shows like the Cadets that provides a percussion feature while NOT bringing the battery visual show to a grinding halt. Common pre-DCI as well.

A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, I think.

Except you came in to the middle of the changes...the brass started to change the first time a valve was added to a straight bugle...and then the slip-slide followed by the rotor. Drum corps tradition has been one of constant change over the past half-a-century or more. You can certainly feel as you wish...I hope no one holds your opinion against you. I happen to disagree with you almost 100%, and we started in drum corps the same year.

Communication is a part of the GE sheet...note the word 'part'....also, communication is far more than merely the type of reaction being thrown around here...the "applause-o-meter" kind of thing. So...what is being discussed here is basing an entire competition result on one small aspect of one word on one caption.

They were not all male in 1971 either... B)

The 2005 Scouts are my all-time favorite Scouts....and I go back to 1970 seeing them.

...and do some of the old timers realize that drum corps exists today...it's called DCI in the junior world. B)

It's always been "about the score"...going back to my era and long before, IMO.

I think in terms of the field shows a corps like the Cadets seems to have a pretty good grasp on programming a percussion feature while not bringing the visual aspect of the battery contribution to a grinding halt. As for concerts....that was always my least favorite part of shows of my era, outside of a VERY few corps. I just prefer to see the blend of music and visual in drum corps, and marching band.

Personally, I like a battery section that contributes both musically and visually. They can be featured, of course...but one of the plusses of the battery for me IS the idea that they can contribute both visually and musically...taking the visual element away to just stand around and play doesn't do a lot for me, in this era. I haven't really seen shows that need a 'guide', though sometimes a printed guide is kind of neat (Garfield 71 and Regiment 81 come to mind). As for attracting fans...IMO fans come to see and hear high energy and high quality performances...this includes battery, pit, brass, guard. And as for attracting members...battery percussion seems to be an area where the supply far outweighs the demand. Shows like the Cadets seem to have it right, IMO.

Well...I know that lots of people loved the Cadets this year...ditto Regiment...ditto Cavies and Scouts....Coats, Crown...Blue Devils....these are the top scoring corps as well as extremely popular.

Except if it was just one show...I don't see a corps doing "stuff" just for that single event, outside of some sort of one-time gimmick.

My list: 76 Bayonne 75 27th 89 Cadets 87 SCV 85 Cadets 81 Regiment (or 82) 90 Regiment 93 Star 96 Regiment 97 Cadets 00 SCV 04 Crown

I hardly think what corps percussion do as part of the overall musical presentation is 'nothing' and 'no substance'. Just MHO.... Mike

1) The woman at the front desk of the hotel we stayed at this past summer in Wildwood Crest (NJ) used to attend the drum corps shows there going back to whan I marched AL and VFW states from 68-72. We chatted about drum corps for a good 1/2 hour or so. 2) At our band camp up in Newton NJ this past summer, one of the women who worked at the camp marched rifle in a little GSC corps called the Newton Broadcasters in the early 70's...I told her I remembered them, as I competed against them in 68-69 when I marched in a GSC corps. 3) Went to my daughter's college book store this past August (Greenville, NC) and one of the gals (gee..always with the ladies!!!) working at the store has a bunch of friends in Crown and loves to attend shows.

I saw it on Broadway...it was VERY good indeed!

Maybe the "1612 Overture"