Guardguy89

Sonnor World Guard is gearing up for a great season. One of Quebec's oldest guards, Sonnor will be headed to WGI for a 19th consecutive year. Sonnor is a 9 time World class finalist, producing some very memorable shows along the way. Ever consider marching in Montreal? Rehearsals are every Sunday with one camp per month. Montreal is alot closer than many of you might think, and Sonnor offers one of the more progressive programs around. Plus all dues are in Canadian funds - so its definately affordable!!!! First rehearsal is scheduled for Sunday September 19th, we don't have "auditions" in Montreal, but previous guard experience is a must. Housing can be arranged no problem - and yes - we do speak English too! If you would like any further information, please e-mail me directly at: mwatier@fcbdirect.com Thanks, Mike

Who actually sang the Fat Lady's note at the end????? I was all the way up in the stands for finals and could hear it clearly - it was loud!!!!! later, Mike

Hey all, I marched Les Eclipses back then. I don't know why, but we always had trouble recruiting horn players. We started out the season in '86 with maybe 25-30 horns and 25-30 holes. Plus schools let out at the end of June here in Montreal, so our first tour was weekend only shows, as we had to get back to school on the Monday. 1986 was a special year. We REALLY worked our a###s off, and literally picked up members anywhere we could to fill out the ranks. Alot of people ended up coming from Avant Garde that year (they had just folded). The corps didn't have alot of money (mild understatement!!!!) we were still recovering from our disqualification in 1984, we were lucky if we ate twice a day, but the people I marched with were the craziest drum corps nuts I'd ever met. The only thing that mattered was our show. We knew we'd improve dramatically (we did that every year) but it was always funny to see the rookie members faces during those first retreats when A-60 corps were beating us (by alot!!!). That was the year that we took DCEast by storm and actually beat the 27th Lancers at a show in Syracuse the next day. Wow what a high!!!!... And I definately think that with an extra week or two, we would have been in finals no problem. And I still think that we should've been 12th. Check out the spread in scores between Sky Ryders and us from Quartes to finals - but hey, we still managed 14th - and had a #### of a fun show. Man I miss that corps... later, Mike Les Eclipses 85,86

LES ECLIPSES!!!! I loved marching that corps. We'd come out first tour and basically suck out loud (schools in Quebec didn't let out until end of June). We'd get beat by A-60 corps (we were open class). I remember in 1986 we actually scored a 32% at one show. It was fun to see the look in the rookie members eyes, the "I can't believe I chose to march here" look. But by mid July, we'd start getting our act together, we'd finish the show and just start kicking ### 2nd tour. We even beat 27th Lancers once (what a feeling of pride that was). By DCI we'd be top 15 in open class. What a great hard working bunch of people we had...really miss them. Later, Mike

Somewhere in the Midwest, 1989 My friend (who marches Star) finally gets to see our show (Cavaliers). I'm hyped and really hope to have a great show... Anyway, I hit myself in the right eye catching a parallel, causing me to break on some of the work. I then hit myself in the left eye doing a triple (I still have no idea how I did that). Needless to say my head REALLLYYY hurts by this point... But just to make things worse... My rifle strap decides to come undone on one end as I toss a five. So not only does the strap hit me across the face as I release it, my five ends up being a wobbly double at best.... I then spend the next who knows how many counts trying to either tear off the strap so that I can get the rest of the work done. I finally pick up my flag for the closer work only to realize that the top of the flag is slowly coming down (the tape wasn't sticking anymore!!!!!) Great, great, great show for me - I think I was ###### for a week and ended up looking like a racoon with the 2 black eyes. I still remember my friend waiting for me after the show with the hugest grin on her face...and telling me that that was without a doubt the most she'd laughed all year. Later, Mike