Northern Thunder

Blake was only at DCW for another few months after this appeared. Jack Russalisi ran the paper out of Casper, WY at the end of '72. In the summer of '73 Steve Vickers took over.....and the rest is history.

The Charioteers disappeared after the 1976 season. They were an amazing little corps. An interesting story about them came with their first exposure to the "big time", when they competed at the 1971 American Legion Nationals in Houston. Their prelims score put them in finals, but they only learned a shortened prelim drill that year, so they couldn't compete at finals, where you had to perform a full-length show. Somebody mentioned the Bridgemen at the 1972 U.S. Open. I still have my hand-held tape recording of that show. The Bridgemen performance that night remains one of the most crowd-thrilling I've ever witnessed!! Go "Mr. Clown"!!

A number of them are alumni/all-age corps today, plus a few are still active as juniors.

As was the case with the 1972 DCI Championship thread, quite a few of these corps didn't compete at the '72 U.S. Open....Argonne, Boston, Madison, Brassmen, Bon Bons, etc. But as somebody who was there for all classes, prelims and finals....I can tell you this was one FABULOUS weekend in Marion!

Of those corps listed as original entrants, quite a few didn't show up at that first DCI Championship. Besides Blue Rock, these corps weren't there: Seattle Imperials Racine Scouts Bon Bons Optimists Americanos Mounties Marion Cadets Marauders St. Paul Scouts Buccaneers Silver Sabres Appleknockers Princemen Cardinals Golden Knights

Maybe now they can go back to their 1985 look......completely Latin.

Alan will be greatly missed by many.

One of the tracks on this Brubeck album, "Benjamin", sounds very much like the old Sammy Nestico big band chart "Ya Gotta Try", which the Blue Devils did a few times over the years.

To many Arnold will be remembered for his "Children's Marching Song", which later lent its tune to the "Barney" show theme song, "I Love You...You Love Me".

That web site is nice, for what it is.....but it is missing TONS of drum corps!!!! There is no single site out there that is very comprehensive.

Over the years the loss of junior corps could be somewhat offset by the creation of new ones, but the junior corps scene in 2006 saw only two new corps...Vision Elite and Chippewa Valley Brigade, and only VE competed on the field. The true problem today is that there is not nearly enough new growth to compensate for the yearly erosion.

"The Thing" came about when the St. Patrick's Imperials and Thunderbolts merged in 1973. They had to come up with a name, and thought "The Thing" would fit. The name DID fit, since they wore the uniforms of both corps....green, purple....WOW! Quite a site! In 1974 the name was changed to the Pioneers, and years later they simply became Pioneer. Anybody lucky enough to have the first volume of Drum Corps World's history book (they are completely sold out) has seen the index of corps that I put together. There have been tons of strange corps names over the decades. Here are a few of my favorites.... Tillamook Cheesemen--Oregon Pea Pickers--NY Green Mules--MO Mosquitos--MI Beaver Patrol--OH Oblong Little Egyptians--IL Kalamazoo Golden Kazoos--MI The Who--WA

I was there at that '71 U.S. Open. The Appleknockers had a unique musical presentation that season..... Three Dog Night's "It's For You" as a lead-in to "Ritual Fire Dance", and later played Chicago's "Someday". A nice, kickin' show for that year!

Thank you for the notice. Alan has been a huge contributor to the drum corps scene for a LONG time. All the best to him.

I've done the North American junior corps census each year for Drum Corps World, and for the first time ever, I will include a census for the Senior/All-Age/Alumni corps as well. Watch for it in an upcoming issue of DCW! The numbers will surprise quite a few people!

The last time one of the smallest corps in finals placed in the top five was back in 1975, when the Blue Stars, who were one of the three smallest corps there wound up in fifth place. And we're not talking about "small" corps here.....they had 100 members, but were outgunned by the majority of finalists that year. The Blue Stars GE marks that year were lower than their fifth place ranking (5th visual/6th percussion/8th brass). It was thanks to the execution marks in marching (2nd place) that they were able to climb into the top five.

Besides the '73 Kilties, these corps also played Roundabout over the years: Etoiles d'Or (QUE) Knights (IL) Nite Express (IA) Earthquake (CA) Memorial Lancers (MO) Windjammers (WI) Yankee Rebels (MD) Bengal Lancers (CT) New York Lancers (NY...who would have guessed?) Colibris (QUE) Crimson Cadets (NE)

There is a photo of "Bones", complete with mask, in the 1978 Crossmen yearbook. There is also a photo of a drummer in that yearbook.....some guy named Hopkins.

Yes, the Patriots were fifth in performance percussion at '98 finals. They did take both performance brass and visual, however.

Barry, You're so right about Carmen Cluna and DCI. He was the original rebel against DCI. The Brassmen would easily have made DCI finals in 1972, had they attended. They also stood a good chance of making finals in '73 but Cluna generally stayed away from the DCI shows. That was frustrating for drum corps fans in those days. The Brassmen were total GE show innovators in the early 1970's, and they often paid the price for their antics with heavy point penalties, for using fire extinguishers and other such equipment as part of their field show.

It is interesting to note that all 13 original DCI members competed at the 1971 CYO Nationals in Boston, taking 13 of the top 14 places. The 13th place corps was the St. Rita's Brassmen, who seem to be the one corps that could have been a charter member that wasn't chosen. The Kilties had an off year in 1971, and they weren't on the list either.

I agree that this was one SAD moment. I believe a photo of the sign appeared in Drum Corps World some time later.

The Renaissance corps does hail from the York area. They were a concert (standstill) corps for a few years, but now have apparently dropped the horn component to concentrate on a competition drumline. Drum Corps World may eventually publish my complete census, which lists which junior corps were active in each of the DCI seasons. That's why I have never posted it anywhere.

I have done the annual North American junior corps census the last 15 years for Drum Corps World. There have been a number of junior corps in recent years that many fans have never heard of...... Pride of Oakland (CA), North Port High School Alliance (FL), Renaissance (PA), Blue Jays (NY), PAL Buccaneers (CT), Empire Cadets (NY), and at least five high school ROTC corps in Chicago that have their own city-wide championship. The recent trend is many former drum & bugle corps now becoming marching bands. Blue Star Cadets, Trooper Cadets, Empire Cadets have all added reeds and are no longer counted as drum & bugle corps.

During the Racine Kilties heyday as a junior corps, back in the 1960's, the VAST majority of its members came through the Kiltie Kadets. In researching corps from the early 1960's I've seen examples of some major eastern powers of that era having upwards of 90% of its members from its feeder corps.