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Northern Thunder

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Posts posted by Northern Thunder

  1. 2 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

    it's because of weather concerns. sound is secondary...maybe even tertiary

    Twice we had some extremely dangerous weather conditions get in the way at TCF.

    The first one (2010) was serious enough to keep a number of people completely away from the show in later years.

  2. 1 hour ago, goalieguy said:

    I guess I wouldn't mind if that happened - although with the size of the crowd, they may see if the Vikings might consider allowing them to use the new mini-stadium at the TCO Performance Center in Eagan..not downtown, but closer to the airport, M-O-A, and less susceptible to the ongoing freeway issues we always have downtown. - It has a capacity of around 10K , and is open air.  Much more intimate IMHO..

     

    Pat

     I think DCI wants an indoor facility.  The sound in the great outdoors was GREAT at TCF Bank, but it seems the days of major outdoor drum corps shows are gone.

    • Like 1
  3. 18 hours ago, Fran Haring said:

    My enduring memory of this corps is their performance at the 1971 U.S. Open finals.

    They tore the house down that night. Absolutely electric!!!

    They sure did, Fran!  When they tore off the line playing Miserlou, they had the crowd begging for more.

    Along with Blue Rock, Del was the most impressive corps at that show.

    • Like 1
  4. 1 hour ago, MikeD said:

    I have read that there were about 440 competitive corps at every level at the end of the VFW/AL period, around 1971. I believe that is what the History of Drum and Bugle Corps book stated.  How true is that?

     

    Hi Mike!  I used to do an annual active North American junior corps census for Drum Corps World....probably did them for 20 years.  The index of corps that appears in the Drum Corps World book A History of Drum & Bugle Corps, was done by me.  It turns out that with more digital sources available today there were MANY more active junior corps than were ever published.  I have recently found corps that literally nobody ever heard of, that did parades, exhibitions, etc.  I meticulously researched the corps that were performing.  In that final pre-DCI season of 1971, the numbers would have been close to 1,000 in the U.S. and Canada.

     

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  5. 19 hours ago, Bucbari said:

    Come on Mike and Northern Thunder, you didn't hear that?  Sorry guys find that hard to believe, its pretty clear!

    For  the OP I've heard the story that it was a staff member who shouted that and I will state that PR should have won that night!!

    I haven't listened to that show in about 10 years.

  6. I wrote in my Drum Corps World about one of the 1960s Macy's parades, hosted on NBC by Lorne Greene and Betty White.

    (Looks like Lorne and Betty hosted 1962-1970, so it would have been within that time frame.)

    Lorne made a rather derogatory comment about drum and bugle corps in general, and the NBC phone lines were immediately lit up by irate viewers.

    In those days calls were actually answered, and the message was sent out to the TV hosts that viewers didn't appreciate Lorne's comment.

    Wouldn't you know it, within a few minutes a drum & bugle corps came into view, and Greene sheepishly said, "Well, here's one of the GOOD drum & bugle corps....."

    • Like 1
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  7. 38 minutes ago, JimF-LowBari said:

    oh yeah 60s had Capt Kangaroo before the parades and he always closed the show with old parade clips with a old song about big clown balloons... wow that just popped in my brain

    Speaking of Captain Kangaroo....do you remember the photo of Mr. Green Jeans (circa mid-1970s that appeared in Drum Corps News and Drum Corps World) holding a "newfangled" 2-piston bugle??  

    • Like 1
  8. I got to watch drum corps evolve right in front of my eyes in early August of 1976. The Blue Devils came into Stillwater, Minnesota several days ahead of their back-to-back shows there.

    Those of us who closely followed drum corps had read and heard about the Concord juggernaut, and the Devils more than lived up to the hype.  I spent literally 10 hours a day for 3 days watching them polish their show.  You must remember than prior to 1976 Madison had won with basically a blow 'em off the field presentation (one of the 1975 DCI finals brass judges personally told me he couldn't even hear what Madison was doing, due to the volume level they were performing at).....but what the Blue Devils came up with was the first true melding of finesse, power, musicianship and showmanship.  When we watched Blue Devils do a complete run through of their entire show in an empty stadium, we knew we were seeing the future of drum corps!  And, for the people who claim Madison would have won DCI had they started out the year with the same show they ended up with....NO WAY!  Blue Devils were head-and-shoulders above anything the Scouts could put on the field in '76.

    We also have to mention that some corps were gun-shy about showing up in Philadelphia for that 1976 DCI Championship, due to the Legionnaires Disease outbreak that hit Philly a few weeks earlier.  Andrew Hornak, a 47-year-old bus driver for Pennsylvania's Keystone Kadets junior corps, died of the disease after bringing the corps to the state American Legion parade in Philadelphia the first week of August, so you can appreciate how corps directors felt about exposing their kids to a disease that at that time was a complete mystery.

    • Like 1
  9. Brassmen are the only corps that didn't attend in 73 who would have been a finalist.

    Polish Falcon was not good enough.  They didn't beat anyone of note that year except Argonne, at US Open. 

    They only topped Argonne at US Open because Argonne had re-written their M & M and percussion just prior, and hadn't worked the kinks out yet.

    Royal Crusaders DID go to DCI in 73.

    • Like 1
  10. 1 hour ago, Fran Haring said:

     

    Side note... we went to Columbus to see the zoo one of those days.... we were looking for a quick lunch, and several locals told us about a burger place that was quite a sensation in the area. A place we had never heard of, called Wendy's. :laughing:  Turned out it was one of the first, if not the first, Wendy's in the country!!!

    Funny you should mention Wendy's, Fran.  I just ate lunch there, and was thinking about the first Wendy's I ever ate at, in Marion, just before went to the rescheduled US Open finals in 73.

  11. 17 minutes ago, KeithHall said:

    In the rain in 1973 and 1974 (I believe). I know one of those years was raining

    1973 was one of the most intense rainstorms I've ever seen.  Blue Rock's beautiful uniforms were ruined when their black plumes ran onto their gold jackets.

    They wore US Open t-shirts for their appearance at the rescheduled finals the next day.

    I still have a reel-to-reel audio recording I did when the stadium announcer shouted out (to be heard above the rain),

    "Keep your #### ticket stubs!!"  Probably one of the last times a rained-out DCI-sanctioned major championship show was redone the next day.

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