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All time favorite "Drum Corps Moment".


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Please don't say that Ringo is the guy with the mustache, that would be way too funny.

I won't cause it's not. The guy on the right is Ringo, Charles Ringo to be exact.

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Kevin

Thanks for sharing that. I have always said I would put the 82 corps against any other corps in history, they were a special group of performers through and through from top to bottom. I have never seen a corps so talented and who became so focused on winning by being so good. It was always one of the goals of every show to make the competitors feel exactly as you did that night, and of course, Manning Bowl was the perfect venue for that corps. If it helps, they worked very hard from day one in January, and even after the January camp, when I thought, this was going to be a special corps, they kept surprising me, challenging the staff to make them better.

Awesome story Jon... I wish I knew this one a long time ago!

Tony

One of the "boys of 82."

:tongue: Look for my PM

How could I miss 82 after what happened in 81... Winning all captions except for taking 9th in a major music caption! Loosing DCI by .25 and 9th in a single caption is what made us what we became in 82!

The 1982 and 1994 Blue Devils had a couple, interesting things in common:

1. Wayne Downey

2. Scott Johnson

3. Dave Gibbs

4. A Great Corps

5. A Great Vehicle

Oh yeah, the undefeated season

and...

The one presence that was particularly unique to those two years...

John Opedisano

Thanks, John. Oh, and I eventually got my voice back.

No disrespect meant as Scott Johnson has become amazing... But I am pretty sure it was Mr. Float that got the BD drum line back on track!!! And with all due respect to your story regarding our superior attitudes John... Albeit true we were focussed you didn't see the focus in 1981! Had we taken 8th in drums we would have won by over a point!!!!! Check the recaps! This was a corps that wanted to win in both 81 and 82... 83 maybe we took the year off! lol

And whoever mentioned it yes it was true that we were completely blood thirsty craving the next bodyslam... winning by 2 points or more! and yelling bosyslam during retreat... not so cool to think back on!

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As a performer, this one...

stepover.jpg

As a spectator, first time seeing Vanguard do the Bottle Dance at DCI Midwest finals in '75. It was one of those things I'd heard about for two years, but never saw until that night. It didn't disappoint.

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No disrespect meant as Scott Johnson has become amazing... But I am pretty sure it was Mr. Float that got the BD drum line back on track!!! And with all due respect to your story regarding our superior attitudes John... Albeit true we were focussed you didn't see the focus in 1981! Had we taken 8th in drums we would have won by over a point!!!!! Check the recaps! This was a corps that wanted to win in both 81 and 82... 83 maybe we took the year off! lol

And whoever mentioned it yes it was true that we were completely blood thirsty craving the next bodyslam... winning by 2 points or more! and yelling bosyslam during retreat... not so cool to think back on!

Yes it was Float and half of the Spirit of Atlanta snare line from 81. That was one kick ### group of players. They just blew me away every time, and yes thee were a ton of egos, but If I recall after Whitewater it was no longer about winning it was about how big could we make the spread.

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82 Blue Devils was definitely a special year. I've always referred to it as the Dream Year. It seemed we could do no wrong.

We also had the best instructional staff, and one easterner in particular who knew how to work our egos. I can't imagine what would've happened had we lost a show that year. Our egos wouldn't have been able to take it, particularly after Whitewater. At that point, from what I recall, O.P. pretty much told us we were the DCI Champions, everybody knew it, and the rest of the season was the victory lap.

I've said it before. The moment the 1982 Blue Devils became great was the moment 2nd place was announced at DCI in 1981. The corps set the goal early that the next year would be the best corps to date for the Blue Devils and we wanted to compete with the best in history. The loss in 81 was tough for us and we wanted to make sure there was no doubt in 82. We also put the stake in the ground around January 82 that we were going undefeated. Not only undefeated, we wanted to win every show by points, not tenths and each time we faced a competitor, we wanted a larger spread after each competition. We were pretty cut-throat on the competition and whatever the outcome of a show, we had to be better the next show. Winning alone wasn't sufficient, constant improvement was.

One of the things I enjoyed throughout the 82 season was watching Garfield, especially Concerto in F. That to me was the coolest sound out there, especially with that whacked out drill that nobody could figure out. Prelude of things to come. 82 Garfield was probably the most listened to corps on my DCI records.

Most appreciated.... it was the best year and it was a joy.

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Yes it was Float and half of the Spirit of Atlanta snare line from 81. That was one kick ### group of players. They just blew me away every time, and yes thee were a ton of egos, but If I recall after Whitewater it was no longer about winning it was about how big could we make the spread.

82 saw two vast improvements for the BD crew. The drum line moving up to 3rd place, and the dominating marching execution to a degree that despite coming in 2nd in GE (mostly from the guard) and 3rd in Visual analysis, you still won the High visual trophy (which hangs in my office at home given to me by Mike Moxley after finals.)

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Best moment would be from March 1974 to August 1980.

Best single moment.

January 1980, BD corps hall. Scott Johnson called us into a room to let us know that we were the snare line that would be marching finals that year. It was at that moment that I realized that just like the Beatles, I had passed the audition.

Edited by SoundmanG
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  • 1 year later...

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