Puppet Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Upstate Ny Corps....central and Western NY never heard of many of the corps from Greater NY until we saw some of them at states, and I am sure that it was the same for them. Corps like the CMCC Warriors, Wynn Center Toppers, Carter Cadets et al...would show up at state contests and we would go "holy crap, who are they?" Those corps could blow the horns, played Drietzer or Bunce charts and were pretty scary. To this day I will never forget "To Sir with Love" played by Carter in circa 1966 or Shaft by CMCC in the early 70's. Had to have been Dreitzer charts...They also had these weird looking euphoniums that they carried on their shoulders. We knew about Selden, Lorretto, St Catherines, Patrons and Kingsmen but some of these other "obscure" corps could plain out BLOW!!! Those were the days my friend. State contests had prelims and finals. Senior division would have close to 10 corps to make 5 for finals, and the junior prelims would have many more than that...up to 30-40 corps to make 5 spots. Interstatesmen, Albion Grenadiers, Hamburg Kingsmen, Dunkirk Patriots besides the big corps like Sky, Sun, Cru...I never knew that were corps from Long Island except the Sunrisers and St. Iggy's. I had heard of the Oceanside Legionaires and Lindenaires. But when I spent some on the Island teaching marching bands, it came to light that there MANY more than just those corps. BTW Kenny, The Blousemen have been around ALMOST as long as the Fresno group. While you may be able to trace the Ferns to the 70's, The Blouse has been around since the early 80's at least. It still works on the young ones from Pioneer just fine. Donny Donny, Hy did write charts for the Warriors. I remember the year their OTL was Voodoo Suite - all kinds of syncopated very muted drum hits with "bird chirps" and sound bytes from the horns as they assembled moving in a drill that was seemingly random until the big hit toward the stands - it was down right chilling! A really big moment in Drum Corps. You can check out the 1970 World Open show at this site: http://newyorkdrumcorppeople.ning.com/vide...7139:Video:8623 Puppet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shenandoah Vibrato Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 ...I'm not trying to change your vote, Fran, but these guys I actually observed with my own eyeballs, *and* we competed against them at '63 VFW Nats in Seattle: The Corps of the North from (I *think*) Anchorage (maybe Fairbanks?) Alaska. cg Sorry chasgroh but I have never been to Seattle or Anchorage. "Le Montagnard" is a Franco-American social club with routes back to the 1920s' when snowshoe clubs would meet in Lewiston, Maine for the ice festivals and race to city hall in snowshoes to capture the city flag. They would then re-group and march to the local church playing drums, (snare & tenor) several glokenspeils (sp?) playing straight G bugles while still in their snowshoes. They were sometimes referred to as "Raquetteurs" for the snowshoes they wore. Here is a link. Notice the size of the snowshoes! http://usm.maine.edu/lac/franco/news/070205afr.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shenandoah Vibrato Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 How about these for obscure; 76 Drum & Bugle Corps, 76 Drum Corps MiniCorps, Blue Bird Cadets Tribute Corps, Commodores MiniCorps, Queen City Royalairs MiniCorps, Shenandoah MiniCorps or Vanguard MiniCorps. Corpsreps doesn't even know from what state these corps come!Robert Robert, What info do you have on Shenandoah MiniCorps? Shen Sound did have a MiniCorps that competed in 2006 at DCA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Donny, Hy did write charts for the Warriors. I remember the year their OTL was Voodoo Suite - all kinds of syncopated very muted drum hits with "bird chirps" and sound bytes from the horns as they assembled moving in a drill that was seemingly random until the big hit toward the stands - it was down right chilling! A really big moment in Drum Corps. You can check out the 1970 World Open show at this site: http://newyorkdrumcorppeople.ning.com/vide...7139:Video:8623 Puppet The Warriors rocked during the early 1970's!!! Saw 'em at the World Open finals in 1972.... I think they played the theme from "Shaft" as their opener. They never had a really, really big corps, but they could play a bit, no doubt about it. Fran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fastone Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 The Warriors rocked during the early 1970's!!! Saw 'em at the World Open finals in 1972.... I think they played the theme from "Shaft" as their opener. They never had a really, really big corps, but they could play a bit, no doubt about it.Fran Actually If you had seen them from 1968-71 they had a gigantic corps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puppet Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Actually If you had seen them from 1968-71 they had a gigantic corps True that! Puppet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny Drum Corps Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Especially 1973, CMCC had a great corps. I remember them placing as high as 4th at World Open behind St. Andrew's, St. Rita's and Purple Lancers. Hey, I competed against Puppet at that show. You were excellent at World Open, and scared Bridgemen I believe. I marched with the Purple Lancers, and we also had a very good corps. We placed 17th at DCI after being in first the opening day of PRELIMS. Then they put corps ahead of us that had beaten all year on the second day. We may have actually had a chance for a FINALIST SPOT had we stayed ahead of those corps. Donny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Actually If you had seen them from 1968-71 they had a gigantic corps To quote Johnny Carson: I did not know that. In '72 they were a bit smaller, but they packed quite a punch. Fran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Puppet Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Especially 1973, CMCC had a great corps. I remember them placing as high as 4th at World Open behind St. Andrew's, St. Rita's and Purple Lancers. Hey, I competed against Puppet at that show. You were excellent at World Open, and scared Bridgemen I believe. I marched with the Purple Lancers, and we also had a very good corps. We placed 17th at DCI after being in first the opening day of PRELIMS.Then they put corps ahead of us that had beaten all year on the second day. We may have actually had a chance for a FINALIST SPOT had we stayed ahead of those corps. Donny I was at that show in Lynn that year. I had aged out the year before. But the Purple Lancers seemed to come out of nowhere with a tremendous show. I actually thought Brassmen would win that show over Bridgemen - 'course I was a little biased - but I will always say The Wold Open has and will be one of the great Drum Corps venues of all of Drum Corps history! And don't forget, Donny - DCI was never about fairness - your corps deserved better that year, but you weren't a big name (or a big contributor!) it was and in my estimation still is about who has the big bucks and believe me, St. Rita's was a big money organization in 1971 & '72 we could tour wherever and whenever we choose - and we were taking the activity to the next level with our shows - It's just that our directors and Management didn't want to "buy into" the demise of Drum Corps from hundreds of small town corps to just 12 or 15 that it has become. No hard feelings here, I just wish the change could have benefited more young people and that the programs could have allowed more corps to stay competitive. Sad to say that a Star of India had to go away after taking 2nd or 3rd place in only 14 out of 97 shows between '90 and '92. What does that say about drum corps? If Star couldn't win a DCI Championship with their talent - what? It's the wolves in charge of the chicken coop, is what it is. Oh - sorry to go off like that - Took my meds, I'm better now! Puppet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny Drum Corps Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 (edited) Purple Lancers came out of nowhere because other corps folded unfortunately. St Joes after 1971, a few of us youinger kids went to Purple, Geneva Appleknockers after 1972, same thing, and after 1973 Syracuse Marauders and Utica Yankees folded and the rest is history. Still standing as the only NYS corps to ever make DCI finals, the 1974 Purple Lancers!!! 54 brass, large drum line and guard and all talented kids from all over central and western NYS. The staff was also combined from other corps to make this a very interesting summer for all of us that were there. Corky Fabrizio, Dick Robilotto, and Jerry Kelsey on brass...Brady Rouse, Phil Cerimeli, Bruce McCready and Vince Monacelli on visual staff, and Bill Decker and Ray Bennett on drums. These guys were the best guys available upstate at the time. I have told this story before, but we were in the gym after a rehearsal in the winter of 1975 with yet a bigger corps than we had competed with in 1974, (horns in the 60's, 10 snares, 30+ guard) when the bosses of the corps told us to hand in our equipment at the end of a rehearsal and we would not be going on the road this year. The kids were aghast, but TEARFULLY the directors told us that did not know how to do what DCI wanted the corps to do and had no idea where to get the money to do it. The corps could have handled a small tour, but now as a finalist, they were told that it would be more expensive travelling costs than they could fathom. The directors ran scared admittedly, and the kids went off to other places. In fact the very next year 1975, the Watkins Glen Squires were 13th at DCI with many of those kids and Phoenix rose from the ashes to win the RCA championships and a 4th place prelim spot at DCA...5th at finals after the Hurcs changed spots with them. A good number of Purple Lancers that I marched with joined that corps as well in 1975. The corps that we were beating the year before were named the Blue Devils, Phantom Regiment, Garfield Cadets, Bridgemen, Boston Crusaders, 27th LANCERS et al...and now we weren't even going out to any shows. Interesting stuff even after all of these years. Donny Edited April 11, 2009 by donnymusic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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