'87 Sky Riders

[SkyRyder_FMM]

Sky Ryders returned to a movie/theater-related theme in '91. "Camelot" was their last hurrah in finals. Was that the year they moved their base of operations to Texas?

Fred O.

The corps moved to Texas in 1990.

[SkyRyder_FMM]

Man....I have GOT to find a high camera vid.....

I have one Sam

[Jeff Ream]

Tommy Keenum, the Guard Caption Head and Program Coordinator left after the 87 season. He was the driving force and creative energy behind the Wizard of Oz and West Side Story shows. We attempted to continue the theatrical shows in 88, but it was no where near as successful as 85 to 87. After 88, the staff that was there took things in a new direction.

funny tho. 88 they made finals. after the change, they never did again

[SkyRyder_FMM]

funny tho. 88 they made finals. after the change, they never did again

They did again in 91

[Jeff Ream]

you're right, my bad. I forgot about that show. 92 was Brigadoon right?

[SkyRyder_FMM]

you're right, my bad. I forgot about that show. 92 was Brigadoon right?

Yes

[Jeff Ream]

and for the record, i highly enjoyed 89. even if a radical departure, i thought they did it well

[bradrick]

For me personally, I have to say the entire 1987 season I spent as a member of the Hutchinson Sky Ryders was my single toughest drum corps experience. But for different reasons it’s also one that I value more and more as time goes on.

With the never-ending bus problems (we called it "Hell Tour 87"), missing so much rehearsal time, missing shows, being impounded in Boulder Colorado for almost a week because our busses were unsafe to be on the road, having a brass caption head who's idea of leadership was to beat you down and then cut you out of chunks of the show... MANY times, I wanted to just throw down my horn and go home. I remember thinking “Can’t we just march and play? Don’t other corps get to do that?!?” It felt like we didn’t get to do that much at all. But I was a rookie so maybe that’s just the way it is? I just hung in there.

But I consider myself very fortunate to have been a part of that show for my rookie season. Lots of DCPers look back now and talk about how the Sky 87 show moved them.

If it hadn't been for our fantastic color guard, Marc Sylvester's drill and Program Coordinator Tommy Keenum's love for us all and his ability to make us believe in ourselves, our show and the message behind West Side Story - we would have certainly never had a snowball's chance in Hades of making top 12 that year .

Program Coordinator Tommy Keenum

Tommy Keenum made sure that each one of us understood and felt the emotion that was supposed to be conveyed by every minute of our show. He also took every available opportunity to emphasize to us that the core motif of West Side Story (and thus the 87 Sky Ryders) is that “Everything that’s wrong in our world today is somehow caused or related to the fact that people just can’t accept those that are different.”

I remember one particular time when Tommy had the entire corps get together to talk about the show and how each of us have been affected in our own lives by some form of discrimination or being considered an “outsider”. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the entire corps after that amazing pow-wow. (I mean, just by being a band kid or a drum corps kid, made us all part of something that many people look at sideways… right?)

--- Meanwhile, we played our closer "Somewhere" with a huge push, and as much internal emotion as I'd ever hope to be able to feel during a performance.

... and reunited Tony and Maria (no longer separated by hate) ran off the field and out of the stadium... holding hands.

I seem to remember Sky being introduced at some shows in 87 as "The great storytellers of Drum Corps"... or something like that.

There was one show where the announcer really laid it on thick and started out shouting "IT'S A STORY ABOUT THE JETS.... AND THE SHARKS!" - after which the audience roared with that anticipation applause that really gets your blood flowing when you're out there on the field on the "starting line".

Sylvester’s Drill

A HUGE chunk of the coolness of the 1987 Sky Ryders show was generated by performing that drill written by Mark Sylvester. I missed getting to be in Hutch when he was there helping the corps get the visual ball rolling because Texas schools graduated a week later than Kansas schools.

Bus Hell

Another thread recently asked “What did your corps do on long bus rides?”

In Sky Ryders, I remember mostly sitting on the side of the road waiting for the staff to give up on a broken bus and tell us all to get on one of the busses that happened to still be running at that point (to become dreaded "boat people” sitting in the aisles ... leaving our clothes and personal belongings behind ).

Lather, rinse ... repeat.

Death Camp in Boulder and then Limping Our Way to Allentown

“I wanna play in the Mambo. But Mr. Lindsey says NO NO NO.

I’m getting cut from the whole d*mned show.

Cuz of the Death Camp in Boulder CO!”

(to the tune or America from West Side Story)

I previously posted this in other Sky Ryders threads but it bears repeating now... (It's been a couple of years since I originally posted it.) This may help ya to understand what we went through just GETTING to Allentown in 87.

The Website corpsreps.com is incorrect in showing Drum Along the Rockies was in Denver (it was in Boulder that year) - but correct in showing that The Sky Ryders didn't compete at any shows between July 25 (DATR) and August 1 (DCI East in Allentown). We were stuck in Boulder because our busses had been impounded and were deemed unsafe to be on the road. Many of us fondly remembered this time as "The Death Camp"

Oh and the week started out with a bunch of us having money stolen out of our wallets in the gym while we were outside rehearsing - by a janitor who worked a the school. Just par for the season really. He got caught and taken away by the police after asking Sky Corps Director Dale Antoine if they couldn’t just “Work this out.”

I may be getting some of these details wrong but here's how I remember the drive to Allentown:

After finally leaving Boulder, we stopped in Bloomington, IN to borrow busses from Star of Indiana and still barely made it to Allentown, dropping the remainder (I think) of the Sky Ryder busses along the side of the road, as they broke down one-by-one. At one point, I think we had the members that usually fit on four Sky busses packed onto two Star busses for part of the trip. We even had a breakdown on the way to pre-lims in Allentown. I remember some of the hornline members were all excited and doing mental warmups, singing through the show, etc. on the bus (because we knew we were already supposed to be at the stadium and warming up) - and then KERPLUNK!!! We once again pulled the broken down bus over and began to figure out how we could travel the remaining few miles to compete in DCI East pre-lims.

…

Miss ya Sky

Anyway, I just wanted to share some of my Sky 87 memories --- and say “Thanks for the memories” to the Sky Ryders – to the ones I marched with, the ones who came before and after me – and to the one’s who were Sky Ryders just by loving us when we stepped onto the field.

“Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high. There’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby…”

[Zeke]

THAT Show was one helluva show...probably the Best 12th Place Show ever and definitely one of Drum Corps brilliant and shining moments.

[Jeff Ream]

I remember Allentown...Sky Ryders on, not a dry eye in the house. VK up next....not a dry eye in the house because everyone was laughing so hard