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Giants Stadium Drum Corps Memories


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Corky got royalties from McCormack for Black Saddle and many more...

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Giants Stadium.... I don't know if this has come up in some of the other "memories" posts on this thread, but....

A bunch of us from various corps would close the parking lot at Giants Stadium after a night show.... staying in the lot for all hours, grilling food, tossing frisbees, drinking beer, just generally chilling out. Until basically the sun started to rise on Sunday morning... then we knew it was time to move on.

Only problem was.... it seemed there was only one stadium parking-lot exit open at that early hour.... so the race would be on to find that exit....LOL. Memories of driving around and around that massive parking lot, looking for the exit. :ph34r:

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OK...so I'm late on this one...but things aren't working for me, and I'm surfing a bit! :tongue:

Anyway..I remember MANY shows there, the Grand Prix shows were paramount and the few "Dream Shows" were cool, but I never got to march in Roosevelt Stadium (although I DID get to witness the 1978 show there when Butch showed up on the field in a limo with champagne and some hotties!") The jumbotron was an interesting feature, and when you looked up and saw yourself, it was just an out of body experience! The few times that this show really hit my old memory banks were first in 1981...we were having a rough year at Westshore, and pretty peeved at the whole DCA world since after a great year in 1980, we apparently took a step back in placing, and weren't getting the scores that we thought we deserved. We toyed around with some dumb ideas, that didn't come to fruition, but I remember we actually played the Cab's street time coming INTO the stadium, and Sky's after the show was over. In our minds it was a statement, to some it was a tribute, but in reality....we just never learned a viable street time that summer, and it was just fun to play! (especially for me on the Cab's because I had a set of bongo's mounted on my toms, and I got to play the fun parts!!!)

The second incident that stands out was in 1982...after we played our show, we got to wander the stadium, and I was waiting for one of the service elevators...the doors opened and it was FULL of Hurricanes (Pepe being one of them) Me wearing a Westshoremen uniform, I was a bit apprehensive about getting in, due to the (at the time) hate for that corps that was probably more of a frustration, but, hey, it was competition...as I hedged on whether to get in, Pepe, said "Come on in, we won't bite" so I figured WTH...Once the doors closed Pepe said "Ok boys get him" and started laughing...he then said "Hey Westshore...nice show, you guys are alright this year"....with that...the elevator opened and we all got out.

The third was just a surreal bit of slightly personal stuff. One of the soprano's (Jim Neidinger for those that know him) I marched with in Westshore was an OLD friend off my much older brother...they were on the same bowling team back in the mid 60's (when I was a little kid) and I just knew the guy forever it seemed. When he joined Westshore, it was fun to re-kindle the old friendship...fast forward to 1984, and many of you know was a tough year for Westshore, and a lot of the old standby's in the corps went their separate ways. Some a little more publicized than others...seeing that the Grand Prix was a mid season show, I thought it was odd to be (again) walking the bowels of Giant Stadium, and lo-and behold here comes Jim walking up in a Skyliners uniform!!?!?! (and me in a Reading Buccaneer coat) I think the first thing out of my mouth was WTF ARE YOU DOING IN A SKY UNI?!?!? He said that it was something he wanted to do, and did it when the opportunity came up! It was pretty cool! 1984 was a different year, seeing old friends in different uniforms, but I think all of us made our marks on the corps that we joined!

Just some memories.....better late than never!

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OK...so I'm late on this one...but things aren't working for me, and I'm surfing a bit! :ph34r:

Anyway..I remember MANY shows there, the Grand Prix shows were paramount and the few "Dream Shows" were cool, but I never got to march in Roosevelt Stadium (although I DID get to witness the 1978 show there when Butch showed up on the field in a limo with champagne and some hotties!") The jumbotron was an interesting feature, and when you looked up and saw yourself, it was just an out of body experience! The few times that this show really hit my old memory banks were first in 1981...we were having a rough year at Westshore, and pretty peeved at the whole DCA world since after a great year in 1980, we apparently took a step back in placing, and weren't getting the scores that we thought we deserved. We toyed around with some dumb ideas, that didn't come to fruition, but I remember we actually played the Cab's street time coming INTO the stadium, and Sky's after the show was over. In our minds it was a statement, to some it was a tribute, but in reality....we just never learned a viable street time that summer, and it was just fun to play! (especially for me on the Cab's because I had a set of bongo's mounted on my toms, and I got to play the fun parts!!!)

The second incident that stands out was in 1982...after we played our show, we got to wander the stadium, and I was waiting for one of the service elevators...the doors opened and it was FULL of Hurricanes (Pepe being one of them) Me wearing a Westshoremen uniform, I was a bit apprehensive about getting in, due to the (at the time) hate for that corps that was probably more of a frustration, but, hey, it was competition...as I hedged on whether to get in, Pepe, said "Come on in, we won't bite" so I figured WTH...Once the doors closed Pepe said "Ok boys get him" and started laughing...he then said "Hey Westshore...nice show, you guys are alright this year"....with that...the elevator opened and we all got out.

The third was just a surreal bit of slightly personal stuff. One of the soprano's (Jim Neidinger for those that know him) I marched with in Westshore was an OLD friend off my much older brother...they were on the same bowling team back in the mid 60's (when I was a little kid) and I just knew the guy forever it seemed. When he joined Westshore, it was fun to re-kindle the old friendship...fast forward to 1984, and many of you know was a tough year for Westshore, and a lot of the old standby's in the corps went their separate ways. Some a little more publicized than others...seeing that the Grand Prix was a mid season show, I thought it was odd to be (again) walking the bowels of Giant Stadium, and lo-and behold here comes Jim walking up in a Skyliners uniform!!?!?! (and me in a Reading Buccaneer coat) I think the first thing out of my mouth was WTF ARE YOU DOING IN A SKY UNI?!?!? He said that it was something he wanted to do, and did it when the opportunity came up! It was pretty cool! 1984 was a different year, seeing old friends in different uniforms, but I think all of us made our marks on the corps that we joined!

Just some memories.....better late than never!

with how much you've been om DCP i can't believe your late on the historical threads. but glad you finaly made it. :tongue:

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with how much you've been om DCP i can't believe your late on the historical threads. but glad you finaly made it. :tongue:

Eh..I usually just hang out in the old Westshoremen thread....I haven't surfed this site in a while...I was getting tired of some of the other sites I normally read!

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The third was just a surreal bit of slightly personal stuff. One of the soprano's (Jim Neidinger for those that know him) I marched with in Westshore was an OLD friend off my much older brother...they were on the same bowling team back in the mid 60's (when I was a little kid) and I just knew the guy forever it seemed. When he joined Westshore, it was fun to re-kindle the old friendship...fast forward to 1984, and many of you know was a tough year for Westshore, and a lot of the old standby's in the corps went their separate ways. Some a little more publicized than others...seeing that the Grand Prix was a mid season show, I thought it was odd to be (again) walking the bowels of Giant Stadium, and lo-and behold here comes Jim walking up in a Skyliners uniform!!?!?! (and me in a Reading Buccaneer coat) I think the first thing out of my mouth was WTF ARE YOU DOING IN A SKY UNI?!?!? He said that it was something he wanted to do, and did it when the opportunity came up! It was pretty cool! 1984 was a different year, seeing old friends in different uniforms, but I think all of us made our marks on the corps that we joined!

Never heard of Jim N. :tongue: But never knew he marched Sky....

Saw him in 1985 when things were slightly less mugged up. Things were getting tense about getting the corps on the field again and I hear Jim talking..... about Capt Lou Albano of the WWF. "Yeah, we call him Capt Lou Albino". Just started thinking that he fits in the corps, no nerves at all and funny as Hell.

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Corky got royalties from McCormack for Black Saddle and many more...

Very doubtful. Larry had a HS band director do some bad transcriptions of corps tunes, and never got permissions from the composers or original arrangers.

I was one of those who got burnt. But McCormick lost in the long run. I channeled many multi thousands of dollars in equipment purchases to other dealers. And, 37 years later, have not forgotten.

Edited by HornsUp
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Very doubtful. Larry had a HS band director do some bad transcriptions of corps tunes, and never got permissions from the composers or original arrangers.

I was one of those who got burnt. But McCormick lost in the long run. I channeled many multi thousands of dollars in equipment purchases to other dealers. And, 37 years later, have not forgotten.

I assume he sold Auld Lang Syne or Choo Choo many times over?

Of course the interesting thing about Black Saddle is that as an obscure TV show theme from the 1959 season I think - I don't believe it had ever been published in any way prior to Brad Longdo's lifting the melody directly off the TV at the bar of the PLAV in Syracuse... the rest is history...

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I assume he sold Auld Lang Syne or Choo Choo many times over?

Of course the interesting thing about Black Saddle is that as an obscure TV show theme from the 1959 season I think - I don't believe it had ever been published in any way prior to Brad Longdo's lifting the melody directly off the TV at the bar of the PLAV in Syracuse... the rest is history...

Great story!

From an unknown tune to a drum corps classic. :angel1:

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I never had the chance to march in Giants stadium, although I did attend a Grand Prix senior show there around 1976. I did spend a few evenings at Skyliner practice in the parking lot, however. I know that more than one corps has used that lot for a practice location.

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