A Plea to the Phantom Regiment Organization

[zeke99]

I think the Regiment will be fine, while the Rennick's were talented and brought the level of percussion at PR up a few notches...they still had the PR brand behind their short tenure to enable this to happen. I believe they have turned into thinking they are the Gods of drum corps percussion and clearly self promote. If you look online you will find a website (www.paulrennick.com) and a youtube channel devoted to himself with videos of him pounding his sticks in front of the talented members of the PR drumline. You have to know he had people take those videos of him...doing close ups of his face, leaving out the center snare drummer or any other faces of the staff & drumline, etc. He has even posted PR videos online since he resigned....how self indulgent is that? It is like going through a divorce and posting pictures of the great children you left behind in an effort to recruit the next wife and kids. Perhaps the success PR admins and MMs enabled him went to his head????

A FEW NOTCHES??? REALLY??? Try LEAPS and BOUNDS! Starting with that line in '03 (his first year there) they were incredible! I'm not trying to bag on the product before, but it was a major improvement. His lines at Regiment have been musical and intense, the driving force of the corps. Everything they should be.

True, he's more accessible now, FB, youtube...while that may be the case, it's not like he has a "Lick of the Week" or anything. I think these guys are allowed a little bit of exposure after their successes, don't you?

Obviously you've never spent any kind of time around him to know what a great EDUCATOR he is, you'd think twice about those comments.

Jeff Sanders

Crown Quads '99

[geluf]

No, I am not a percussionist and I don't know Paul personally, but I do have an opinion on the matter based upon his self-indulging/self-promoting web presence. While Scott Johnson has created his own brand, he is entitled to do so because he stays put and is committed.

It is clear he uses his North Texas position to be a training ground for his corps members...however if he is as great as everyone and himself claims, why would he not have a winning line EVERY year!?!?

The Regiment has a good thing going in their traditions which are a part of the total package for a corps member to pursue. The Rennick's participated very well, and if they had stayed instead of baling, then they could have been there to continue influencing and shaping those traditions. If they think leaving for SCV is greener grass...have at it, and PR will still be okay.

You don't have any idea what you're talking about.

None.

At all.

So you should stop. You don't have the slightest clue about what went on to bring about Paul leaving Phantom. And frankly, you demonizing him is childish.

Suffice to say, Paul *is* as great as everyone claims he is (the UNT drumline has all but stopped competing at PASIC every year because they can't seem to stop winning), but that has nothing to do with anything. Paul left for his own reasons. You don't know what they are, so stop pretending you do.

[Madrid]

I think the Regiment will be fine, while the Rennick's were talented and brought the level of percussion at PR up a few notches...they still had the PR brand behind their short tenure to enable this to happen. I believe they have turned into thinking they are the Gods of drum corps percussion and clearly self promote. If you look online you will find a website (www.paulrennick.com) and a youtube channel devoted to himself with videos of him pounding his sticks in front of the talented members of the PR drumline. You have to know he had people take those videos of him...doing close ups of his face, leaving out the center snare drummer or any other faces of the staff & drumline, etc. He has even posted PR videos online since he resigned....how self indulgent is that? It is like going through a divorce and posting pictures of the great children you left behind in an effort to recruit the next wife and kids. Perhaps the success PR admins and MMs enabled him went to his head????

WOW!!!

Please reference any of the Rennick's work pre-Phantom. You will see how talented those two really are.

HELLO...Velvet Knights 1995. That is just ONE example.

Are you joking?

Yikes.

[BMBob]

WOW!!!

Please reference any of the Rennick's work pre-Phantom. You will see how talented those two really are.

HELLO...Velvet Knights 1995. That is just ONE example.

Are you joking?

Yikes.

Agreed. He also did some good work with Crown lines.

Regarding the reference to his YouTube stuff and website by the previously quoted poster, those two avenues ARE for self-promotion. As a business-man, one has to promote himself. Also, the divorce comparison is nowhere near valid. If he has signed on with a new group, or even if he hadn't but possible planned to, it makes complete sense to stop promoting himself as connected to the old one. It's a business thing. If Tiger Woods stopped endorsing Nike and started endorsing Adidas, he would not keep wearing Nike hats to the course. These are business decisions, not personal ones.

[kdaddy]

and chances are the corps will say it's thanks and good byes to paul rennick and subel when they announce who is taking over. It doesn't make much sense to make a big update just to say someone resigned or was fired.

I have to say that it does make sense to make an update, especially regarding Rennick.

PR percussion was going nowhere in 2002. Not only were they uncompetitive, but PR percussion didn't give us much to listen to since 1996 or so. Paul Rennick not only changed the pure enjoyment aspect of listening to the drumline and front ensemble, but they got pretty dang good in the process.

I have no inside scoop, but remember that PR lost a lot of kids who didn't return to the corps after 2008, a championship year. To me, that would prove that, while PR has a huge following in terms of fans, students don't just flock to the PR name. Here's guessing that Rennick has 95% to do with the difference in sixth place drumline talent and first place talent.

So, in summary , I think PR should release something saying "this guy has done great things for us, and we're sad to see him go, but we look forward to a great 2011 with our drumline, corps, and design staff," regardless of how ###### the corps might be that he left. It's just the right thing to do - and they have a chance to redeem themselves to me after the Adam Sage fiasco!

[JamMan]

Star of Indiana: Their success can be mainly attributed to a consistent design / arranging staff for their entire existence. yes, I know some of you will say Bill Cook had money to burn, but honestly -- the folks who designed and put that product on the field for all of those years did not end up millionaires fpr the most part!!

Actually, Star phased in percussion staff changes from '91-'93 (Thom Hannum, in). '93 was the only year Thom arranged both battery and pit percussion parts. Star was just fortunate to have a legend of percussion be the staff change.

[perc2100]

No, I am not a percussionist and I don't know Paul personally, but I do have an opinion on the matter based upon his self-indulging/self-promoting web presence. While Scott Johnson has created his own brand, he is entitled to do so because he stays put and is committed.

It is clear he uses his North Texas position to be a training ground for his corps members...however if he is as great as everyone and himself claims, why would he not have a winning line EVERY year!?!?

The Regiment has a good thing going in their traditions which are a part of the total package for a corps member to pursue. The Rennick's participated very well, and if they had stayed instead of baling, then they could have been there to continue influencing and shaping those traditions. If they think leaving for SCV is greener grass...have at it, and PR will still be okay.

So let me get this straight:

1) a man who's primary job is an independent contractor self-promotes himself. Adding to his 'day job' of teaching at UNT, he also has to recruit students (as does ANY College/University)

2) a drum corps caption head would look to his own academic program to recruit for his drum corps?!

Your assessment of the Rennicks is EXTREMELY naive and ignorant. Your posts come off as an extremely immature individual who seemingly has an axe to grind. Your thoughts have zero basis in reality, and I wish you good luck in working through your obvious bitterness.

[Tom Brace]

Only a few know what's going on, PR has a problem showing class when someone leaves the organization. I've seen the post saying it's a Public relations issue but IMO it's more about the BOD's pride being hurt. From a business perspective, organizations have issues but still give a psotive spin on things regardless of the reasons for the change because they know it affects the entire organization.

Regardless of all the positive things the BOD/Farrells have done for Phantom, their one character flaw seems to always center around parting on professional terms.

All I know is historically when this happens to Phantom other corps benefit greatly. So in my opinion there are other things that make people leave Phantom other than what's stated by the organization days or weeks later.

You owe me a phone call about other matters...of this I will say...Mr. Rennick won his caption more than most drum guys at Regiment. They have never been a "drummer's paradise" until recently. Paul Rennick was the reason. So, now SCV will soon become a drummers' paradise. So be it.

In moving forward, a press release is now ill-timed. Forget it. Move on. Get a drum guy...probably Brett Kuhn...on board and move forward. But, drums aren't going to be the star anymore in PR land. The guard program needs to improve and we are back to the visual questions which have plagued the corps on and off for ages. Then I could talk about the hornlines which have consistently passed the Regiment by recently...Bluecoats and Crown notable in the group. And look at the continued improvement with Blue Stars and now Madison.

So, drum corps gets more and more competitive in that top 9 area and Regiment just moved down two slots already for next year. Yes, predicting here folks. SCV up at least one spot and Regiment down two.

[TexasPRfan]

It's always great to see how much my favorite corps stirs emotions in so many people. So many interesting things to comment on in this thread, wow.

1. I too am nervous when a driving force behind success like Rennick is no longer with PR. That high scoring drum line has been a key to their more recent placement surge 2003-2010. I do think there is a much more competitive foundation to build off of, though with Rennick's replacement.

2. To say that Phantom is a 5-8 place corps that just overachieved is wildly inaccurate. From 1976 to today (the last 35 years), Phantom has placed the following:

• Top 6 - 28 times (80% of the time)
  
• Top 5 - 25 times (71% of the time)
  
• Top 4 - 19 times (54% of the time)
  
• Top 3 - 10 times (29% of the time)
  
• The above would say it's ludicrous to say their "norm" is the 5-8 placements. I could see how if you first started following the activity in 98, you could see a four year stretch from 98-01 where you could feel that way, but even from 2000-forward, Phantom has finished in the top 5 63% of the time, including a 7 year run from 02-08.
  

3. To say Phantom is being passed by in Brass is really premature! For much of their 03-08 run, they had one of the top 3 hornlines in the activity, and individual captions- unless TRULY exceptional -- are going to get scored in the range where the overall placement of the corps is as judges protect relative placements and give themselves room for corps yet to perform each night. Their much discussed (and true) visual challenges have impacted brass placements, without a doubt. Even this year, many people's Finals reviews talked about PR's brass section being under-scored, but yet they were consistent with overall placement. The phenomenal success of the drum line this year is the exception to scoring near the overal placement, not the rule.

4. Talk of wild inconsistency in the quality of Phantom's program design (visual design & execution aside) is really overstated. From 89 to 97, a remarkable run of popular & successful shows, except for 1992. 2 very rough years from 98-99, and 3 shows that were rock solid musically from 00-02, but not there yet visually. From 03 to 2010, you can really only point to 2009 being a poor program:

• 2003 - awesome music program, drill ok, guard poor. Program Concept was a homerun - very crowd-popular show
  
• 2004 - very solid music program, drill better, attrocious guard - awesome crowd response at finals at end of show.
  
• 2005 - wildly popular "Rhapsody" show clicked on all cylinders
  
• 2006 - wildly popular "Faust" shwo clicked on all cylinders
  
• 2007 - Under appreciated at the time, many have since cited this under-rated show. Visual execution not there, but a CD favorite for many, many people
  
• 2008 - Enough Said
  
• 2009 - OOPS
  
• 2010 - Very different for Phantom, but moved many, many people, and a popular show. Guard not up to level of rest of corps.
  
• It's hard to point to ANY other corps that has had as many popular shows from 1989-2010 as has Phantom Regiment, bottom line. As the organization has always said, that connection to the crowd has always mattered more than placement, for which I applaud them!
  

5. I'm certainly NOT saying not finding a way to retain Sage & Rennick were good moves by PR, but I'm confident the organization will find a way to move forward and continue to be Phantom Regiment. The last 35 years of history would certainly point to that being the case.

I wish the organization my best, along with my continued support and prayers.

Harvey

[stockman365]

Okay, I admit I am bitter. I hate to see talent like Rennick resign from a corps I follow. I will say, I am not part of the corps beyond following and supporting Regiment...and I have not discredited Rennick's ability to teach and recruit.

But at the same time, the self promotion efforts through online media have just turned my sights away from respecting his talent and puts a bad perspective on the whole situation for his leaving. The impression that PR is a lesser corps...or insane...and thus why talent leaves is defunct by the statistics illustrated above about the calliber of this great corps' storied history of success. If this point of view is immature, then I beg to differ!

I have been following this activity since the 80s, and it has become too acceptable for some of the key players to use their corps employment and members for self promotion. When all this propaganda was coming from Rennick before the season started, I had a sick feeling that he was using this to move on. If he would have put a facebook page titled "Rennick Drumlines" I would prefer to "Like" this type of page clearly before I would click a self indulgent "Paul Rennick" fb page. Announcing his move to another organization, then posting several self promotion along with the catalog of videos with close ups of him is a dissappointing discredit to his character and shows a lack of respect of the PR organization, his talented team of techs, and the talent of the performers upon moving on to another organization. Combining his level of talent with a lower tierd corps would have not afforded him the same vehicle of success as he has had with the Regiment as well as teaming up with the stellar brass arranger in Shaw. If you look at my comments in this perspective, this should not seem immature. If you disagree, then PM me and we can talk more specifics on my point of view.