Soloist Stories or Nightmares!

[KeithHall]

I'll go first...

It was 1973 or 1974 and our corps, The Royal Coachmen, were at a show in Sheffield, PA. Sheffield held this show on the fair grounds and not at the school. There were people all over the place. We played our show and got to our exit of the Bread song "If." The intro starts and I place myself on the 50 yard line. Color guard lined up on both sides of me and I play the the two pick up notes to the melody. Then I went blank! Couldn't for the life of me figure out what I was going to play until the very last note. We finished the show and no one said anything to me until later when our director came up and asked me what happened. I told him and he said that's okay, don't worry about it. I only had one other moment where I forgot something and it was in senior corps where they changed the ending the day before and I forgot about the last 8 counts. Oh well, wasn't the difference between first and second place anyways.

Okay anyone else brave?

[MilesandCassius]

Ironic that this came up as Dave Sullivan just passed away, (RIP Sully!) but Dave told me this story and always wanted the record straight. Dave was the baritone soloist in Bayonne in '80 and at I-don't-know-what-show, he was asked to play the National Anthem. As the show started, right on cue, Dave put his horn up and got through 3 or 4 notes when his valve froze! Thinking quickly he ran back into formation and grabbed the nearest kid's baritone he could find, ran back and played the Anthem. The crowd, knowing the Bridgemen, thought it was a joke! Half laughed, half were upset and he heard people complaining about how the "Bridgemen are such cut-ups they actually mess with the Star Spangled Banner!" He was always adamant that he wasn't screwing around, that it was the only thing he could do!

Personally, I almost had the same thing. At some show when I was with the Cadets, I too played the Anthem solo on my baritone before the show, only to get to the second to last note, and feeling "home free!" when I fracked it big time! Grrr!! Lesson learned. Never let down your concentration.

[JimFoster]

Not a disaster but just kinda funny...I had a contra solo in our closer "Come in from the rain" in 85. I believe it was in Momence, Il. After setting my contra on it's bell to remove my hat, I would spin it up onto my shoulder. As I spun my horn up, a car screeched around a corner right behind the field. Watching it on videotape (yes, tape) afterwards, it looked like an old Road Runner cartoon.

[Scooter Pirtle]

A friend of mine in the Scouts in '86(?) was the euphonium soloist at the beginning of Harlem Suite. Dean Smith was the soloist (it was a nasty flutter tongue piece with a big lip trill at the end).

I'm pretty sure this was the season the corps started with a very quickly paced rotation prior to the first hit of "Alexander's Rag Time Band." Dean went down during the move and landed on the horn, collapsing his euphonium's bell like a closed clam shell. I don't think he grabbed anyone elses horn during the show, just perservered with what he had.

The solo reminded me of Tim Conway's brief story in an episode of Mama's Family when he described a unique sound created by a siamese elephant:

"Snooorrfffky!"

[srsadersnare]

This one actually happened to my little brother in 1980. He had a soprano solo with the Cambridge/Somerville Cavalliers. He flipped his horn up to play and the mouthpiece was not in very well. His mouthpiece went flying out of his horn and stuck in the ground. When the judge handed it it right back to him, it was PACKED with mud but he did not look before he put it back in his horn. He tried to play his solso and nothing...took the mouthpiece out...looked in it...tried to shake the dirt out. By that time his solo had come and gone. He stood in front of the crowd....visibly shrugged his shoulders in the "oh well...that really stunk" pose and walked back to his spot. The crowd could see what happened and clapped for him anyway. We won the Class B World Open that year where his solo was just fine.

[rayfallon]

My first show with the Sunrisers in 1975, right after returning from overseas, I was feeling a little nervous after 4+ years out of the activity. As I began playing a long solo of My Man's Gone Now from Porgy and Bess, the front of the field at East Haven HS went on fire, then the lights on the field went off, then the corps which was playing a refrain started to phase from side to side by as much as 2 counts so I had to pick a side to come in with. Brutal.

Next season at Providence, my rotor came apart on the first note of Procession of the Nobles. I had to track down young Georgie Smith (RIP) in the drill and tell him he had to play the solo in Spain. Only time we beat Hawthorne all season, took high brass, and I couldn't pay a single note that required a rotary.

Might tell you where the horn line's weakness was.

[84BDsop]

I remember someone telling a tale about a sop soloist who lost his mouthpiece just before his solo....and who then simply stole one form the sop next to him!

[KeithHall]

That happened in our corps but it happened at the start of the show (Crown Imperial) and a 3rd Sop saw it an without a pause yanked his mouthpiece out and handed to the lead sop. This guy played a lot of high notes for us too.

I remember someone telling a tale about a sop soloist who lost his mouthpiece just before his solo....and who then simply stole one form the sop next to him!

[Callawyn]

My first performance ever with a Drum Corps, '82 Arbella, doing a standstill in a gym pre-season. We played a Bill Chase tune for our opener and had a screaming sop soloist, Mike Pantinella (sp?). Hot as all h$ll in that gym, he finished his solo and blacked out, fell backwards without bending or breaking his fall in any way, like a dead tree, hit his head pretty hard on that gym floor.

[JimF-LowBari]

One that only the corps and recording crew saw.....

1976 Westshoremen started with a sop solo and a running feud with the DM/horn instructor and soloist. DM/instructor would give the soloist Hades every now and then for not emptying his horn before he started playing and the soloist would swear he did (repeat every other week or so). Rest of the corps was behind the soloist so we couldn't hear who was right.

1976 DCA we come in 11th and have to play our show in stand still mode in front of the mics before the gates are opened for Finals. (PS - things are running late) We set up, the guy starts the solo and DM stops everything with "Did you empty your horn out?". Guy recording the show goes ballistic cuz there are people waiting to enter the stadium. Sound guy and DM start arguing and soloist is looking at the rest of the corps behind him like "WTF?"

Eventually we played the show but most bizarre DC thing I was ever in....

Oh yeah, our concert number in 75/76 was "Gonna Build A Mountain". 1976 someone added a solo to it. It got butchered so badly in a pre-season concert it was taken out... too bad I lost that tape.

Edited September 28, 2010 by JimF-LowBari