bdon15 Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 Yes. Yes, we did. In 1985. In my completely biased opinion, the best small corps show of its time. (Maybe of any time.) You may be right Tommy, maybe... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommytimp Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 You may be right Tommy, maybe... GREAT picture! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdon15 Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 GREAT picture! Yeah Buddy, what a great little corps! A picture taken from our POV would not have been very good. We were on at 9:00 in the morning and there was nobody in the stands except for a handful of sleepy support staff,instructors and a few stragglers. There's nothing worse than playing to empty stands and although we placed as well as we could have expected, it didn't help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzuccala Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 So I have to ask, Why does NO ONE ever mention The General Butler Vagabonds? It was a great, local, and competitive corps with more talent than anyone. We just never made it over the hump, but we had some great years. We won our first US OPEN Class A Championship with 72 members. We also were lucky if we had 36 horns. I believe the mid 70's were our biggest corps. We had about 100 members, but then things started to dwindle. As a World Class Corps 79 was the last really competitive year, Later, they did well in division III. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted December 31, 2010 Author Share Posted December 31, 2010 I remember competing against GBV in the 1970's but also there were other corps in that are of PA like Sharpsburg Cadets, 84th Bucktail Regiment, Cambria cadets, Derry Patriots and Silver Sabres too. I think the activity passed by western PA and Western NY as all those corps just faded away. Sad story that was written all over the US and Canada. Think about all those "A" corps from Pittsburgh to Toronto...what a show that would have been...add to all those above corps, corps like Imperial Regiment, Royal Coachmen, Flying Dutchmen, St. John's Girls, Opti-Lancers, Opti-Knights, Midlanders, Precious Blood Cardinals, Seneca Princemen, Etobicoke Crusaders, Ventures, Durham Girls, Krescendos, etc. So I have to ask, Why does NO ONE ever mention The General Butler Vagabonds? It was a great, local, and competitive corps with more talent than anyone. We just never made it over the hump, but we had some great years. We won our first US OPEN Class A Championship with 72 members. We also were lucky if we had 36 horns. I believe the mid 70's were our biggest corps. We had about 100 members, but then things started to dwindle. As a World Class Corps 79 was the last really competitive year, Later, they did well in division III. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Cavalier TDY Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 So I have to ask, Why does NO ONE ever mention The General Butler Vagabonds? It was a great, local, and competitive corps with more talent than anyone. We just never made it over the hump, but we had some great years. We won our first US OPEN Class A Championship with 72 members. We also were lucky if we had 36 horns. I believe the mid 70's were our biggest corps. We had about 100 members, but then things started to dwindle. As a World Class Corps 79 was the last really competitive year, Later, they did well in division III. Hi Bruno. I was with the Seneca Princemen from 72 through 75 and we competed against General Butler fairly often. We housed some of their guys at our home show in 73 and they returned the favour. You're right. They were a solid corps. I have great memories of them, Squires, Black Knights, Gauchos, Mark Twain, Cambria Cadets ... WAY too many to mention. Good times! Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lindap Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Hi Bruno. I was with the Seneca Princemen from 72 through 75 and we competed against General Butler fairly often. We housed some of their guys at our home show in 73 and they returned the favour. You're right. They were a solid corps. I have great memories of them, Squires, Black Knights, Gauchos, Mark Twain, Cambria Cadets ... WAY too many to mention. Good times! Jeff Hi Jeff. It certainly is a small world The good people of General Butler Vagabonds were our hosts in 1971 and 1972 too. We stayed with the families of Squires in 73. I have 2 purple programs in my scrapbook, 1 with scores, 1 without. Rhythm in Brass, Butler Fair Grounds, August 1, 1971. The competing corps were: Catholic Daughters of America Royal Crusaders Cambria Cadets Twin City Imperials In exhibition were: Pittsburgh Rockets Meridian Woodpeckers General Butler Vagabonds Vagabond Cadets My scrapbook says '1st Scarborough 74...I stayed with 10 other girls at the Haller house on South Drive...the Vagabonds are very nice'. On the same page, it says we were in Sheffield, PA on July 31, 1971. '1st Scarborough 75, 2nd Marion Cadets 62'. Rhythm in Brass, Butler Fair Grounds, July 30, 1972. The competing corps were: Des Plaines Vanguard 80.65 Marion Cadets 70.95 The Chessmen 66.45 Queen City Cadets 62.30 Scarborough Princemen 62.25 (we were Seneca Princemen 2 weeks after) Cambria Cadets 59.20 Royal Crusaders were in the program, no score. May have been a no show. In exhibition were: General Butler Vagabonds (the program says 35 horns, 18 drums, 23 guard ;) Vagabond Cadets and Seattle Imperials winter guard traveled north and visited us spring 1980 at our first championship contest of our brand new guard circuit. Very, very cool too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nngs9 Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 Canadian Knights and Ventures early to mid 80's...also Northmen from Rochester, Malden Diplomats and California Dons. All of these corps were very good. Also the Oshawa Rebels, Verona Eagles and the Patriots rollercoaster appreciation corps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geneva Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 1973 Auburn Purple Lancers 34 horns trained by Corky Fabrizio in his heyday...looked good coming out the first day of DCI prelims with the high score. But then the second day scores had a number of corps we had been beating over us. Ended up 17th... DA The horn line that year had razor sharp execution. I remember that we had a bigger horn line that year with Geneva and we thought early in the season that we would have Auburn's number. Unfortunately for us, we had nowhere near the ensemble that you guys had! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geneva Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 Apalachin (NY) Grenadiers. In the early 70's they played a book loaded with articulation challenge and were just masterful with a beautiful and balanced sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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