The Bridgemen Alumni Official Finals Week Petition

[G-Rott]

I also think that people get perennial Alumni corps conflated with these one-and-done groups that perform at DCI. It's not the same goal, not the same target audience, just not the same.

This...I think...is the crux of the issue. I suspect if Bridgemen did the DCI thing, they would put out a full corps similar to 27, Star, and the like that we have seen in the past. This is the event for alumni (and others) who want that once and done experience. The Bridgemen we currently enjoy are those who simply suffer from the enjoyment of performing...year after year. I wouldn't fault anyone for that...

[3rd Glasgow BB]

This...I think...is the crux of the issue. I suspect if Bridgemen did the DCI thing, they would put out a full corps similar to 27, Star, and the like that we have seen in the past. This is the event for alumni (and others) who want that once and done experience.

Yes, given time to prepare for that big "one time only" performance, I think any alumni corps would deliver a show just as good as previous alumni have done.

[SFZFAN]

I'd pay extra to see a Bridgemen performance at Semifinals. You can guarantee it would be entertaining.

[SACMellos2010]

Sorry that the beginning of this post will not be about the Bridgeman but I have had to read an incorrect claim more than once in this thread by "3rd Glasgow BB".

Your claim of the time that we, Star Alumni, had to prepare is simply wrong and please do a little research before laying claim. We had a total of I believe 18 rehearsal days which included the 5 days of Finals week and then performed.

SO please we had enough embellished or outright false claims during our years as a competitive drum corps to now have the same being made about our Alumni performance in 2010. I am sure the next will be that we were all professional musicians that were paid by Bill Cook to perform just as we were back when we marched, and traveled from show to show on private jets and ate Filet and Lobster for every meal....

As for the thread, I have not seen the Bridgeman Alumni so I cannot make claims as to their previous approach but I would think if they were going to perform for at Semi-finals then it would be a throwback show. And if they do not perform what will fill that time slot?

[OrlandoContraAlum]

Sorry that the beginning of this post will not be about the Bridgeman but I have had to read an incorrect claim more than once in this thread by "3rd Glasgow BB".

Your claim of the time that we, Star Alumni, had to prepare is simply wrong and please do a little research before laying claim. We had a total of I believe 18 rehearsal days which included the 5 days of Finals week and then performed.

SO please we had enough embellished or outright false claims during our years as a competitive drum corps to now have the same being made about our Alumni performance in 2010. I am sure the next will be that we were all professional musicians that were paid by Bill Cook to perform just as we were back when we marched, and traveled from show to show on private jets and ate Filet and Lobster for every meal....

As for the thread, I have not seen the Bridgeman Alumni so I cannot make claims as to their previous approach but I would think if they were going to perform for at Semi-finals then it would be a throwback show. And if they do not perform what will fill that time slot?

Hey now, I know SEVERAL Star alumni (members of Star United and the DCI corps, as well as Alumni corps participants) and they ALL admitted that you were indeed paid! And ate steak!

(this is sarcasm, btw... just to be sure there is no misunderstanding)

[Navillus WP]

I have not seen the Bridgeman Alumni so I cannot make claims as to their previous approach but I would think if they were going to perform for at Semi-finals then it would be a throwback show.

I saw the Bridgemen at the Plymouth Reunion Show. They had fun, and the audience had fun. They expected a stroll down memory lane, and that's what they experienced.

If the mission of the exhibition is to entertain the popcorn eaters while the judges tabulated scores before confirming the winner, then the Bridgemen would certainly satisfy the average fan with a fun stroll down memory lane of the Bridgemen's trademark tongue-in-cheek, make-me-smile performance. IMO people other than the hard-core elite-or-stay-home modern era purists would be entertained. (But then again, Bridgemen have always enjoyed tweaking noses of hard core elite-or-stay-home purists of several eras...)

[3rd Glasgow BB]

Sorry that the beginning of this post will not be about the Bridgeman but I have had to read an incorrect claim more than once in this thread by "3rd Glasgow BB".

Your claim of the time that we, Star Alumni, had to prepare is simply wrong and please do a little research before laying claim. We had a total of I believe 18 rehearsal days which included the 5 days of Finals week and then performed.

SO please we had enough embellished or outright false claims during our years as a competitive drum corps to now have the same being made about our Alumni performance in 2010. I am sure the next will be that we were all professional musicians that were paid by Bill Cook to perform just as we were back when we marched, and traveled from show to show on private jets and ate Filet and Lobster for every meal....

As for the thread, I have not seen the Bridgeman Alumni so I cannot make claims as to their previous approach but I would think if they were going to perform for at Semi-finals then it would be a throwback show. And if they do not perform what will fill that time slot?

I stand by my claim. You were clearly just very good at preparing.

[Jeff Ream]

Sorry that the beginning of this post will not be about the Bridgeman but I have had to read an incorrect claim more than once in this thread by "3rd Glasgow BB".

Your claim of the time that we, Star Alumni, had to prepare is simply wrong and please do a little research before laying claim. We had a total of I believe 18 rehearsal days which included the 5 days of Finals week and then performed.

SO please we had enough embellished or outright false claims during our years as a competitive drum corps to now have the same being made about our Alumni performance in 2010. I am sure the next will be that we were all professional musicians that were paid by Bill Cook to perform just as we were back when we marched, and traveled from show to show on private jets and ate Filet and Lobster for every meal....

As for the thread, I have not seen the Bridgeman Alumni so I cannot make claims as to their previous approach but I would think if they were going to perform for at Semi-finals then it would be a throwback show. And if they do not perform what will fill that time slot?

fliet? horrors. I heard Kobe

[Callawyn]

There are a lot of people that would be interested in performing at Semi's 'one and done' with the Bridgemen that are not interested in our current schedule. We also have a number of people that perform with us some years but not others. I'm sure nearly all of our current members would be exited to have the opportunity to perform at Semi's. So, our current corps would serve as the base upon which we would build a bigger corps for a Semi's performance.

If we had that opportunity, the first thing we'd do is contact everyone that's been involved with the corps that we can - both the junior corps and the alumni corps. Given that the current hornline is in the mid-60's (hopefully 70 for next summer) and the drumline is nearly full (last year we marched 8 snare, 4 quad, 5 bass, plus cymbals plus a bunch in the bit, though we could still use more mallet players), I have no doubt that we could field above 100 brass (possibly well above) and a big drum line (at least full, oversized if we wanted to).

The guard, as mentioned above, has indeed been shrinking but we're taking steps to reverse that. We have a new staff this year, most of last years members have returned, we have a bunch of new members and we're really pushing to recruit more.

There's a big issue that never gets mentioned when it comes to alumni corps at semi's: time since the corps folded as a junior corps, and number of years the corps was active before it folded. 27th fielded a 13th place corps in its final year, 1986, and the alumni show was in '94, the corps had existed from '67 to '86. So, there was a large pool of alumni to draw from, many of whom could still play and could march and play at the same time. Star of Indiana existed for only 9 seasons as a junior corps, '85-'93, and the reunion was in 2010. Much smaller pool of alumni, much longer period inactive before the reunion. Fortunately, we had a lot of people that had never stopped playing (and the Star United crew provided a solid base to build on), so musically we were in good shape from the start. Marching, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. Worse, we had a significant number of alumni actively touring as instructors for junior corps - they learned their parts but missed much of the finals week rehearsal time. It quickly became apparent that marching a full field show was not an option - at least not at the level we would have considered acceptable (and many alumni, particularly in the hornline, couldn't commit to the rehearsal time necessary). The Cavaliers and Madison Scouts, of course, still have active junior corps and a huge base of alumni going back decades - having a base of recent age-outs helps enormously.

For the Bridgemen, the time between going inactive and a potential semi's performance would be even longer than for Star ('84 being the last full corps, with smaller corps in '85 and '87). Also, most of the original members were street kids from Bayonne (where Star had a lot of college music majors, especially from Indiana University), so there's a much lower percentage of original members that still play, and an average age about a decade older. We have a huge advantage though: we already have an active alumni corps and have had several years to figure out how to march and play at the same time again. I can't imagine NOT doing a full field show at Semi's were we to be invited.

Colorguard will be a challenge, though. I was amazed at the work our guard was doing at Star. A few of the members taught guards either in WGI or at High Schools, but most hadn't spun anything for 20+ years. Nearly all were bandaged at every rehearsal. Most were married, with kids, in many cases several kids. The level of fitness required for a 40+ or 50+ brass player to do an easy drill is entirely different from what is required from the guard. For those of you still marching a junior corps: think what'd be like for your Mom, or even your Grandmother, to try to do DCI style guardwork in her 50's, 30+ years after aging out. Again, having an active alumni corps will provide the base we build on, but for women that aged out in the 70's or early 80's and haven't spun since, coming back in 201? to do a full field show in the guard would be very difficult.

Edited November 29, 2011 by Callawyn

[mingusmonk]

Sorry that the beginning of this post will not be about the Bridgeman but I have had to read an incorrect claim more than once in this thread by "3rd Glasgow BB".

Your claim of the time that we, Star Alumni, had to prepare is simply wrong and please do a little research before laying claim. We had a total of I believe 18 rehearsal days which included the 5 days of Finals week and then performed.

SO please we had enough embellished or outright false claims during our years as a competitive drum corps to now have the same being made about our Alumni performance in 2010. I am sure the next will be that we were all professional musicians that were paid by Bill Cook to perform just as we were back when we marched, and traveled from show to show on private jets and ate Filet and Lobster for every meal....

As for the thread, I have not seen the Bridgeman Alumni so I cannot make claims as to their previous approach but I would think if they were going to perform for at Semi-finals then it would be a throwback show. And if they do not perform what will fill that time slot?

To claim that Star alumni corps was not impeccably prepared is laughable. Nobody said you moved in together and had rigorous hell-weeks. Preparation is not necessarily about amount of time spent together. But, as with most Star activities, the program was detail-oriented and implemented masterfully. Learn to take a compliment, or at least recognize one.

Edited November 29, 2011 by mingusmonk