Dash Fieldpaint Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 I remember hearing about scores from shows we didn't attend. We'd hear about it the next morning. We'd hear rumors from other corps, other states, the west coast when we were on the east coast. I have no idea how we heard it. We just did. It's always been a mystery to me. For instance: 1995 was a four way battle for the last three finalist spots, between Crossmen, Crown, Magic, and Blue Knights. During the last two weeks of tour we (Crown) heard that Crossmen and Magic had both placed over Blue Knights. We heard this the morning after it happened. We had placed just below Crossmen and just ahead of Magic in our last few meetings. We were going up against Blue Knights that night, without Crossmen or Magic present. This was the last show before finals week. This show would pretty much decide who was 12th, and who was 13th. How did we hear the news? I don't know. Phone calls? That's the only way. I don't know who the information originated from, and I don't remember who I heard it from. We just knew it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Thunder Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 I remember hearing about scores from shows we didn't attend. There were some classic cases in the late 70s/early 80s where scores even appeared in print, only to have to be retracted in the next issue as being nothing but fiction. The contest never even took place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 DCN, DCW, 1-900 Can Drum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trh Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 I just want to compliment the title of this thread. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 (edited) 1. corps were more local and people spoke face-to-face. 2. Mail was cheaper and letters more frequent. People wrote whole sentences and paragraphs even that were more than 140 characters. 3. There were more winter activities which involved corps and corps people. Many corps had guards in winter circuits and the rest of the corps would come as fans and swap stories; there were mini-corps, and other things like what Mike Boo had on DCI page yesterday about hockey. 4. DCI corps were still in local circuits as well as those winter meetings gave more time for discussion and rumor. 5. Prior to the time of mandatory regionals, much info was shared by corps who had already seen other corps in practice or geographic activities. 6. College campuses and college dorms were a hot bed for info as kids went to various corps and travelled People's Express. Just some of the ways... All of these. Also once a week they'd be the regularly scheduled 1 hour Wed. Nite Boston area radio station that'd inteview staff, instuctors, Drum Majors, record co. execs, show sponsors, fans, etc... they'd be Drum Corps News, Drum Corps World, Drum Corps Digest arriving in the mail at intevals.... Both the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald had beat writers that covered the local Corps frequently and would provide detailed monthly columns, sometimes with pictures to their readers. The activity was a 12 month activity, so they'd be open practices by the 2 dozen or more Corps in the area... every third house in your neighborhood had someone involved in some Drum Corps. There were 5 Corps represented by someone in their family within a 500 yard radius of my house for example.....there were Drum Corps standstill exhibitions in January at Boston's Symphony Hall ( recorded by Fleetwood Records to later be sold to attendees and fans nationally ) and Standsill Competitions in April at either the Boston Garden or Boston University...there were Color Guard competitions most of the winter in the area...every other Community in your region had a Drum Corps so you'd bump into people with Corps jackets on all the time while out and about... The Boston Commonwealth Armory would have a Corps practicing there every couple of nights.... They'd be the annual off season Drum Corps Miltary style Ball and Dance with the annual Local King and Queen chosen from among the local Corps ( and pics published in the Boston Globe ) .........so as a result of all these things, there was a constant flow of both real time information as well as the bi monthly published Newspapers 7 days a week, 52 weeks of the year about what what going on locally, regionally in the off season in both the Juniors and the Senior Corps. Today, DCI Drum Corps has essentially been reduced to an activity that has a blockout of activity for approx. 44 weeks out of the season. Today's Drum Corps are much more secretive of what is going on, which of course leads to more unfounded rumors, and wild speculation, and just flat out bad information which later proves to have been just fiction. In earlier times, practices were open to all, and so there was a constant daily stream of mostly solid information from multiple sources, including one's own personal, one on one, sources as to the goings on with the 12 month long Drum Corps activity. ' Hope this helps you understand how easy it used to be to secure real time information ( at least in some regions anyway ) about the Drum Corps activity at any given point in time of the year. Edited June 14, 2013 by BRASSO 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 Drum Corps News was my primary source. We would scour it every issue to see articles and pictures about corps in far distant lands of, say, Pittsburgh. Corps in California were like another planet to us. We used to love to see reps and other "corps stuff" during the off-season. NanciD's great webiste is primarily old Drum Corps News issues transcribed online. We also looked to see if there was mention of OUR corps, esp when I marched in a little Garden State Circuit corps. An actual photo in the paper was an event for us to celebrate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glory Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 (edited) Not knowing was normal too. While there were those who had access to Drum Corps World, there were plenty who didn't. I remember arriving at championships well into the 90s with no clue what Phantom or BD or whoever was doing. And that was okay, even exciting. The surprise came whenever it came. Few expected otherwise. The drum corps experience wasn't all that different from the rest of our lives. Back then cantalope and watermelon didn't show up until summer either. Hardly anyone I knew took an offseason vacation to the beach. The rhythm of life meant some things happened only in certain seasons. Drum corps was one of those. And that was fine. HH Edited June 14, 2013 by glory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeN Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 As a fan, I got started with DCI in 1989. It wasn't until 1991, when a friend loaned me his championship program, that I even knew who the other corps in the top 25 even were. It wasn't until 1994, when I bought the cassettes, that I even knew there was a scoreline (it was printed on the back). It wasn't until 1995 that I first called the scoreline to find out who won Quarters and Semis. And on finals night in '96 I logged on to RAMD for the first time... Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drilltech1 Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 (edited) A couple of fall outs from this: It would seem that because the tour captains were not is such a rush to get the kids on to the next show site that there was more time between shows....correct? and that would assume more local touring and less across-the-country tours like today.....correct? less shows? Troopers, followed by Santa Clara were the first nationally touring corps; other corps went specifically to championship caliber shows of title, whether AL, VFW, World Open, US Open, etc. I think Garfield was the first Eastern corps to do a full summer tour without coming home between first tour (early July) and second tour (August.) Remember the drum corps competitive season for many corps doing local shows went from Memorial Day to Labor Day (and after.) Even DCI championships were later, the third week of August. Then ESPN induced the colleges to have more football weekends and the college years began earlier. Computers needed standardized temperatures so schools got air conditioning and the high school year started earlier especially in the South It wasn't until well into the late 80's that DCI shifted its championship to accomodate the Southerners and ESPN types. There were definitely less weekday shows. But having local circuits meant that corps could be doing two shows in two places on the same day so that weekends could have 4 contest appearences. And title shows often had prelims and finals on the same day. This too was true for DCI especially for Regionals. Sure not a 43 show performance schedule like Cadets, Cavies, and SCV did some years in DCI. But still at least what BD is doing today. Edited June 14, 2013 by drilltech1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quad Aces Posted June 14, 2013 Share Posted June 14, 2013 DCI Today Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.