Your favorite Drum Corps screw up!

[NMSUtrmptman07]

Mid season this past summer ... I think Kansas. We're on the field waiting for the announcer. Then all of a sudden "Santa Clara Vanguard, You may now take the field in competition." I was like wait what corps am I in again

[Tansea]

Two drops and a perfect score??? How does THAT happen?

Build up...no tics!

[3rd_Star_Brigade]

Oh we just called him ReRun. We had solist in 90 the could repeat "The Frack" note for note, frack for frack and would do it in the parking lot after shows. It was SO funny to other corps just bust a gut.

Yeah, and that soloist got hit with karma finals night during his solo in Singing in the Rain. He may not have been his partner in the BD duet in 89, but he certainly filed the spot in 90 with you guys.

Although, most people today just assume he was mocking BD.

[3rd_Star_Brigade]

Oh, and ever horn soloist in 1998 Blue Devils (excludes the opener)

[garfield_cadets]

Madison Scouts color guard member 1988, dropped his flag after the wind-up & toss 20 seconds before the end of Malaguena.

Mistakes that are caught on tape for eternity are the really bad ones!

I also agree with the Cadets rifle dude in '02...right there in front too.

Also the sabre soloist during the opening of Sanctus, Phantom '03, dropped after her toss...right in front of everybody & the camera.

Man, sucks to be them. :-(

Edited September 25, 2006 by garfield_cadets

[byline]

Madison Scouts color guard member 1988, dropped his flag after the wind-up & toss 20 seconds before the end of Malaguena.

Mistakes that are caught on tape for eternity are the really bad ones!

There was a Blue Devils guard drop that was pretty big, because it was a closeup, and the gal had to step out of her drill to retrieve the flag. Can't remember now which year that would've been. I'm thinking mid- to late '80s.

There are two schools of thought on this kind of thing. One is that you don't drop. Ever. (But, of course, viewing the DCI finals telecasts reveals plenty of drops over the years, including during the tick era.)

The other school of thought is that if you do drop, the recovery is the most important thing. Normally (and I think this comes from being a guard judge), my eye goes right to the drop/timing error/whatever. But there have been some drops that honestly took me a number of viewings to spot, because the recovery was so quick and clean. I have a lot of admiration for the people who dropped but then got right back into it. If you blinked, you missed it.

[apoch003]

Madison Scouts color guard member 1988, dropped his flag after the wind-up & toss 20 seconds before the end of Malaguena.

Mistakes that are caught on tape for eternity are the really bad ones!

I also agree with the Cadets rifle dude in '02...right there in front too.

Also the sabre soloist during the opening of Sanctus, Phantom '03, dropped after her toss...right in front of everybody & the camera.

Man, sucks to be them. :-(

I was at the Garfield rifle drop of '02 during finals. What you hear on the DVD and on television isn't what was heard at the stadium. Huge amount of rifles, from end zone to end zone, moving inwards with a toss.... EVERYONE CATCHES!!! It's moving towards the middle!!! The one guy in the middle, the last guy to have to catch, and he drops it!

The WHOLE audience = "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!"

It was hilarious.

[garfield_cadets]

There was a Blue Devils guard drop that was pretty big, because it was a closeup, and the gal had to step out of her drill to retrieve the flag. Can't remember now which year that would've been. I'm thinking mid- to late '80s.

There are two schools of thought on this kind of thing. One is that you don't drop. Ever. (But, of course, viewing the DCI finals telecasts reveals plenty of drops over the years, including during the tick era.)

The other school of thought is that if you do drop, the recovery is the most important thing. Normally (and I think this comes from being a guard judge), my eye goes right to the drop/timing error/whatever. But there have been some drops that honestly took me a number of viewings to spot, because the recovery was so quick and clean. I have a lot of admiration for the people who dropped but then got right back into it. If you blinked, you missed it.

I agree with you. It's not the mistake, it's the recovery. If you keep on truckin like nothing happened I'm much more forgiving.

[Roark1]

Mid-summer 1975 (can’t remember the shows)

A Madison Scouts rookie marching tympani player (26 inch) chokes a VERY EXPOSED roll during a tempo change early in the opener, TWO SHOWS in a row. Rookie feels like crap and catches “heck” after shows. Pressure is building at that point during the summer. The corps is undefeated with a show that kills every night.

This same rookie chokes the roll during rehearsals (nerves), and really catches “heck”. Parts are almost re-written on the spot. This rookie (barely 16 years old) is now scared to play the show (not a good place to be in a championship corps).

A tympani veteran and outstanding tenor player by the name of Dan Guernsey takes the rookie aside and tells him to relax; the problem is that the rookie is overplaying the roll. Just relax and slow it down a little. The rookie is fine from there on out and feels a HUGE sense of relief when he plays the part with no problems at that night’s show. His confidence grows through out the rest of the summer.

That rookie was me, and after all these years I just want to say:

Thanks Dan, I remember it to this day. I will always hold you in high regard for that!

[markdewine]

Roark1- Cool story. Thanks for sharing it with us. There needs to be more stories of the "caring / mentoring" nature on DCP.

For me, that aspect of drum corps is SO much more important than shows, scores, etc. B)