time off and today its 1982

[oldtimefan]

my surgery recovery gives me time to do some finals rewatching and today has 1982 in the player. Nobody in the house, so the Bose is CRANKING. This had to be one of my favorite years of all in the 80s for the Blue Devils. Great music and they were SMOKING that year. SCV was crisp. Scouts, the music was so enjoyable but man was their guard one of the best EVER. EVER. EVER!!!!! My own Sky Ryders were into the groove and also had a guard to die for. Three rifles at once thanks to the contras. I also want to shout out to the Crossmen. This is my all time favorite for them. Best music ever. Russian Christmas ending. You guys had me close to tears. (pain meds help) Cavaliers and the step over. My friend Dave marched snare that year. We both marched Colts in 81 in the drum line and in 82 his Cavie bus broke down and our director let some of the Cavies ride with us until their bus was fixed. He ended up on my bus. What a coincidence. Very cool and yet bizarre. Thanks 1982 and the memories were really great. To everyone who marched that year, care to share a memory?

Edited August 21, 2013 by oldtimefan

[Northern Thunder]

1982 was one of my favorite DCI years. Blue Devils added their HUGE chord in "One More Time Chuck Corea".

You mentioned two more of my favorites that year with Sky Ryders and Crossmen. We were glad to see Sky Ryders FINALLY make DCI finals in '82,

after having exciting (especially in terms of hornline and rifle line) years previously.

I can't forget '82 Garfield. That was the beginning of their great run. Their genius visual show had its start that season. They just had to wait a year to put it all together. Their opening soprano duet lead-in "Concerto in F" and the debut of "Rocky Point Holiday"...... Rocky Point always meant a great deal to me, since it premiered with the University of Minnesota Concert Band back in the 1960s

I also saw something in '82 that greatly disturbed me. After Suncoast Sound knocked Spirit of Atlanta out of DCI Midwest finals (it was the first time Spirit missed any finals since their initial 1977 season) some friends and I were eating in a Whitewater restaurant between prelims and finals, and we overheard a Spirit instructor talking on the phone saying how Suncoast beating them was a joke,and even went as far as saying his high school band could beat Suncoast. This instructor was talking of quitting with Spirit because he was so ticked off. As it turned out, Suncoast beating Spirit at DCI Midwest was the best thing that could have happened for Atlanta, since a couple weeks later it was Spirit in DCI finals, and Suncoast being in 13th place.

I could go on about '82.....but I won't.

Edited August 21, 2013 by Northern Thunder

[Tim K]

i enjoyed 1982. I think everyone knew it was only a matter of time before Garfield would win a title since that was the first year Zingali designed their show. I love Madison's 1982 show as well and still listen to it from time to time when I'm driving. Cavies "Softly As I Leave You" is pure drum corps junk food that can't be resisted. For me, the greatest show of that year was CYO Nationals which was bittersweet: it was the last time I saw North Star and Defenders compete but I did get to see a corps compete live for the first time--Sky Ryders.

Now 1982 gives me reason to be proud of two local corps: 27th Lancers lost quite a few staff members and marching members to Garfield and against the odds placed 6th at finals and while 1982 may be a year many BAC marching members may want to forget (the year they got stranded in England), they had a great show and since they had placed higher than some of their competitors prior to DCI, probably should have been higher than 26th.

Edited August 26, 2013 by Tim K

[N.E. Brigand]

1982 was the first year Phantom attempted "Spartacus" [...]

Second time, actually: 1981 was the first.

[Gary Matczak]

82 was my all time favorite DCI finals trip,.........I'll bet we watched almost 100 corps in prelims,.......

[Tim K]

Second time, actually: 1981 was the first.

You are correct.

[Bill L.]

I never will forget DCM finals. We tied with Phantom and had a march off . Those were the best unis. Phantom ever wore imho . That red really poped .

[bstar82]

It's ironic for me to see this as I decided to pop in the 82 DVD this morning and then saw this thread. I have a lot of memories of 1982 being my age out year. A lot of them are in a thread titled "My tribute to Robert Lendmen". I'm having a hard time linking that page here. But my other memories would be the tie at DeKalb between Madison and Phantom and the crowd was really juiced up for their 2nd performances of the evening. I recall sitting in a parking lot watching Phantom's drum line warm up in Overland Park just being so impressed with their book. Also, lined up to do a parade somewhere in the Midwest and Madison next to us along w/ a couple of local bands and a drum major for one of the bands who really thought he was a bad A##, telling his band ," We are going to show these drum corps kids who they're messing with". And as he called his band to step off, one of the Madison snares played a really bad roll off and both corps busted out in laughter.

My first time seeing Garfield in Whitewater that year and I could really sense the what I was watching was going to change the face of drum corps for years to come. Just a brilliant show for the time. For me, it was a great year to age out. A lot of people didn't care for Montreal, but I loved the experience. It really gave the championships an international feel to it visiting the sites on our days off and meeting the locals. Boy, I met a lot of gals that year, a guard member from Rivermen, Coachmen and Golden Garrison. We also had a 18 year old hanging out at our housing site in Varennes and she plunked herself down right in front of me during every rehearsal. Thanks to the Internet and FB, we have reconnected lo these many years. My favorite memory is when we were sharing a school with Phantom in the Midwest and pretty much everybody was feeling sorry for us and rightly so. Someone had donated T Bone steaks for our entire corps and as we broke for dinner, one of our instructors told us to go eat in front of Phantom's drum line who were still in rehearsal. Not the kindest thing to do, but I think he wanted people to know we were not as bad off as it seemed, but I could see the percussion section licking their chops as we enjoyed our best meal on tour. I could on and on, maybe some more later.

[KeithHall]

1982.....I was asked to work of the visual staff of a NY merger, The Renegades. Lots of talk of top 15 by some management. originally the corps had 60+ horns, huge drum line and guard. Then a few weeks before the first show some garbage happened with one director and several members. The horn line lost at least 15 great players, some drums and guard. The season went pretty well. No one knew who were were and our first song was Light My Fire/Firebird Suite which caused some older people people to say "Phoenix!" The year finished at Montreal, don't remember what place we took. I know we did make finals at Butler.

The one corps director left to form another corps, the other director got caught taking money from Bingo and the corps renamed itself The Royal Legacy, had a corporate sponsor and went nowhere since most members left for the new corps, others went to join The Garfield Cadets and a few even went to Avant Garde.

I got to work with Brady Rouse, Bruce McCready, Dave Martin and Jerry Kelsey. Can't forget Phil Lake, Ken Brooks and Dave Bucklin.

[Northern Thunder]

the corps renamed itself The Royal Legacy

Keith, I keep track of the smaller "unknown" junior corps, and I hadn't heard about the Royal Legacy. Do you know if they actually functioned under that name (in '83 maybe),

possibly as a parade corps?