TRacer Posted July 4, 2018 Share Posted July 4, 2018 (edited) On 7/3/2018 at 5:26 AM, quietcity said: Geez, mello rips go way back. Listen to SCV 1984 opener, Fanfare and Allergo. The mellos rip the space-time continuum on that one. And there were only 4 mellophone players! I marched that year...2 of the four were rookies if I remember right (Jim Corrigan and Darren?); section leader George Brown was a 5th year age-out. Trivia note: the whole “wailing mellophones from hell” asecending run, bopooowah-ooowah—oohwah oohwah rips and the following descending/ascending run that repeats twice you hear in the last bars of Fanfare and Allegro were all written in secret by the four guys that played it. It went like this at camp after sectionals: ”Ok guys, let’s play it the way it’s written (with the ‘74 “boppa-dop” ending.)” we do. ”Ok, new ending version.” Everyone including the mellos play the “new” long (boring?) sustained note ending. It’s loud. ”Ok, John (staff tech) says he wants to try something...can everyone play the long note version ending again...” We do, and at the appropriate moment John points at the mellos to cue them to cut loose and do their thing. The sky explodes. GR and staff at the front of the room pick pieces of DEG Mello out of their faces. The rest of the hornline can’t belive it either as we stare at George & Co. GR does this little giggle...Thinking back, that was the moment the hornline *really* began to gel. Edited July 5, 2018 by TRacer Typo! 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gak27 Posted July 6, 2018 Share Posted July 6, 2018 I played mello with 2-7 in '82 - there were 4 of us as well (one a fellow ex-RC; there were several of us with 2-7 that year). I marched next to Kevin (Kiernan?), a multi-year 2-7 vet. Great guy. The mellos were at the end of the hornline when we entered the field and I remember at one show a group of girls in the back stands watching us come down the back side track: "Where are the mellophones...oh, they're at the back!" As far as rips? The most memorable one is at the end of Niner-Two right after the sopranos did their high two note resolve. We had a four note "bah doo WEEEE ahh" progression before the final hornline chords. LOTS of fun with that. 1:30 in the linked vid for those who are really interested... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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