IMO BILL COOK

[Continental]

19 minutes ago, kevingamin said:

I met Mr. Cook once at Bill Lendman’s wake in 2011, just a few months before he himself passed away. I wrote about it on my website.

I Did Not Know Bill Cook

You link is asking for a login/password for access. 

[kevingamin]

1 hour ago, Continental said:

You link is asking for a login/password for access. 

It would help if I posted the actual link and not the link to the editor:

I Did Not Know Bill Cook FOR REALZ THIS TIME 

[Ghost]

9 hours ago, rjohn76 said:

Might have been Canadian Brass?  I believe they did a concert series with them as part of their Brass Theater program.

Took in their show a few years ago at Dixie State U. in St. George.  Spoke with Chuck, co founder of CB, about his time with Star and their Brass Theater period.  He said it was a blast (pun intended).  The musicians were great and he loved Bill Cook and staff.  He said CB was floored when Bill sent his plane to pick them up once.

[Ghost]

9 hours ago, LabMaster said:

 They recruited (aka poached) talent from other corps (mm’s and staff).   

That still happens today.  Boston's great bari soloist Charlie was offered a free ride I believe if he joined a top 3 corps.  He turned them down.  A great Giant.

[njthundrrd]

When I came to Star as a young staff member in 1985, after winning DCi as a member in 1984, I can tell you this.

The hornline and guard were made up of vastly Indiana/Midwestern band kids and a few people from Pride of Cincinnati, I think 1 or 2 from Phantom Regiment, 1 Trooper, 1 Lancer, and a couple of Bridgemen horn players. The battery followed Dennis Delucia, Bob Dubinski, and Jay Webb to Star. The pit was 50/50 of Bridgemen and new people. Following an instructor to a new corps had been going on for decades and long before Star. 

This corps was so young and green that the last few days before we left on tour, we put the corp on buses and drove around southern Indiana for a few hours, to come back to Star Hall and unload and go to bed, just to give them that experience before we hit the road.

The corps was far from recruited from other corps. Geez, I wish it was. It would have made our lives that much easier.

That first year was more about teaching everyone how to be a corps, then it was about teaching and cleaning. 

Edited April 17, 2020 by njthundrrd

[84BDsop]

On 4/17/2020 at 5:24 AM, njthundrrd said:

When I came to Star as a young staff member in 1985, after winning DCi as a member in 1984, I can tell you this.

The hornline and guard were made up of vastly Indiana/Midwestern band kids and a few people from Pride of Cincinnati, I think 1 or 2 from Phantom Regiment, 1 Trooper, 1 Lancer, and a couple of Bridgemen horn players. The battery followed Dennis Delucia, Bob Dubinski, and Jay Webb to Star. The pit was 50/50 of Bridgemen and new people. Following an instructor to a new corps had been going on for decades and long before Star. 

This corps was so young and green that the last few days before we left on tour, we put the corp on buses and drove around southern Indiana for a few hours, to come back to Star Hall and unload and go to bed, just to give them that experience before we hit the road.

The corps was far from recruited from other corps. Geez, I wish it was. It would have made our lives that much easier.

That first year was more about teaching everyone how to be a corps, then it was about teaching and cleaning. 

Exactly.  The poaching accusation is old and and tired.
 

Did BD poach when a large chunk of Spirit's drum line followed Tom Float to Concord?

Is it poaching when staff moves to a corps where they actually get paid?

Please.......Star/Cook haters need to sing a new #### tune already.

The real irony here is how many of us have said we'd start a corps if we won the lottery?   A #### ton, that's how many!  Bill Cook simply HAD the money to do so, and put that money where his mouth was.

All the hate is jealously, nothing more.

Bill didn't march the show in 85...nor did Mason, DeLucia, etc....a group of largely inexperienced kids did....and they made finals all on their own.

Some people need to STFU about it already.

Edited April 20, 2020 by 84BDsop

[denmum]

There is a podcast about Star currently on youtube. I stumbled onto it a couple of days ago. I think it is titled Drum Corps History Podcast-Star of Indiana.

[Bob984]

I'll start with a funny memory.  I took my family and brother and niece to a drum corps show in early July in Hershey, the year after Star's first championship win.    It was my niece's first drum corps show , who was about 9 years old that time.  Back then, order of appearance many times was done by "draw" in a regular season show.....in two groupings....the first being non-finalists from the year before, and then the finalists.  At any rate, Star had drawn 1st among the block of members.  I believe they were the 3rd corps on in the show, and I believe the first two were respectable, but perhaps not even top 25 members.  As Star was coming on the field, I looked at her and calmly said, "this next corps is the defending World Champion".  Then, this man comes walking in from the left, and people are laughing.  A man dressed in a full "Uncle Sam" outfit (Star played a patriotic-themed show that year).  She was amused when I told her that was the "owner" of the corps.  When the corps hit the first big impact not long into the opener, the place was on it's feet roaring, and I saw this look on my niece's face; "what just happened".....it was priceless.

   Bill Cook was a very generous, philanthropic individual who did many things to be helpful.....He didn't care about "recognition", he just wanted to help, and that extended well beyond his own corps, but the activity.  I saw his corps' food truck serve hungry kids from other corps.  I heard about him flipping money to some corps who were out of cash so that they could get home from nationals.  His contributions toward the PBS broadcasts were substantial.   He helped other corps on multiple occasions.  Without going into details, he made some very serious "phone calls" on behalf of the activity.  Bill Cook cared about people and the activity.  In a day and age where we have CEO's who are getting eight digit salaries and show little concern for the thousands of workers of their company, we could use more people like Bill Cook.

[84BDsop]

1 hour ago, Bob984 said:

 

   Bill Cook was a very generous, philanthropic individual who did many things to be helpful.....He didn't care about "recognition", he just wanted to help, and that extended well beyond his own corps, but the activity.  I saw his corps' food truck serve hungry kids from other corps.  I heard about him flipping money to some corps who were out of cash so that they could get home from nationals.  His contributions toward the PBS broadcasts were substantial.   He helped other corps on multiple occasions.  Without going into details, he made some very serious "phone calls" on behalf of the activity.  Bill Cook cared about people and the activity.  In a day and age where we have CEO's who are getting eight digit salaries and show little concern for the thousands of workers of their company, we could use more people like Bill Cook.

And yet, throughout Star's tenure, after it left the field, and even after his passing, he still gets #### on by idiots who still think of Star as a rich man's toy and refuse to see beyond his providing the seed money to start it.

[Ghost]

If two column's were put together with pro's and con's on either side about Bill Cook, the pro's would be way ahead.  Wonder if those who are still upset about some of the things he did are as upset with what GH has been accused of.