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The 1996 Thread


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Here are the Finals Scores from 1996

Phantom Regiment.........97.4 - Tie for 1st! - G.E., Brass Perf.
Blue Devils..............97.4 - Tie for 1st! - Perc. Perf., Vis. Perf.
Cadets of Bergen County..96.9 - Music Ens., Vis. Ens., Color Guard
Cavaliers................93.8
Santa Clara Vanguard.....92.3
Madison Scouts...........91.5 - Disney Spirit Award  
Bluecoats................86.3
Magic of Orlando.........85.5 - Tie for 8th      
Crossmen.................85.5 - Tie for 8th    
Carolina Crown...........82.1    
Colts....................81.3
Blue Knights.............80.7

 

Some brief recollections:

  • Phantom Regiment had one awesome music book and you knew that from early season, but to say I saw them winning or grabbing a tie with BD to win would be false. For most of the season it seemed to be BD and Cadets. By season's end Phantom had turned that show into a DCI Classic.
  • Blue Devils opening hit is still iconic to this day. There are not many shows that start with five fortes right from beat one. There were some neat charts in BD's show. They even used some music from the motion picture Dick Tracy (Tess theme) and Mission Impossible (Trouble)...along with other cool charts. The show definitely had some chop and bop which was common with some corps during this period. Still, I really enjoyed BD in 1996, but I was fine with the tie. On Finals night I thought Phantom outperformed everyone and were on par with BD.
  • The Cadets were outstanding performers, as they almost always were in those days. Incredible music arrangements and one of my favorite music books of the season. Early-to-mid season they seemed to be the front runners, even beating the Blue Devils at Drums Along The Rockies in Denver. From a talent and demand standpoint the Cadets certainly had the goods to win the title. They were only .3 behind BD after Semi-Finals and many felt they were going to pull it out. Their Finals performance was not quite locked in, with a major tear in their closer. Even with the poor performance in the closer The Cadets were only .5 from 1st place.
    • SIDE NOTE: The corps certainly had a busy summer with their commitment to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. I hated that they had to perform their closer on an unmarked field in Atlanta, and it did not look good. The comedy routine they had to learn (I forget the comedian's name) had to take some serious time to throw together, plus they played a special arrangement of John Williams' Summon The Heroes right before one of the award ceremonies. I'm not sure this caused the issues they had on Finals night for DCI since they were only .3 behind BD in Semi-Finals. Overall, their 96 show is really good and the corps was immensely talented (especially that guard - holy cow). I loved the music. Visual design was typical Cadets but not quite as demanding as what we saw in 92 and 93.  Still a definite top 3 show with a bad breakdown in the closer on Finals night.
  • With Phantom Regiment making the jump to 1st on Finals night, it left a gap after the top 3. Cavaliers were 3.1 points behind the top 3. Cavaliers were excellent in 96. Pan American Sketches is a show I am fond of. What it likely lacked was GE impact. But I do enjoy the show.
  • SCV doing La Mer was frankly ahead of its' time. Heck of a show. Some really neat ideas and beautiful moments. They should revisit this show idea with a stronger corps and I bet the fans would love it. With the staff SCV has right now -- Gaines, Rennick and company -- I would love to see them tackle this music and show concept.
  • Madison Scouts did part 2 of their A Drum Corps Fans Dream. It's a solid show. I liked the opener better than the closer. I really did not want to hear them do Malagena again after 1988. The opener, A Mis Abuelos, was stellar. Great solo trumpet throughout. It's a fun show, but how the heck do you follow the ultimate of fan favorite shows from 1995? Not an easy thing to do. Early season when I saw them I was not sure this show would be top 5 (and it wasn't), but they made it close with Cavaliers. Of course, they didn't seem to have much competition below. It was a strange summer in which there was a massive gap between 6th and 7th place. Bluecoats were 5.2 points behind in 7th. 

More later...

Edited by jwillis35
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On 5/12/2020 at 12:30 PM, MikeZ said:

1996 was a gut punch for me. I was a member of Pioneer in 96. 6 corps beat us in quarters that hadn't touched us until the last week of the season. I am not a conspiracy theory guy, but I am convinced that we were the 14th best drumcorps in 1996. It felt like we were being punished for remaining in division 2 instead of moving to world class. It's really a sliding doors type moment...what happens if Pioneer goes world class in 96 after undefeated II/III seasons in 94 and 95? 

Pioneer was great in all of the performance captions, it was GE that was ultimately our downfall. That said, I have watched the videos hundreds of times, and there is just no way that Les Etoiles, Troopers, VK, etc were better than us. I kind of feel like kindred spirits with Colts who suffered a similar drop on quarterfinals day.

 

Mike Z

The way that finals week in 1996 played out will always be a tough one to forget. 

I remember being cognizant of the fact that Nite Express was only a couple points behind us the last time that we saw them at the Canadian Open... and that we wouldn't see them again until DII prelims.  There was a genuine concern that they could close that gap.  At the same time, I also remember also being aware that we were within 5 points of Blue Knights at DCI Mid-America.  There was a scary thought that we could get the opportunity to perform every day of finals week, and that Saturday night's show might not be an exhibition if all of the stars aligned and we could somehow make up those 5 points to BK.

I don't recall ever being overly concerned about Les Etoiles since we were consistently ahead of them by 6 or 7 points, even in the week prior to finals.  It was almost unheard of for them to make up that large of a gap in one week to beat us by .2 at DII finals, and then go on to beat us by 5+ points at Quarterfinals a couple days later.  I poured over scores a number of years ago and am fairly confident saying that was one of the largest comebacks/point swings in the modern era of drum corps.

 

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8 hours ago, PioneerWebmaster said:

The way that finals week in 1996 played out will always be a tough one to forget. 

I remember being cognizant of the fact that Nite Express was only a couple points behind us the last time that we saw them at the Canadian Open... and that we wouldn't see them again until DII prelims.  There was a genuine concern that they could close that gap.  At the same time, I also remember also being aware that we were within 5 points of Blue Knights at DCI Mid-America.  There was a scary thought that we could get the opportunity to perform every day of finals week, and that Saturday night's show might not be an exhibition if all of the stars aligned and we could somehow make up those 5 points to BK.

I don't recall ever being overly concerned about Les Etoiles since we were consistently ahead of them by 6 or 7 points, even in the week prior to finals.  It was almost unheard of for them to make up that large of a gap in one week to beat us by .2 at DII finals, and then go on to beat us by 5+ points at Quarterfinals a couple days later.  I poured over scores a number of years ago and am fairly confident saying that was one of the largest comebacks/point swings in the modern era of drum corps.

 

unfortunately we, Nite Express, peaked about a week early and plateaued through Orlando. woefully underscored at Quarters, dropped for ~72's a week before to ~68 on D1 sheets. could've easily been in the hunt for 17. Sadly...shortly after quarters we would find out our fate, financially.

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  • 1 year later...
20 hours ago, Tony L. said:

I always thought that the Cadets would have won that year if they did not have the Olympics.  Oh well. 

They had a great show. They were within .3 of BD after semifinals. At Finals they had some serious phasing and timing issues. I think the big one was in the closer. I forget the spot now. Phantom was definitely a sleeper all summer. Even after semi finals I remember thinking that they had one of the better brass lines on the field but I wasn't sure how it got scored. At Finals they did manage to win high brass. Very talented horn line. Blue Devils were great all summer too. A solid show but maybe not my favorite for BD. They were cleaner than most corps (which was usually the case in those days) but they left the door open in visual and GE. It was great to see Phantom take on the challenge and catch BD on Finals. With a clean performance the Cadets might have done the same or pushed ahead, especially with that guard of theirs that summer. Amazing guard! 

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2 hours ago, jwillis35 said:

They had a great show. They were within .3 of BD after semifinals. At Finals they had some serious phasing and timing issues. I think the big one was in the closer. I forget the spot now. Phantom was definitely a sleeper all summer. Even after semi finals I remember thinking that they had one of the better brass lines on the field but I wasn't sure how it got scored. At Finals they did manage to win high brass. Very talented horn line. Blue Devils were great all summer too. A solid show but maybe not my favorite for BD. They were cleaner than most corps (which was usually the case in those days) but they left the door open in visual and GE. It was great to see Phantom take on the challenge and catch BD on Finals. With a clean performance the Cadets might have done the same or pushed ahead, especially with that guard of theirs that summer. Amazing guard! 

I'm not a guard person, but I figure 1994 or 1996 were the best from Cadets. 

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On 8/6/2021 at 10:39 PM, Continental said:

Phantom 1996.

If we wait long enough, quite often people post a gem.

This is a gem. 

 

If only the finals recording sounded this clear...

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On 5/10/2020 at 8:26 PM, kdaddy said:

My first live drum corps show was at Tulsa Union HS in 1996. Magic, Crown, Regiment, and Cavaliers were rained out and performed standstill in the Union Performing Arts Center. I wish I could've seen them live, especially since my favorite corps ended up winning their first title that year, but it was still an exhilarating experience to hear the horn arc on stage.

I was at that show with my Dad.  My Dad to this day talks about how loud that standstill was inside - and especially when the pit member from Magic began hitting the rail with the sledgehammer indoors.  Wow.  

1996 was an iconic year.  I remember seeing Phantom perform in a downpour rain at Camp Randall midseason, and then in the fog in Allentown.  Both were memories of a lifetime.  

And then at finals, I was lucky enough to have seats down low for a change (I'm usually in the top deck) on Saturday night - between the 40s about 8 rows up.  Talk about the perfect seats to soak in the dark power of that show from Regiment.  That moment with the chord arc at the end of the show will live with me forever.  My friends all turned to each other and said... uhh...  that might have just won.  That entire performance was powerful, deeply emotional, and visually so, so clean.  Apart from the arc at the end, my favorite moment might be in the closing moments of the opener.  The guard all flags down, looking down (in submission) until the soloist finishes with her arms raised, flag up and the whole guard rose in defiance.  That was an incredible moment.

There were so many enjoyable shows that year, as others have detailed.  Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Harvey

Edited by TexasPRfan
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On 8/6/2021 at 9:39 PM, Continental said:

Phantom 1996.

If we wait long enough, quite often people post a gem.

This is a gem. 

I marched that summer and we competed against Phantom many times. I honestly don't remember them having two conductors.

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