mingusmonk Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 I'm fortunate. The only show I went to in 1987 is available online. Even the retreat. Make sure you stick around for the SCV Russian Christmas encore. Link is to a playlist of 5 videos combined for the entire broadcast. August 6, 1987 Bloomington IN 1 Santa Clara Vanguard 94.900 2 Star of Indiana 88.800 3 Velvet Knights 88.400 4 Dutch Boy 78.200 4 Troopers 78.200 6 Boston Crusaders 74.000 7 Colts 73.700 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ftwdrummer Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 11 hours ago, 84BDsop said: Only SCV had kevlars in 87, tho. True, but he wanted to know why the sound then (when only one corps had Kevlar) was different from the sound now (when everyone does). That would seem to be a key culprit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post brentwood Posted May 18, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted May 18, 2020 What a great post! Thanks for putting it together. I've been following posts on DCP for years but until now haven't posted. In 1987 I was on the visual, and color guard staff for the Velvet Knights. I worked closely with Bobby Hoffman on the visual staff and Roxanne Narachi on the color guard staff. I designed and constructed all the silks, designed/built all the props (the California license plate at the end of the show was a major undertaking!) and made most of the costumes that were used throughout the show. (Interesting coincidence - the two corps that tied, VK and Star, probably had more stuff on the field than all the other finalists combined. 1987 is the most important year in the history of the Velvet Knights IMO. To understand it's helpful to have some background information. The Velvet Knights as most of you know them were originally a product of the early 80's Velvet Knights Winter Guard design team - Gregg Clarke, Mike McCool, Roxanne Narachi, and Sandi Turner - Mercadante. After a 33rd place finish at DCI in 81, this team was hired to take over the drum corps proper. They decided to throw away the book and go a new route, loosely based on the comedic style of the Bridgemen but with a Southern California beach vibe (Gregg Clarke marched Bayonne a couple of years before.) The cadet style uniforms were replaced with Hawaiian print shirts, khaki pants, straw hats and of course the now famous red Vans. This was 1982, quite a radical move for the time. On a side note, I feel like the 1981 VK Winter Guard season was the impetus for this new design team's approach to the drum corps proper for the 82 season. In 1981 the Velvet Knights Winter Guard caused quite a stir with their innovation and quirkiness. A lot of those ideas and concepts were used throughout the next few years in the Drum Corps programming. Along with the drum corps, the VK Winter Guard rose through the WGI rankings from 1982 to 1984, with a high of 7th place at WGI 1984. After the new corps concept was adopted in 1981 the VK drum corps began its own quick rise over the next 3 years. In 1981 the corps had finished in 33rd place. The 1982 season saw the highest placement in the corps history, 21st place. The staff knew they had a great idea and doubled down for 1983 and again reached a new high, this time 17th place. By 1984 the concept was refined to such a point the corps made finals for the first time in its history - 12th place. And then almost all of the design staff was let go... There is a bit of Downton Abbey backstory here. What I do remember is surely biased as I was a marching member at the time and emotionally tied to the staff that had taken us this far. Whatever the details, the new staff was headed by Dave and Dean Elder with Ron Dettman, Dale Stephens, and Meg Elder heading the color guard caption. 1985 saw another milestone reaching 11th place with a continuation of the NBC Chimes/Shark/Feel good beach vibe. 1986 was a big departure for the VK, going all female color guard (I couldn't march my age out year), and a darker more serious James Bond theme. The corps fell to 12th place in 1986. And then the entire design staff changed...again. Now on to 1987. In the winter of 1986 Roxanne Narachi and I were sitting in the apartment we shared in Long Beach, CA brainstorming show ideas for the 1987 season. We had just been hired for the next summer and the first staff meeting was coming up. After many hours and lots of laughs we ended up with the "Magical Mystery Tour." The Velvet Knights would take a tour around the world and bring the audience along for all the fun and drama. We had detailed drawings of costumes, every country the guard would change to represent the new location. We had silk designs and even the musical selections that ending up in the show. Beatles fanfare, Chinatown, Brazil, African drum solo, and ending up back in Southern California for the Beach Boys medley. We presented our plan and the staff liked the idea, we moved forward with the planning stages. By Memorial Day camp 1987 we had most of the show on the field. Then, design staff changes...again! Long story short - show designer leaves and enter Bobby Hoffman to save the day. What at the time seemed like a disaster, losing a top staff person at this stage of the game turned out to be a blessing. After 5 years of building the new corps persona, by 1987 we were in a perfect position to allow Bobby to take us to the next level. Bobby is deservedly given lots of credit for his design talent but he was also the heartbeat of our corps that year and in my opinion the main reason we able to go so far with the concept and the execution of Magical Mystery Tour. He was very inspirational, setting high goals and helping the corps achieve them. Roxanne's vision was also key to the overall impact of the show as we used the color guard to a great extent in the story telling. Bobby's experience with The Bridgemen was obviously a perfect fit for where we were at the time with the identity of the Velvet Knights. He was instrumental in keeping the energy high, constantly motivating us, and providing the talent and hard work to take VK to its highest point in the history of the corps. Once Bobby arrived he re-wrote most, if not all of the drill in the beginning of June and then we headed to our first show in Riverside, CA later that month. Riverside is traditionally the first show of the year for Southern California so there was a lot of excitement as we took the field that night. The show was a huge success. She wasn't pretty LOL (the video of that show is on YouTube) but is was obvious we had an amazing program to develop. As we were putting our show on the field for the first time Star was already in the high 70's and had a few shows under their belt. We barely managed a 70 in Riverside and proceeded to loose points the next two shows scoring in the high 60's. But after a few weeks we never looked back. We traded places a few times with Suncoast throughout the season, never beating or even tying Star. By finals we were tied for 7th with Star at 90.0 with Madison in 6th at 90.4. Our total GE placement was 5th, over Phantom in 6th and Star in 7th. Percussion was 3rd in GE. And it was all at Camp Randall, one of the best venues in drum corps history. Getting to that moment at finals when our name was called in 7th place with Star of Indiana involved a lot of difficulty, hard work and patience. Anyone involved with drum corps would not be surprised. However, 1987 is one of the most cherished times of my life because of the accomplishments we achieved over those summer months. Cheers! Brent 6 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Ream Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 42 minutes ago, ftwdrummer said: True, but he wanted to know why the sound then (when only one corps had Kevlar) was different from the sound now (when everyone does). That would seem to be a key culprit. technological improvement of both heads and drums Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Continental Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 4 hours ago, mfrontz said: That's the problem with me going backwards into history I don't really know all that well. I'll have to rely upon you all for that kind of knowledge. I like this series of threads that you've started. We hear a lot of really interesting details about each of the years. Also, no one is arguing in them. LOL 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N.E. Brigand Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 19 hours ago, mfrontz said: 5. Phantom Regiment Heh. Twenty seconds entirely focused on one person playing the chimes. If every member got that much individual screen time, the video would last more than 40 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfrontz Posted May 18, 2020 Author Share Posted May 18, 2020 40 minutes ago, N.E. Brigand said: Heh. Twenty seconds entirely focused on one person playing the chimes. If every member got that much individual screen time, the video would last more than 40 minutes. Yes, and there were so many of us who when we were marching got nothing and liked it. 😆 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
84BDsop Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 1 hour ago, N.E. Brigand said: Heh. Twenty seconds entirely focused on one person playing the chimes. If every member got that much individual screen time, the video would last more than 40 minutes. Don't forget the "artistic" camera zoom down the throat of the horn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwillis35 Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, N.E. Brigand said: Heh. Twenty seconds entirely focused on one person playing the chimes. If every member got that much individual screen time, the video would last more than 40 minutes. It's so nice today that, despite the problems we encounter with Flo (and before that with Fan Network and DCI Live), that we not only get to watch LIVE shows from our computers (or even a TV) but we often get the choice of watching hi-cam. The PBS footage from the old days used to drive me nuts. Even then I wanted to complain to DCI that if you're trying to market the activity you need to show the full picture of what was taking place. Some of the close-up shots at the worst moments irritated DCI fans. I used to get so mad about the side shots from the 10 to 20 yard line that, in many cases, were not so flattering to the corps nor did they show the visuals the way they were meant to be seen. Of course, they wanted you to buy the DCI videos, but it was the wrong way to market the activity and was less than impressive when trying to showcase the best marching units in the world. Edited May 18, 2020 by jwillis35 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supersop Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 I guess I'm not allowed to do a full post on this thread. ERROR 500 internal server issues Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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