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The 1985 Thread


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15 minutes ago, rysa4 said:

Agreed! And here's a secret -- SCV is my absolute favorite corps. 1985 was a VERY weak show for them. 

Not sure I agree with you on this one...I would hardly call 85 a VERY weak show for them considering it placed second that year and probably would have won in other years.  Personally, I consider that 85 show in the Vanguard top 5 of all time.  Just my opinion though...

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1 minute ago, leed17 said:

Not sure I agree with you on this one...I would hardly call 85 a VERY weak show for them considering it placed second that year and probably would have won in other years.  Personally, I consider that 85 show in the Vanguard top 5 of all time.  Just my opinion though...

Cool. I should have qualified that as an opinion. I am remembering SCV in the 70s through 1982 and obviously in the more recent years, all of which, in my opinion were in the stratosphere as far as DCI shows to me. ( again opinion). And I do want to say that SCV for me would be the one corps that I would pick if I had to choose one organization of consistent excellence in the art form through its history. So I apologize. ( still my opinion).

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52 minutes ago, rysa4 said:

Cool. I should have qualified that as an opinion. I am remembering SCV in the 70s through 1982 and obviously in the more recent years, all of which, in my opinion were in the stratosphere as far as DCI shows to me. ( again opinion). And I do want to say that SCV for me would be the one corps that I would pick if I had to choose one organization of consistent excellence in the art form through its history. So I apologize. ( still my opinion).

I have to say your comments on here are very interesting.  We are actually talking about Drum Corps as opposed to social topics which polarize this place and get everyone riled up - and threads closed.

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1 hour ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

The baton twirler didn't help.

1985 was weird for guard.

Out of the top 12, I think only 3 corps used rifles at some point in their show (I'm not counting Velvet Knights with the plastic semi-automatics in their Peter Gunn opener - they pointed them, but did not actually spin them).

Cavaliers, Madison and Troopers used rifles.

I may be wrong, please correct me if I am. 

 

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So another note about 1985 to share, and this is not a good one...THe 1985 Bridgemen. Their last year...formally. I will share what I saw/heard in the parking lot after DCI finals 1985. The drumline destroying their equipment... and I do not mean in a compassionate way...what was left of a once great drumline ( and corps for that matter) was a bunch of drum corps thugs really. And that was the final moment of the Bridgemen's technical existence. There were a few vets left over in 1985, but not many for the entire corps... a sad ending and disturbing ending as far as disturbing days went in the relative innocence of 1985.

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3 hours ago, rysa4 said:

So another note about 1985 to share, and this is not a good one...THe 1985 Bridgemen. Their last year...formally. I will share what I saw/heard in the parking lot after DCI finals 1985. The drumline destroying their equipment... and I do not mean in a compassionate way...what was left of a once great drumline ( and corps for that matter) was a bunch of drum corps thugs really. And that was the final moment of the Bridgemen's technical existence. There were a few vets left over in 1985, but not many for the entire corps... a sad ending and disturbing ending as far as disturbing days went in the relative innocence of 1985.

What caused the Bridgemen to decline so precipitously? From 3rd place in 1980 (and less than a point from the champions) to 14th place in 1984 to 26th place in 1985?

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So because this is a 1985 thread, I am not sure that starting that whole circus is a good path. There is a thread on the internet that you can search where many somewhat well known people of the time with first hand knowledge go into all of that. I think  it is called " Star destroys Bridgemen?? in google groups. Quite the read. If we think of staff-members-management-board of directors as a structure where everyone needs to do their part for the structure to stay solid, we could describe the Bridgemen as poorly structured with all of the parts functioning very incompetently both individualy and together. The details are a bit sordid. Great memnbers do not a corps make, particularly if roles get reversed or are done not at all. The reason why I don't just say poor management and finanical problems, both of which are true, is that there is more to this than just that simple phrase. And no. Start of Indiana did not destroy the Bridgemen just to get that out of the way.

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11 hours ago, rysa4 said:

Yes and no. The psychology of the " tick" system was still in place at the time, and the judges tapes reflected that. So when we talk about a show being "dirty" despite itself, that is what we are talking about...the tear down system. Perhaps like yourself, I was marching in DCI through that era of transition ( 1981 to 1985 time period to be exact). In this particular discussion, I overheard a LOT of phone calls that year ( still had pay phones back then and no cells--so conversations were basically glued to stadium walls and school buildings). Tear down system functionally in approach. "peaking" meant nothing left to clean for the most part.

the psychology of the tick still exists now in some sheets and never went away. its why corps rarely have a higher bottom box number than the top box unless it's to get a judge of a numbers management crunch

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5 hours ago, rysa4 said:

So another note about 1985 to share, and this is not a good one...THe 1985 Bridgemen. Their last year...formally. I will share what I saw/heard in the parking lot after DCI finals 1985. The drumline destroying their equipment... and I do not mean in a compassionate way...what was left of a once great drumline ( and corps for that matter) was a bunch of drum corps thugs really. And that was the final moment of the Bridgemen's technical existence. There were a few vets left over in 1985, but not many for the entire corps... a sad ending and disturbing ending as far as disturbing days went in the relative innocence of 1985.

87 was better than 85. not saying much but still.

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