Jump to content

The 1984 Thread


Recommended Posts

Finally, the one @84BDsop has been waiting for...

Atlanta, Georgia. Grant Field on the campus of Georgia Tech University.

I bought BD's and Garfield's 80s CDs while I was on tour in 92. So I am most familiar with those shows.

Barbara Maroney plays two of the most iconic solos in DCI history. The incredible Zingali drill and an in-tune, balanced and incredibly powerful hornline power Garfield to a one-tenth victory, as some remember all too well...

Blue Devils. Utterly amazing. I love La Fiesta, but it is the ending to 'Latin Implosion' which gets me every time - the open voicing, the soprano solo and contra descending scale... Mysterious and epic.

Then there's SCV with the ground-breaking Hardimon percussion feature and the Ott-winning hornline. 

Spirit of Atlanta playing Porgy and Bess. Suncoast Sound remembering Vietnam. 

And many more memories, which can be told best by the people who were there. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1984 Vanguard Semi-Finals High Cam.

Video says it's Finals, but Vanguard wore their white pants for Finals.

This is the performance they were late to - resulting in them having to rush onto the field without a warmup.  They placed 4th behind Phantom with a score of 93.5

They had an amazing Finals performance and landed ahead of Phantom with a score of 97.4

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

84 so many great shows...I will always be in love with the Cadets WSS, drumline issues and all. BD....such a great show. la Fiesta for the ages. SCV breaking new ground percussively...Phantom and 1812....Scouts...Oh man, the Cats ending was epic! Spirit's Porgy and Bess was amazing and Suncoast...oh that ending....tears into cheers.Freelancers with a fun show and cavies starting to show signs of the breakout. Crossmen with a few recycled tunes, but back in finals....27th slipping and vK making finals the first time! several good shows just outside of finals.....i wish i remembered more as i saw many of the names over the summer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My ONLY year in Jr corps....soooooo close to taking it all!

This was, believe it or not, the first SCV ever had even a share of the brass title!

My thoughts on the top 12:

VK:  Fun show...was very glad to have 1/3rd of the top 12 be from California!  STILL ###### at Bob Briske for taking the deck chairs away...asshat.

27th:  The only time I ever saw them, and they DON'T play Danny Boy!  Drum line gave us a good run....we only beat them by 1/10th.

Crossmen:   The capes were strange.  Great show....liked it so much i stole -- er -- creatively acquired the closer for the student corps in Air Force tech school, although I graduated before we really had a chance to learn it.

Freebasers -- uh -- Freeloaders -- urk -- Flearanchers -- AAIIIEEE -- FREELANCERS!: They were "Live, from Sacramento" and had a good groove to their show.The first time we saw the hornline throwing around horns, we quailed....until we found that it was guard members doing it,and they were old p/r horns.   Then again, BD babied it's horns (the only time I EVER handled my horn bare handed in my corps career was in 2007 with the BD/SCV alum group, and even then, only in performance....felt so strange oterwise), so EVERY time Freelancers went to parade rest and smashed their horns into their chest buckles, we cringed en masse.

Cavaliers:  Last year for "Pines of Rome" and the beginning of the improvement that would finally make them a contender.  Ozark was a fun drum feature.

Suncoast Sound:  WHAT.   A.   BRASS LINE!!!!  Seriuously, those guys blew me away!   A corps that is much missed.   I REALLY felt bad for them at Whitewater prelims, tho...unis heavy double-breasted wool!  At least WE had a cutaway and dickey in front...heat was not an issue (the dust from that dead-grass field, tho,,,)

Spirit of Atlanta:  A good solid show...and SUCH a long bus ride home after the show 😉 One of my drum line friends in tech school said he tried out for SOA's snare line...didn't make it, and was offered a cymbal slot -- which he declined.   After hearing my tour stories, he spent the rest of the time i knew him regretting it.

Madison Scouts:  What can you say but pure POWER on a football field.  Waltz of the Mushroom Hunters, such a great chart....and dat closer....

Phantom Regiment:  Heh....we were hearing out west that this was Regiment's year.   WRONG thing to tell BD!  Was quite pleased with Armenian Dances, since I'd played it in college (and actually had the duet that the sops did).  I remember a longish break to clean up the TP they and the crowd threw at the end!

Santa Clara Vanguard:  Beat us a LOT out west...and most of our meetings went their way until after Whitewater, although BD was happy SCV won that night if WE didn't.   My ALL TIME fave push.  They were held back a little by a LOT of rookies -- as a large chunk of the vets were with the Olympic band for the L.A. Games -- and a show underwritten for their skill level.   All the more ironic, then, that they took a share of the Ott for the very first time.

Blue Devils:  What can I say?   My all time fave show (duh!).  Coming from a HS/college band environment that was squads of 4, face direction of march, never a slide or backwards, no passthroughs, mostly the same step size, music on lyres, etc....let me tell you, it was a STEEEEEEEEEP learning curve for an uber-rook like me!  I lived in fear of being cut frequently for those first few months (all in my head...i was never actually threatened with being cut).  Absolutely the best year of my life....and our finals show run was the 2nd best DAY of my life (surpassed on by my wedding day 7 years later...and I'm still with her).   Of course, the elation of feeling like a GOD at the end soon ended thanks to...

Garfield Cadets:  *tap tap....is this thing on?   it is?  Good.  ahem...* 

 

 

 

 

 

YOU'VE GOT MY RING!! 

My prrreeeccciiioouuuusssss....                   Nasty Cadetses!                        Should'a poisoned the beef stroganoff that night at the border...

Come on, now....anyone on this board who knows me KNEW it was coming.   You'd probably think something was wrong with me if I DIDN'T say it!

I'm done now.

 

Ok...not really!  Despite all my #####ing, pissing, and moaning about that ^%#&#ing 1/10th, I have ALSO admitted that this was one of my fave programs....and it took one of the all time GREATS to beat us.  I know Bonnie Ott should be my gold standard for mello players, but I didn't march in her era.  I marched against Barbara Maroney, and SHE is my mello gold standard.  I Have a Love....absolutely magnificent...and that last 19 second note was rock solid.   Zingali drill, spectacular brass work...not bad for a corps with unis older than the kids who wore them!

A great GREAT year for the activity.   The camera coverage, however....ugh.

  • Like 5
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, Continental said:

 

-Garfield had that unfortunate on-field pileup at Whitewater finals putting Vanguard ahead.

 

Actually, the "Whitewater Wipeout" had no effect on score or placement for Cadets that night.  It happened on the very end of the form on side 2...down at  the 25 yard line, based on the position of the center pinwheel of the Z Pull at the time -- straight up the 50 -- and the high cam vid I have of the show from DCI finals

As a matter of fact, the corps received a perfect 10 in the ensemble visual subcap (called marching & maneuvering back then), so clearly, the judges didn't see it.

Add to that the fact that the kids recovered EXTREMELY fast and got back into the form -- no one was in their correct spot where they were in the form -- and the judges never knew what had happened, and because it was the last drill of the show, they would never figure it out from watching people scramble to get into their correct spot on a following move.

As a side note:  No one suffered a broken leg...the worst injury was a sprained ankle that made the member miss, i think, 1 show and a couple of rehearsals...he was back in the form well before Atlanta.  A few horns got bent up.

Give it up to those members who recovered so well that they saved the subcap score -- it wouldn't made them swap with us, as they placed a full point above us, less a tenth for a penalty somewhere -- but SCV earned the win that night legitimately , NOT because of the Wipeout.

Now....had it happened at DCI finals, I might have my ring, because a sop at the CENTER of the Z Pull DID almost trip on his own feet -- on camera -- while the Z was forming, and there would be no way for the judges to miss that.

I'm sure that particular member had nightmares for months about actually falling at that point and costing the corps a championship...I know I would...I'm still bothered by an interval error in our closer that I never DID get nailed down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, DFA1970 said:

La Fiesta is a close second to those BD standstill concert they use to have to 1976 Legend of the One Eye Sailor. Those G. bugles were meant for in your face sound.

Legend....La Suerte...One More Time...La Fiesta...all legendary BD concerts.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...