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some old corps photos


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Power Mellos

PowerMellophones.jpg

I didn't know Power made Mellophones. Hornsup thanks for the correction on the French Horn.

I never got to play any of those. We went right from the Olds French like the one my corps mate Joe Luginsland has (kinda slightly tilted there) but an awesome player!)

JoeLugiandSnowball.jpg

Like I said in a previous post ... we had some really good players - of course we also had Hy Dreitzer who actually played French (g-slide, nuff said!) and the guy to the right with the Euphonium, Snowball was also one of the best on the field ... but when you're standing next to Ruben Ariola every rehearsal what can you do but get better? What I'm trying to say is that when you're marching the smallest horn line, even second rate journeymen like me had to carry his own (Tic-less)weight. Side note: The Euphonium line and I think we had 8 gave us a mid to bottom range sound you had to hear to actually believe ... we never had more than like 16 sopranos (lead, 1st and 2nd) and those Euphoniums written for 2 voices supplemented by the French and Mellos in the mid range gave us a sound that blew up from the "inside out" unlike most corps at the time who had their sound from the "outsides" Soprano and Contra on in.

Last thing: Marching hard with that little tiny mouthpiece was torture. I know carrying a 18 pound monster Euphonium must have been a little crazy but those instruments had a remarkable range made even more notable by the guys who played them in our corps.

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They were from Olds, I think ... Her's a pic of one from the Des Plaines Vanguard BITD.

DesPlainesVanguard.jpg

Funny, I don't think that many corps used Mellos, French & Flugelhorns - just not enough bodies. We did do Flugels and Mellos then went to all Mellos a year later.

But that was back pre DCI when great hornlines only had about 30 or so players.

Well to my untrained eye they (Des Plaines Vanguard) looked very similar to the Commodores horns, although the mouthpiece was definately not a french horn mouthpiece.

How right you are Puppet about the great 30 man horn lines in the 60's and 70's where everyone had to pull his or her weight. We had 41 horns in 1974 and that was big for Ohio/Michigan. We carried 3 frenchies, 3 mellos, 3-4 Contras and about 18 sops and 12 Bari's. If you stop to think about it, every corps today has 60 to 80 horns which would make two nice size horn lines in our era.

Edited by baja
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Some of the arrangers didn't take it easy on them either, hehe!

While supplying not only gorgeous tones, the french and mello parts often danced all over the scales too.

Amazing stuff, even by todays standards.

I think in the early 70s we roughly had something like: 4 contras, 10 baris, 6 french, 4 mello, 6 flugel, 10 sop. (+/- a couple spots, somewhere around 40-46 horns).

Imagine the sounds the shows would have had using 80 horns then! Wooooo, give Ted Nugent a run for his decibels.

Extra note: look at the reflection in the bell; you can see the DM, the feet of the guy just ahead, and corner-to-corner full stands!

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3 mellphones, 2 french horns and a partridge in Burlington Arcade; photo taken of a page of a photo album of a photo originally taken on July 18, 1977 in London. We had 6 mellos, 5 FHs, lots of sops and baris and no contras :-)

77-burlington-1-25.jpg

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3 mellphones, 2 french horns and a partridge in Burlington Arcade; photo taken of a page of a photo album of a photo originally taken on July 18, 1977 in London. We had 6 mellos, 5 FHs, lots of sops and baris and no contras :-)

77-burlington-1-25.jpg

You are very clever!

(or I'll have whatever she's drinking) :tongue:

Those were the days my friends. I thought they'd never end.

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You are very clever!

(or I'll have whatever she's drinking) :tongue:

Those were the days my friends. I thought they'd never end.

Ill take clever as a compliment :bigsmile: Thank you. I now know how you felt, baja, when you went through your archives. Its easy to get lost in an era long ago. I viewed a CD from our reunion of 675 photos from 72 and 73. Wow. The other 8 drum corps years have yet to be digitized.

The photo below is for Legolaus. It's 1973 Alberta All Girls B (our junior corps) at 4 corners. 4 corps or bands would parade to a street intersection and each took turns performing while the other 3 watched. We did this in 1978 as well. During 1978 Klondike Days we did the parade on Thursday, 4 corners noon on Friday, Band Extravaganza Saturday at Clarke Stadium, a standstill at Sunday Promenade and worked at the Exhibition flipping hamburgers from our corps cooking trailer to raise funds. I couldnt wait to go on our west coast drum corps tour for a rest and sitting in the stands at DCI finals in Denver was a blast!

edit: the 1978 Extravaganza was held in the Coliseum hockey arena. All other venues were in use to prepare for the Commonwealth Games.

73-4-corners-k-days.jpg

Edited by lindap
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I found some info on the net some time ago. Participating bands in the 1972 Calgary Stampede parade are listed (at least 5 were drum corps) Salvation Army Band, Colorado River Indian Band, Optimist Lancers Band, Kearns High School Band, Calgary Stampede Band, Skyview Band, Edmonton All Girls Senior Band, Alberta All Girls Senior Band, Norad Band, Mickey Mouse & Bear Band, Burley High School Band, Balcarres Lions Band, Cranbrook Girls Band, Wieser Band, Beefeater Band, Marching Stags Band, CNR Jasper Pipe Band, West Vancouver Band, Collingwood College Band, Hobema Indian Band, Edmonton Strutters Band, National Army Cadets Band, Magrath Cardston Band, Red and White Aires Band, Golden Secondary Band, Viewmont Band.

CrunchyTenor posted the following on DCP July 1, 2006 (search for Klondike)

‘Edmonton Journal

Thursday, July 20, 1972

AM Edition

WHEN EDMONTON STRIKES UP THE BANDS...

Two California drum and bugle bands captured the two top spots in the second annual Klondike Days Band Extravaganza Wednesday night in Clarke Stadium.

The $1,000 first prize and Labatt's Challenge Trophy for the championship were awarded to the Velvet Knights Drum and Bugle Corps of Santa Ana, Calif.

Second place and $600 were presented to the Knight Raiders Drum and Bugle Corps of Sunnydale, Calif.

Roughly 14,000 band fans sat through more than three hours of marches from 11 competing bands and five exhibition bands including the Edmonton All-Girl Drum and Bugle Band and Spartan Marching Band from Murray, Utah -- the largest ever to perform during K-Days.

Third place overall in the competition, and first place in the junior or B category, was won by the Shamrocks Drum and Bugle Corps of Seattle, Wash.

Prizes totalling $3,500 were awarded during the evening.’

“Some personal recollections...VK only had 69 members that year. There were 24 horn players on the field, but only 19 played. The plugs were Marines from the Tustin Marine Corps Helicopter Station...we spent a lot of time hanging with the Knight Raiders, including taking over the whole laundromat closest to the school where we were staying for several hours...KR competed in Class B for the first two shows of that tour, but there was only one division in Edmonton. VK was first, KR was second...the Labatt's Challenge Trophy actually said "First Annual Klondike Days Drum and Bugle Corps Extravaganza"...we got to be the first unit in the parade on Thursday morning, which meant all the horses were behind us...the Kinsman Field House wasn't big enough for a 100-yard field, so early prelims competitors had to make a right face and move back toward the #1 end zone to have enough room to finish their show, and officials changed the prelims to outdoor after a couple of corps complained...not sure of the accuracy of the information included in the articles, but they are faithfully reproduced above! GP”

Hi Garry. I spent the afternoon looking through 675 photos on a CD from 1972 and 1973. I found 2 of the Kinsmen Field House from 1973, Alberta All Girls B and retreat. I also perused 15 photo albums at our reunion this past weekend. We only have photos of the girls and their travels. Sorry Garry. As a side note, I did see the first place trophy for the 1972 Calgary Stampede parade. Alberta All Girls A won!

73-kinsmen-fieldhouse-b.jpg

73-kinsmen-fieldhouse.jpg

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Gail Royer ?

Guess who?

Gail.jpg

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Gail Royer ?

Right. A couple horn players were sitting on their sleeping bags fooling around with a flute, and Gail walked over, picked it up and started playing. Never doubt a band director from Iowa!

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Guess who?

Gail.jpg

"Stay classy, San Diego. I'm Ron...Burgundy?"

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