Famous, or infamous, corps stories, myths, legends

[Bob Brady]

Legend had it when the junior corps I marched with (Wyadotte Royal Lancers) went to 65 or 66 VFW State they stayed at a hotel instead of a school gym.  After finals later that evening the corps put as many members in the elevator as possible and proceeded to mark time.  HIGH MARK TIME.  Boom the elevator becomes stuck and the corps left thru the emergancy exit and went outside to see what else they could do for entertainment.  It just so happened that there was a water fountain in the town square across from the hotel and a grocery store across from that.  After the corps "obtained" some dish soap, detergient and other items the fountain was soon bubbling over with mamouth soap suds.  Well the local cops soon arrived to find the corps jumping up and down around the fountain.  Whe asked who did the damage the cops found themselves in the fountain.  Anyway more cops came and soon the corps was lined up on the street in a company front waiting for the corps manager to show up and take responsibility.  It was not a fun ride home after being escorted out of town with a police escort and a standing ban on the corps to this day.  ^0^

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You guys were kind of notorious for your "Police Escorts" weren't you! :P ^0^

[ChiBoyinLA]

I can't believe that in 13 pages, nobody mentioned the biggest drum corps urban legend of all time. To wit:

"Muchachos won DCI Prelims in 1975."

Now, over the years, I've heard from two of the judges from that day, who both said that Pesceone collected their sheets before they were submitted to the tabulator. Other people insist that Muchachos' score WAS tabulated, but never released.

Discuss.

Edited July 27, 2005 by ChiBoyinLA

[Marthonius J. Gleason]

This may or may not be an urban legend, but this is what I heard:

We were playing the first of two Stillwater, MN shows in 1985. BD was there too. The first night, we won drums. What we HEARD was that the next day, BD's entire drum line decided to say "f*** it" to practicing and snuck off to a local theater to go see the film "Rambo". Supposedly, Tom Float found out, went IN to the theater, and loudly kicked them all out and made them go back to practice cuz he was so ###### that we had beaten them the night before in drums. Any '85 BD drummers out there who can confirm or elaborate on this story?

Clearing up a couple of SCV urban legends started earlier in this thread by Sam or Rob:

First, we did not lose "most" of our horn vets to the Olympic band in 1984. We lost three lead sop vets: Mike McWilliams, Kevin Kono and Ron Abadam. All three returned for their ageout in 1985. We DID have a ton of rookies though that year: 98 to be exact. God, we sucked SO hard in the spring, even right through Memorial Day camp, and I'm sure the staff was preparing for an embarrassing and painfully long summer....but then suddenly, inexplicably, out of nowhere we became REALLY good and slaughtered everyone pretty much all season long.

Second, I don't know if Lee addressed this yet, our snare line did NOT climb to the top of Camp Randall and throw off their drums after we lost by .01 in 1987. That would've been kinda cool, but it didn't happen. If it had, Ralph Hardimon would have killed them AND probably their immediate families, thus Lee would not exist anymore....so you know it can't possibly be true since Lee is alive and well. However, our pit decided to walk off the field in protest right in the middle of retreat. We decided "f*** it" and took off to load the truck. We marched around the back of the stadium, and I think we scared people we looked so ###### off. When we arrived at our equipment (which was waiting by the ramp to bring on for a victory performance - D'OH), most of our parents were all there waiting for us...and most of us broke down and fell into their arms crying. Sigh....

Third, the burnt down BD food truck: BD put their horns and drum equipment into their food truck after the Minneapolis show in 1985 cuz their equipment truck had broken down. I remember waking up on our busses in the middle of the night when I overheard Gail Royer talking to our driver via CB about the fire. We were absolutely stunned and broken-hearted for BD. They used VKs percussion equipment for the next few shows, which was funny cuz that year VK had really loud teal blue drums. Not a pretty sight to see poor BD on the field.

Edited July 27, 2005 by Marthonius J. Gleason

[Guest DrumCorpFan]

The sopranos had a slide on it such that any note could be tuned.  There was a stop on the horns so "illegal" notes could not be played (and they weren't). 

Our sopranos were constantly inspected by judges prior to shows, as a result of other corps requests for the inspections ([ cough]...Rockford...[ cough])

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I remember after prelims in '84, they said they were going to have you DQed for the slides on your horns.

[Guest DrumCorpFan]

It was in 95... I remember they had a penalty for prelims of POC because of it.

Always remember hearing it was a security guard though...

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The incident happened in Milwaukee. The Code of Conduct penalty was issued in Ypsilanti at prelims. Most people thought it was because a staff member came running onto the field, in the middle of the show, and reset some of the flag poles which must have been placed incorrectly when they came on.

[84BDsop]

I remember after prelims in '84, they said they were going to have you DQed for the slides on your horns.

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Now I know how Lance Armstrong must've felt, with all those doping allegations, being tested a million times, and never failing a test...

At prelims??? When they could've just as easily have done it at any point on tour...and never mind that the slides were never illegal in the 1st place....sheesh

[audiodb]

They was a corps called the Bluewater Buccaneers, home of the famous Campbell brothers. I don't know if Madonna marched with them.

...or perhaps there was a Bridgemen from Sarnia. Does anyone have any more information about this corps?

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The Bluewater Buccaneers were from Sarnia, and were a frequent field competitor. I know next to nothing about the Port Huron corps, just that at one point in time, they attempted to merge with a corps from Sarnia, and that they were known as the Bluewater Bridgemen (perhaps that's the name of the merger). I assume they were a parade corps.

[audiodb]

She was born in Bay City...117 miles from Pt. Huron....dunno if that helps.

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Well, I doubt anyone would commute that far to march in a parade corps.

(/rumor)

[DCIHasBeen]

I can't believe that in 13 pages, nobody mentioned the biggest drum corps urban legend of all time.  To wit:

"Muchachos won DCI Prelims in 1975."

Now, over the years, I've heard from two of the judges from that day, who both said that Pesceone collected their sheets before they were submitted to the tabulator.  Other people insist that Muchachos' score WAS tabulated, but never released.

Discuss.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

According to Pesceone (and I got this straight from him), he got the sheets from Bob Briske (DCI's Contest Coordinator) right after their performance and they were destroyed immediately after the disqualification. They were never tabulated.

[bd5times]

I remember after prelims in '84, they said they were going to have you DQed for the slides on your horns.

It was the same argument every year and the same threat. We never worried about it because we weren't doing anything wrong. Our competitors were hoping to find that one soprano with a missing "stop" on it.

I can remember one year, could've been 84, it was always Gino Cipriani's soprano that got inspected.