Best Year Ever

[scouttimp]

nineteen

eighty

four.

any questions? (MHO)

Suncoast, Madison, BD, Garfield, SCV, Spirit, Cavies, Phantom...

always will be my favorite year.

[torn8o]

Good morning:

Funny - I think this topic has come up every year since I first started posting in 1992. (Hey, when did alt.drumcorps pop up?)

Anyway - for it's always the same answer...1980.

This was the true golden year of DCI. The songs, the tight placements, and other happenings that made it special. The year we lost Jim Ott, but also the year 27th played at the Olympics. The year of Vanguard's assymetrical drill. And as mentioned, the most unbelievably sweet solos ever.

Also...note that in the voting for the Classic Countdown this past spring, 1980 was the only year with two productions from the championships: 27th and Spirit (although one could have also chosen Blue Devils, Bridgemen Civil War, Madison, Cavalier percussion walking over the guard...and that North Star soprano solo.

MAV...who was a baby at the time 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, it's true. I really am not alone. Can someone please get me a time machine so I can go back and march that year. The only problem is, I don't know which corps I would chose. Probably Spirit. But then again, maybe North Star. Mayb Guardsmen. Maybe Garfield? Cavies?, Crossmen, Madison, Bridgemen, Phantom, 27th, Blue Devils, SCV (OK maybe that one I'd decline on...or maybe not). OK!!!! That's it!!!! I am going to make 12 time machine trips to 1980 and march with every corps in finals!!!!

Edited August 23, 2005 by torn8o

[Orpheus]

The top 5 in 2000 were the most entertaining they've ever been,

Really? ... [Orpheus shoots self in head]

[jwillis35]

1982 is a good choice. 1984 would also be a good choice.

I think there are many who would say the best year ever was prior to DCI in 1972. I know that 1965 and 1969 would come up. Great years. The Troopers, Cavaliers, Chicago Royal Aires, and many others.

In terms of sheer number of active corps, number of shows, as well as the innovative aspect, probably sometime between 1965 and 1975 would be the pinnacle of the activity. If you factor in quality of drumming, brass, guard, and the innovative aspects, then 1980 to 1985 stand out. If you factor in demand along with those other changes, then 1990-1995 saw most corps take the visual up a few notches.

My vote is still 1984.

Jonathan

[Jeff Ream]

top 5 in no order:

1992

1980

1987

1982

1999

[PR_ducky]

80 was great, but I still have to go with 89.

So many great shows. I consider myself really lucky to have marched 86-90 with Regiment.

Almost all of the years in the mid to late 80s were great. The activity had cast off the Tick system and corps were really starting to experiment with what could be done on the field, the creativity level was amazing. I still remember seeing Cadets in 87 with a show that just never stopped.

I will have to say though that I agree with the 75 comment. Some unbelievable corps

BUT

I will stick with 89, what a great summer.

[Geneva]

IMO the best year was 1969.  In no particular rank or order, here are my thoughts.

  The cometition was intense and exciting.  Major show or local show, the corps changed placings often right up to the end of the season and the outcome was seldom set.  For example, there were about 30 top 12 corps at the VFW Nats in Philly that year.  Only 12 could make it but any of 30 corps could have been there.  I'm not sure how many corps were there overall but there were at least twice that.   

  The overall participation was at or near it's all time high.  Some organizations fielded as many as 3 corps in 3 classes.  In the major drum corps markets like Boston for example, most towns had one or more drum corps.  Lacking a real drum corps, there were towns with competitive drill teams and CYO bands, often more than one per town.  (Don't underestimate the contrubutions that drill teams and CYO bands made to drum corps.)  Some of these units were huge.  (Rules about unit size came after the 1973 oil embargo in an effort to keep the economic playing field level.)

  The shows were starting to change.  The music  and drills were becoming more complex and entertaining. The quality was improving as well.  This was the period that lead up to the revolt against VFW and American Legion rules.  DCI  was not formed out of thin air.  The corps wanted to change the rules.  They wanted to try new things.  They took things into their own hands.

  There were lots of major shows all over the country that attracted large numbers of corps and paying fans.  The World Open, The BiG V, American International Open, U.S. Open, etc.  There were large invitational shows as well like The Dream, Shriners Invitational and CYO Nationals.

  These major shows were just the icing on the cake.  The local circuts ran several shows per week including week nights, Saturday and Sunday afternoons and Saturday and Sunday nights. Many of the major corps participated in these local circuts when they were home and they were home most of the time.  While some had to travel more in their "home" areas, they did't go on the road for 6 or 8 weeeks at a time.

    Speaking of nights, if the local field had no lights, they rented them.  In the Boston market, a company called Interstate had special unit that was kept busy all season long just providing lighting services for drum shows.   

There were several publications including the weekly Drum Corps News.  Some major newspapers ran weekly columns like Herb Cole in the Boston Globe. 

  Don't forget the audio recordings from the likes of Stetson Richmond and Fleetwood among many others.

  The season lasted longer.  Mostly from Memorial Day to Labor Day but some of the local circuts had to schedual shows outside that period to fit all the shows in.    There were off season shows as well like An Evening With the Corps and Drumfest held in indoor venues during the "off season". 

  If you think all this activity was tough on the fans, IMO you are wrong.  The stands were full, on both sides and the end zones, all the time.  Shure, there were a lot of small stands but the larger venues sold out too.  Roosevelt Field, Manning Bowl, Boston College and dozens of others would be standing room only.  (Yes, even when there were reserved seats, there were still general admissinon tickets sold and people were glad to find a non seated vantage point just to be there.)

  There were a lot more "drum corps nuts" back then.  These were dedicated fans that had no direct involvement in the activity.  The never marched, they didn't have kids or even relatives involved.  They just loved to watch drum corps.  They went to dozens of shows each season, they boght records and donated money to their favorite corps.  They never sat on their hands durng shows.  If a corps did something exciting, they jumped up and went wild.  Most of the major corps would get several rounds of applause and 2 or 3 standing ovations for each individual performance.  These people really pumped up the kids.  They would go wild for even the smallest (class C or what is called Div III tocay) corps.  All the kids felt like winners.

  The demand for bus charters was so great that some companies had busses and staff dedicated to drum corps.  The busses were rented by the show, not by the season.  Some corps like the I.C. Reveries even had their names on the roll signs on the busses of these commercial fleets.  The busses weren't decorated for the corps but you could tell who was rolling down the road.

  I could go on but why belabor the point.  Just ask anybody who was there.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was there, also, and appreciate of what this poster speaks. I thrilled at the Boston Crusaders "Conquest" and the emergence of the 27th Lancers. Dinosaurs roar!! But don't worry I still love drum corps in its current transfiguration and spend money on tickets and enjoy myself. This is a great thread since it points out how drum corps is many different things to many different people.

OK, now back to the question posed by the thread...my vote goes to 1974 for many different reasons. Admittedly, I have the somewhat distorted perspective of a participant that year. After years of hard work, I felt like I was finally in a corps that had arrived. No small feat since as the old saw goes, there were just so many corps striving for the same thing at the time. The tick system did seem to foster more mobility in the placings and there was more emphasis on not just what you did, but HOW you did it.

The DCI Championships had come to just 40 minutes from my hometown in the very special setting of Ithaca, New York. There was a strong regional sentiment expressed and the pull of the crowd for the Eastern front-runners was magnetic. Madison ruled with power, but Santa Clara showed how sophistication and style could be the key to success, Anaheim wrought an iron-clad example of old-time drum corps perfection, and Muchachos harnessed the desire of the crowd to propel them to some spetacular heights. We were there enjoying the ride with our regional rivals DeLasalle Oaklands and some of the great names in the activity...Kilties, Cavaliers, Blue Stars, Troopers and witnessing the rise of new powerhouses Blue Devils and Phantom Regiment.

So for me, how could I say anything, but 1974?

[Phansouth]

1. 1980

2. 1988

3. 1992

4. 2000

5. 1982

[apoch003]

1866.

Wow, what a great year for corps! The war was ending, Lincoln was president still, there were no laws governing employment practices. People would come to the shows in droves!

I bet you can still hear some of that fine music from that era.

/me hobbles back to my grave.

[best987]

1985-1986

Great shows and concepts that you didn't have to leave wondering about, pure music and story telling at it's best. :) :)