Amazing Drum Line- They need US football in the Alps!

smigaldi said:
Yep. I love watching them practice. Kent was in a corp up his way, probably Madison Scouts?
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The Scouts used to be great back in the 60's. They were back some last year. I performed with the McHenry County Viscounts back in 69' - 70' pre DCI days.
 
EppyGA said:
The Scouts used to be great back in the 60's. They were back some last year. I performed with the McHenry County Viscounts back in 69' - 70' pre DCI days.
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Never heard of them before and I live in that area. The only defunct corp I knew about in the area was the Guardsman. Gene Woods who posts here and on purple was one of them at one time. There is also a group near Racine called the kilties that is popular.
 
smigaldi said:
Never heard of them before and I live in that area. The only defunct corp I knew about in the area was the Guardsman. Gene Woods who posts here and on purple was one of them at one time. There is also a group near Racine called the kilties that is popular.
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They were a "B" class corps back then. Only reference I can find now is here http://desplainesvanguard.com/dpv_guestbook/view.cfm

The Kilties were a kick a$$ corp back in the days also. The top corps on a regular basis back then were the Cavs, Kilties, Casper Troopers and the Scouts. The midwest was pretty much the cream of the Drum Corps crop. There were two big championships back then. The VFW was one of them.
 
You guys old enough to remember the Racine Kilties? Really cool bagbipe group.

My favorites for DCI are the Bluedevils and the Cadets. Cavaliers are a good group too as is the Regiment.

My most favorite at present, however, is the University of Wisconsin Marching band. Not that my son being a member playing trombone has anything to do with it....:D
 
painless said:
You guys old enough to remember the Racine Kilties? Really cool bagbipe group.

My favorites for DCI are the Bluedevils and the Cadets. Cavaliers are a good group too as is the Regiment.

My most favorite at present, however, is the University of Wisconsin Marching band. Not that my son being a member playing trombone has anything to do with it....:D
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We hit on the Kilties above. Being from the midwest I'm not a big Bluedevils or Cadets fan though. My highschool band used bagpipes after I graduated.
 
The diversity of this group never ceases to amaze me! I marched with the Pittsburgh Royal Crusaders in 1980. We were an 'A' class corps although didn't do very well in the finals. I spent my whole summer watching the Scouts, Blue Devils, Crossmen, Phantom and such. Although it was a long time ago, it was one of the best life experiences I have ever had. And now, I'm part of a pilot organization that's talking about DCI. How cool is that!
 
jlwilson said:
The diversity of this group never ceases to amaze me! I marched with the Pittsburgh Royal Crusaders in 1980. We were an 'A' class corps although didn't do very well in the finals. I spent my whole summer watching the Scouts, Blue Devils, Crossmen, Phantom and such. Although it was a long time ago, it was one of the best life experiences I have ever had. And now, I'm part of a pilot organization that's talking about DCI. How cool is that!
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It is amazing isn't it Joyce. They come through here (Atlanta) late in the season and attract the top corps since it's close to finals time by then. They have an afternoon preliminary and the top two or three from that join the top guys in the evening show. Great entertainment. You were a decade behind me.
 
Fightin' Texas Aggie Fish Drill Team... nuff said.
 
smigaldi said:
Yep. I love watching them practice. Kent was in a corp up his way, probably Madison Scouts?
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Madison Jr. Scouts 1990, Madison Scouts, 1991-1996, Baritone.

Here's my 1995 "official" picture...

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... and a shot of me playing the solo in You'll Never Walk Alone during a victory concert in Hornell, NY in 1996:

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There is a PoA connection here, too... When we were performing at DCI Finals in Jackson, MS in 1993, Steve See and his family were in the audience. :yes:
 

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That is just off the chart awesome! I really loved my drum corp experience. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures... That was way before the days of digital cameras - lol
 
Forgot to mention I am a fan of the Scouts as well.

When are the DCI finals coming back to Camp Randall in Madison??

Gettin' goosebumps just thinking of a company front blasting away!

Since we are "blowing our horns" (sorry about the pun)....I was drum major for the Janesville (WI) Craig marching band, circa 1973-74. Unfortunately that was as close as I got to a corps. Wrote the halftime show we used...based on the theme from shaft.

Really admire the time commitment that you guys did to be in corps.
 
jlwilson said:
That is just off the chart awesome! I really loved my drum corp experience. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures... That was way before the days of digital cameras - lol
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LOL! Don't feel too bad, those are scanned prints. ;)

painless said:
Forgot to mention I am a fan of the Scouts as well.

When are the DCI finals coming back to Camp Randall in Madison??
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No time soon - They locked in a 10-year deal for Indianapolis. Indoor drum corps - Ugh. :frown2:

Really admire the time commitment that you guys did to be in corps.
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It seemingly got harder every year to give up EVERYTHING else for 3 months, but once I did it, I couldn't not do it. Shortly after aging out of Scouts, I became their webmaster. Two years later, I was driving a bus for part of tour. Two years after that, I became Transportation Manager for Southwind and was on tour all summer... Did that for 3 more years. I also served on Madison's Board of Directors from 2001-2003.

I also marched in the Madison Scouts Alumni Reunion Corps in 2006. :) I'd go march Kilties if I had the time - Scott Stewart, long-time Madison director, is now the director in Racine. That's part of what always kept me coming back - If Scott was involved, you knew you were going to have a GREAT time. He gets it. :yes:
 
Back in the mid 70s the fellow who was, basically, the 1st assistant to our D/P head at our catalogue showroom chain's headquarters in Maine was off to Massachusetts every weekend for "corps practice." He was so into his weekend we couldn't shut him up before Tuesday lunch arrived. The only reference I can remember is something about "Lancers," but to listen to Henry they were close to the ultimate organization.
?????????????

HR
 
Lawreston said:
Back in the mid 70s the fellow who was, basically, the 1st assistant to our D/P head at our catalogue showroom chain's headquarters in Maine was off to Massachusetts every weekend for "corps practice." He was so into his weekend we couldn't shut him up before Tuesday lunch arrived. The only reference I can remember is something about "Lancers," but to listen to Henry they were close to the ultimate organization.
?????????????

HR
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Don't see them listed anymore, but it was probably the 27th Lancers.
 
EppyGA said:
Don't see them listed anymore, but it was probably the 27th Lancers.
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That was my thought, but it sounds like Harley's talking about a "senior corps" (which allows members over 21) and I think 27th was always a junior corps. They folded long before DCI IIRC, but in 1994 they had an alumni corps that performed at DCI in between Finals and the retreat - The crowd went nuts. I remember someone commenting "If the crowd had their way, 27th would have won and Madison would have come in second." :rofl:
 
My kids were involved in marching band in high school. High schools in San Jose and Beaverton, Oregon were big on competition. The year before our daughter started high school the Leigh HS band did their field show to an arrangement of music from Jurassic Park (while the movie was still in the theaters). They did quite well in competition with it and it was the music the other bands gathered around to listen to while they were practising. JP was a great year. Hook the year before, Star Wars the following year. Then we moved to Oregon (after our son graduated from high school) and our daughter spent her Sophomore year in the band at Sunset HS in Beaverton. Big time competition band, basically owned Oregon competitions. Kids were so busy they didn't have time to get in trouble.

Good times.
 
smigaldi said:
Never heard of them before and I live in that area. The only defunct corp I knew about in the area was the Guardsman. Gene Woods who posts here and on purple was one of them at one time. There is also a group near Racine called the kilties that is popular.
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Those of us who spent time in drum corps can really appreciate what that drum line is doing -- and it's nothing short of spectacular.

The Racine Kilties ROCKED. I was in their "feeder corps" (color guard in the Kiltie Kadets) back in the early '70s. They died out in the early '80s, but have reconstituted themselves as a "Senior Corps", last I heard.
 
painless said:
You guys old enough to remember the Racine Kilties? Really cool bagbipe group.
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Ahem. The Kilties never had bagpipes. They just played the music so well, you THOUGHT you heard bagpipes! :D

And, hey, no one has mentioned the Troopers, from Wyoming. Oh, my God, I still get a chill picturing them lined up, 200-strong, in their blue and gold "Union Army" uniforms. The Kilties and the Troopers owned DCI in the late '60s...

Those were good days in Racine, with J.I. Case employing 5,000 guys building tractors, Modine, In-Sink-Er-A-Tor, Walker Manufacturing, Twin Disk, Racine Steel, Andis Clippers... All those blue-collar fathers got off work at 3 PM, and were able to support and attend all of us kids who needed to get to drum corps practice.

That whole way of life is gone, now. I wonder if they have drum corps in China and Mexico? :frown2:
 
Jay Honeck said:
And, hey, no one has mentioned the Troopers, from Wyoming. Oh, my God, I still get a chill picturing them lined up, 200-strong, in their blue and gold "Union Army" uniforms. The Kilties and the Troopers owned DCI in the late '60s...
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Your memory deceives you, Jay. ;) DCI didn't come about until 1972. Not sure what the membership limits were back then, but under DCI until recently you couldn't have more than 128 in a corps.

However, I've seen those pictures of the old-school Troopers, and they had such presence it sure looked like there were at least 200 of them! :yes:

Those were good days in Racine, with J.I. Case employing 5,000 guys building tractors, Modine, In-Sink-Er-A-Tor, Walker Manufacturing, Twin Disk, Racine Steel, Andis Clippers... All those blue-collar fathers got off work at 3 PM, and were able to support and attend all of us kids who needed to get to drum corps practice.
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That, and there were corps everywhere. Seems like every VFW post and church in the country had one. DCI has killed it off pretty well, too - Since only the top 12 corps get a vote in DCI, they do what's best for the big guys and the little guys get trampled on. There used to be literally thousands of drum corps around the country. Now there are only about 100 or less. Many once-great corps are long gone from the junior corps circuit (Royalaires, Kilties, Kingsmen, 27th Lancers, Mighty St. Joe's, need I go on?) and most of the little local corps are gone.

Also, the judging system is now so political and skewed towards "art" at the expense of entertainment that the shows just aren't that fun to watch any more. Looking at 1989, everybody was entertaining and fun to watch, and I could watch the finals video start to finish. Now, by the time the 2nd corps comes on I'm looking for a hot dog. There was even a show in my home-town stadium last summer, and I was home, and I didn't even bother to go. :(
 
flyingcheesehead said:
That, and there were corps everywhere. Seems like every VFW post and church in the country had one. DCI has killed it off pretty well, too - Since only the top 12 corps get a vote in DCI, they do what's best for the big guys and the little guys get trampled on. There used to be literally thousands of drum corps around the country. Now there are only about 100 or less. Many once-great corps are long gone from the junior corps circuit (Royalaires, Kilties, Kingsmen, 27th Lancers, Mighty St. Joe's, need I go on?) and most of the little local corps are gone.

Also, the judging system is now so political and skewed towards "art" at the expense of entertainment that the shows just aren't that fun to watch any more. Looking at 1989, everybody was entertaining and fun to watch, and I could watch the finals video start to finish. Now, by the time the 2nd corps comes on I'm looking for a hot dog. There was even a show in my home-town stadium last summer, and I was home, and I didn't even bother to go. :(
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It is kind of a shame when you think of it. I hearken back to the days of the VFW Championship and the American Legion Championship. In high school we toured all summer and most of our competitions coincided with the midwest drum corp shows. We would get to sit in the stands and watch the corps and dream about being in one. I did get the short stinit with the McHenry County Viscounts, certainly a corp not many have ever heard of. We have one of those All Age corps here in the Atlanta are for past corp members that really miss it. www.corpvets.org
 
EppyGA said:
We have one of those All Age corps here in the Atlanta are for past corp members that really miss it. www.corpvets.org
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The senior ("all age") corps are amazing - CorpsVets, Empire Statesmen, Hawthorne Caballeros, Renegades, etc... DCA championships are pretty fun. :yes: I went to DCA a few times in the early 2000's, driving a bus (Minnesota Brass chartered the Madison Scouts' buses back then).
 
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