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Post by macwinlin on Sept 30, 2021 23:33:29 GMT -6
Holy Uniforms Batman!Although it was not the first instance of this; I noted it in my Center Grove 1988 post, but it was the first I had ever seen something like it. It was an entire band dressed not in uniforms, but in costumes. In 1994, it had become quite common for the color guard to dress in more of an artistic costume to fit the theme of the show, but certainly not the band. But there at the 1994 BOA Grand Nationals was Union. The band was in Joker costumes, the guard as Catwoman, with a drum major and other characters on the field as Batman. The show itself was awesome and really dove into the whole Batman theme. The guard won the coordinated auxiliary award in Class AAA. However, they failed to make finals, finishing in the unlucky number 13th spot. I was very upset that they did not get in. I thought they should have been finals, one of the many placements I strongly disagreed with this particular year at Grand Nationals. One of the music effect judges actually had this band in 2nd place. There were, however, some notable timing issues near the end of the show for which the music ensemble judge was brutal in their score. Even with those errors, I still thought they should have been in finals. I did however want to give attention to this show which I found to be quite innovative for the time. I believe Wes Cartwright was still with Union at this time, probably why I get a little bit of Broken Arrow vibes watching this back so many years later. While the idea of costuming of the band did not immediately catch on (it finally did over 20 years later), during the coming years/decades, formal band uniforms did become much more artistically designed compared to the very military look of earlier years. So here is the Union HS 'Renegade Regiment' from Tulsa, OK at the 1994 BOA Grand Nationals, a show I really felt should have been in finals. From Union's old history page: "1994 "Batman" -- With dark, powerful music, villainous band uniforms, and eye-popping Catwoman color guard costumes, the Renegade Regiment delivered a show to audiences that many still consider Union's "best ever". Unfortunately, due to an untimely mishap during their Grand Nationals Semi-Finals performance, Union narrowly missed making it into Finals. Nearly 7 years after the Renegade Regiment left the field, a BOA official who witnessed the program was quoted as saying Batman was "the best show to never make Finals." Union placed 1st at the Oklahoma Bandmasters Association State Marching Band Championship, 3rd place at the Bands Of America Regional Competition in San Antonio, and 13th Place at Bands Of America Grand Nationals Competition in Indianapolis. (Music by: Danny Elfman * Arranged by: Jair Klarfeld * Drill Design by: Alan Mueggenborg)" I can confirm that Cartwright was on the visual staff that year. The guard costumes and flag work also just give it away lol. He would help Union off and on up until 2002.
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Post by sethb811 on Oct 1, 2021 4:03:05 GMT -6
From Union's old history page: Unfortunately, due to an untimely mishap during their Grand Nationals Semi-Finals performance, Union narrowly missed making it into Finals. There was no Semi-Finals in 1994. They didn't start doing Semi-Finals until 1996.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 1, 2021 8:55:11 GMT -6
From Union's old history page: Unfortunately, due to an untimely mishap during their Grand Nationals Semi-Finals performance, Union narrowly missed making it into Finals. There was no Semi-Finals in 1994. They didn't start doing Semi-Finals until 1996. Yep, the mishap was in Prelims, which in 1994 was divided into the three classes, called the class championships.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 1, 2021 9:16:26 GMT -6
The Same Show - 22 Years Apart
The show that I am talking about is "On the Waterfront". The music was composed by Leonard Bernstein and was from the soundtrack of the 1954 movie of the same name.
This show was performed by two legendary Texas (and BOA) powerhouse marching bands; two bands who were/are powers in different eras. The first performance is of 1994 Westfield HS. The performance that is shown was at the Texas State UIL Championships. I believe they finished in 2nd place behind their rival Spring. Aside from the wonderful music was Westfield's interesting drill designs. I believe their drill designer at the time was Michael Gaines. The band that did this same show 22 years later was The Woodlands HS. The performance that is shown is at the BOA San Antonio Super Regional. In finals, they finished 2nd behind Flower Mound. I thought it would be neat to show these two performances of essentially the same music side by side to really showcase the stylistic visual differences between 1994 and 2016. Both of these bands did not take this show to Grand Nationals in their respective years. If they had, they both would have done really well.
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Post by TXHillCountryBands on Oct 1, 2021 9:41:58 GMT -6
The Same Show - 22 Years ApartThe show that I am talking about is "On the Waterfront". The music was composed by Leonard Bernstein and was from the soundtrack of the 1954 movie of the same name. This show was performed by two legendary Texas (and BOA) powerhouse marching bands; two bands who were/are powers in different eras. The first performance is of 1994 Westfield HS. The performance that is shown was at the Texas State UIL Championships. I believe they finished in 2nd place behind their rival Spring. Aside from the wonderful music was Westfield's interesting drill designs. I believe their drill designer at the time was Michael Gaines. The band that did this same show 22 years later was The Woodlands HS. The performance that is shown is at the BOA San Antonio Super Regional. In finals, they finished 2nd behind Flower Mound. I thought it would be neat to show these two performances of essentially the same music side by side to really showcase the stylistic visual differences between 1994 and 2016. Both of these bands did not take this show to Grand Nationals in their respective years. If they had, they both would have done really well. OMG. I haven’t seen Westfield’s 1994 show in a minute! As a music major at the time I remember preaching the Westfield 1993 dominance gospel then 1994 was birthed! I just couldn’t believe that this program could visually supersede that epic 93’ performance but I was wrong. I have no doubt that if Westfield 94’ had gone to Nats they would have “eagled” hands down. My theory is that the winds (Brass) weren’t as strong as 93’ and that is probably why they placed 2nd at UIL. Had the Woodlands gone to the 2016 GN’s they could have possibly peaked and metaled but I’m most confident FM 2016 would have walked away with the gold with a seizable gap! Thanks for sharing Buff. Keep em coming.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 1, 2021 10:04:56 GMT -6
Yes, 1994 Westfield (and Spring) had the show that could have possibly won the 94 Grand National title. Little bit of history for you. In 1994, we would have had no idea what the phrase 'Taking Home the Eagle' meant. The eagle was first placed atop the Grand National Champion traveling trophy in 1995. That is when the phrase 'Taking Home the Eagle' was born.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 3, 2021 4:36:31 GMT -6
Distortion Done Right - One of BOA's Most Innovative Shows of the 1990s
This post will feature our 1995 Grand National Champion; Center Grove HS from Greenwood, IN.
First, let me offer a few comments about the 1995 Grand Nationals. Even though the GN Semi Finals format was introduced a year later in 1996, for some reason 1995 seemed more of a turning point to me. BOA expanded the number of prelims slots, making the number of bands at Grand Nationals seem just insane at the time. They also expanded the number of Finalist bands to 14. Fourteen bands, plus the Class A exhibition band made finals seem really long; too long for at lot of parents. So it was after this year that they brought the semi finals format into place (and in both 1996 and 1997 chose only the top 10 bands for finals). In 1995, the eagle was placed atop the traveling trophy for the first time, giving birth to the phrase "Taking Home the Eagle". The bands intro was also changed. The phrase "Drum Majors...Is Your Band Ready?" was dropped for the intro we still hear today. I believe this was also the year that the Bands of America Website made its debut. This year also saw many more bands utilizing props and amplified vocals. A few new staging techniques had also become a little more common; the pit being placed onto the field was one and the other was bands being able to march over the front sidelines. In my years in the activity, which was only a few years earlier than 95, you would have racked up penalty points for going over the front sideline (only drum majors, pit members and featured soloists were allowed to do that). I will say that the Grand National Finalist bands this year were quite awesome. There were also a very diverse mix of styles (very common in the 90s) between bands that really embraced the new changes taking hold and those that held onto a more traditional/old school style show. I personally loved seeing so much difference between the shows.
Relatively new at the time was online forums. In fact, this particular year there seemed to be a lot of ugliness on those early forums (the ability to monitor and remove posts was not like it is today). That actually turned me off of the forums for a very long time (glad we are all more respectful (for the most part) today). One of the big debates that raged after the 95 GN was the outcome for the top two placements. Westfield TX won prelims and the Class AAA title but Center Grove defeated them in Finals to claim the GN Title. This led to a firestorm of Texas vs Indiana, UIL vs ISSMA, Texas vs Midwest, etc, etc, etc. Yes a debate that still goes on today. So I don't want to relive that debate. Instead, I want to showcase both shows for what they were, two amazing performances that remain among my favorite Grand National Finals performances of all time. In a day or two I will showcase Westfield.
So first I will give a little backstory about Center Grove's journey to their 95 Grand National Title. Although they attended Grand Nationals in 1983, they did not make finals. They did not participate in BOA the rest of the 1980s. They did however rise through the ranks of ISSMA, coming very close to the state Class A title in 1988 before winning it in 1989 (they won another state title in 1991). In 1990, Center Grove returned to BOA competition, attending the BOA Midwest regional. They managed to edge out Carmel by the slimmest of margins to win their first BOA Regional title. Although their drum line did attend the GN indoor percussion festival that year (and won), the band did not appear at Grand Nationals until 1993. That year Center Grove made Grand Nationals Finals, their first appearance in finals and finished 10th. In 1994, they were not as lucky as they failed to make GN finals, finishing 15th overall in Prelims. Then came 1995 and a major improvement in this band. Although they finished 3rd in the Indiana Class A State Championships, they won the BOA Indy Regional. This was their first regional win since 1990. Then came their win at Grand Nationals. It marked the second time that a band failed to make GN Finals one year, then won the title the next (Centerville 92 was the first).
Center Grove's show was titled "A Journey into the Adventure Zone". It featured music by Stephen Melillo. It took me a while to figure what was going on in this show. It was so different than anything I had seen at the time. To me, it seemed like the idea was to take a marching band show and run it through a fun house or house of mirrors. Tarps and props were used to distort the yard lines. The movements by the band also gave us the idea of distortion as did the music. Center Grove's guard was dressed in green and purple outfits. The purple was on the front and green was on the back, so when they turned with their backs to the audience, they would sort of blend in with the field. I never could figure out the feature where these characters that looked like spools of yarn came onto the field. This show was emblematic of an emerging way in presenting these theme based shows to the audience; not so literal. What it did was essentially select music and arrange that music to fit the theme/design concept; rather than the other way around. This show was very out of the box at the time and was simply a masterpiece in visual design/concept compared to what was being done during this era. I consider it one of the most innovate shows of the 1990s. In terms of their performance, it was certainly very clean. Their marching technique and drill execution was spectacular; all three visual judges had them first. This was the year that BOA stopped giving out the coordinated auxiliary award. I think everyone was in agreement that Center Grove would have won that; their guard was awesome. Although their music performance scores were not at the top, the music effect judges were quite impressed, which allowed them to win the General Effect Award and capture the title. Center Grove, as usual, had a strong percussion section. I think what really sold the judges was the brilliance of how well they handled the distortion. For me, what I always remember about the music in this show was the extensive use of the high brass and how crisp and clean it was, with a ton of woodwind flourishes throughout. Center Grove became the first band to reach 97 points at Grand Nationals. Now the one thing that I will say is that the scores at the top were a little inflated. In my book, 93 Spring still remained the best GN show ever at the time (one reason I don't like to focus on scores from year to year). Getting back to Center Grove, this win ended a long drought without an Indiana band winning the Grand National Title as it had been 14 years since the last Indiana band (Chesterton) had won. Although this would be Center Grove's first and last BOA Grand National title, they remained a top three finisher in finals through the rest of the decade and continued to give highly innovative shows (more posts to come of CG).
So here is the 1995 BOA Grand National Champion performance that transported us all into the adventure zone.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 4, 2021 3:44:49 GMT -6
A Signature Show
As I have probably already stated several times in earlier posts, Westfield HS from Spring/Houston TX was among the best Texas bands during the latter half of the 1980s and through the 1990s. Between 1984 and 1999 they entered one BOA Regional competition per year and placed either first or second every time. In 1985 they attended Grand Nationals for the very first time (the first Texas band to do so). After finishing fourth in prelims, they jumped up to second in finals and won the Open Class Title. Their next appearance at Grand Nationals did not come until 1990. After a string of Texas UIL state titles and several BOA regional titles, they were a front runner for the Grand National Title in 1990. They ended up finishing second in finals by a razor thin 0.05 points and they won the music performance award. Their show was among my personal favorite that year. Aside from seeing their 1985 performance on VHS, this was my first real introduction to a Texas band as I got to watch them live. To say that I was impressed would be an understatement. Westfield was a band all of us Midwesterners would have loved to see attend Grand Nationals more frequently. However, we had to wait another five years for their return to Indy and the Grand National Championships. At the 1995 BOA San Antonio Regional (it was not a super regional yet), Westfield defeated their big rival Spring for the regional title, their first regional title since 1992. This again put them at the forefront as a contender for the 1995 Grand National Title. After prelims/class championships, Westfield placed first overall and won the Class AAA Title. Many of us thought they were destined to be the 95 Grand National Champion. It was not meant to be for them however, they were edged out of the title by Center Grove (showcased in the previous post). They did, however, win the music performance award. So this was their third trip to Grand Nationals and third time they would have to settle for being runner-up.
Westfield's 1995 show was titled 'Signatures' and featured the music of Samuel Barber. On a side note, by the mid 1990s it was becoming increasingly more common for bands to give a creative name for their show. On another side note, in 1993 in DCI Star of Indiana did an amazing show that featured some of Samuel Barber's music. It seemed that Barber became an even more popular composer used in marching band competitions after Star's 93 show. Westfield did an extraordinary job with this show. Had their been an award for best percussion, they would have taken it. Some of those brass features near the end of the show about had me just about jumping out of my seat. The video that is online is not the best quality and is the high camera angle. I will say that they had a pretty demanding visual package and marched it really well (they tied Center Grove for visual in prelims and then were second in visual in finals). The drill was written by Michael Gaines. Like I eluded to in my previous post, there were many who were upset that Westfield did not win. We do not have to relive that debate. I just want to appreciate this show for what it was, an awesome show that remains one of my favorites. I will say, in my opinion, this was the best show of the 1990s that did not win the Grand National Title. Westfield did not return to Grand Nationals for eight years after this season. In their somewhat of a Cinderella 2003 season, they finally took the eagle at Grand Nationals. I was happy to see that finally happen. In my opinion, however, their 1995 show was the best they ever put on the field. So here it is:
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 5, 2021 4:24:42 GMT -6
The Paris Ballet....On SteroidsDuring the 1990s, there was a notable uptick in the level of difficulty being done among the top level competitive marching bands, both music and visually. Marching bands were challenging themselves by taking on complex music arrangements while performing demanding drill routines. Marian Catholic was one such band who really upped the ante this decade. Now by the late 1980s, Marian already had complex music arrangements and drill design. By the early 1990s, they took it up another level and in 1995 they took it to a level that no other band would have dared go. In 1995 Marian's show was titled "Scenes From the Paris Ballet". When I heard that show title, what came to my mind was slow soft music that a ballerina dances to. When seeing this show for the first time at Grand Nationals, my thoughts changed to 'this is ballet on crack'. I was sitting there in almost stunned silence (as were many in the audience) at what Marian was doing on the field. They played music of Stravinsky and Ravel, so I guess I should have known. The video that I will show is of their Grand National Finals performance, the multicamera angle. Unfortunately, there is a lot of static on the audio. I want to show this video anyway because I consider this an extraordinary show. I find that using headphones and turning the volume up helps pick out the music from the static. I will make a few points, my thoughts. Marian stayed very true to the actual orchestral versions of this music. They obviously had to arrange the music to fit the marching band (no strings of course). These are very difficult pieces of music, especially following the orchestral arrangement as closely as Marian did. Each section of the band had some moments where they showcased amazing technique. This show has some awesome woodwind features, especially the flutes. There are a ton of tempo changes in this show and I suspect that there are also several changes in time signatures. Some of the up tempo moments are not just fast, they are crazy fast. You may have to listen to this show multiple times as there is so much going on musically in this show. A huge shout out to the Drum Major who is on the podium in this show, Mike Pierson. He had to have had excellent conducting skills to keep this show together. I am actually glad that this video is the multi cam angle. It is one thing for this band to play this difficult music on the field, it is another to do it with the demanding drill that was written for this show. The band was flying forwards and backwards, there were frequent directional shifts, time where the band had to suddenly stop when marching at a rapid pace, blind drill passes, frequent shifts from curvilinear to strait lines, etc, etc. In the multi cam version you can also see how young some of the band members are. This band uses a sizeable freshman class, which are typically 14 year old's. When Marian finished this show, these are some of the comments that I remember; "Only Marian would dare tackle a show like that", "I can still see the smoke from the woodwinds fingers", "That band plays more notes and takes more steps than any other band", "If our band attempted a show like that we would end up in a big pile of fallen band members in the middle of the field", "That Mr Bimm has guts". The reason this show finished in third place is because it was not quite as clean as the two bands at the top (Center Grove and Westfield) who had difficult shows in their own right. I guess when you do a show with this high a degree of difficulty, you sacrifice a bit on getting it totally clean. But that is OK. I always love how this band challenges its members. It is not the 34 Grand National Finals Appearances and 7 Grand National Titles that gives this band the reputation that it has built over several decades. It is shows like this. So here it is. I stumbled across another video related to this show, obviously posted by a Marian alum. It takes sections of this show and compares them to a performance by the London Symphony Orchestra, performing the same music. It really showcases how strong of a performance this was. Not to mention, it highlights how well this group of high school students played this music while doing extremely difficult marching technique by comparing them to a group of adult professional musicians sitting in chairs with sheet music in from of them. I will post the link to the actual YouTube page so you can read the full description. It gives a lot of backstory to the music and helps explain why the show "Scenes From the Paris Ballet" is so intense. Marian Vs London Orchestra
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Post by hostrauser on Oct 5, 2021 19:28:48 GMT -6
The Individual Music judge had Marian 7th.
Uh. No.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 8, 2021 17:42:15 GMT -6
King of the Mountain StateIn trying to keep some semblance of geographic diversity in this thread I am going to showcase a West Virginia band. Back in the 80s and 90s West Virginia did have several bands who participated in BOA. Although they never did produce a Grand National finalist or regional champion, they did have bands make regional finals and place in the top half of bands at Grand Nationals from time to time. West Virginia is not a state that has big schools or huge marching band programs with deep pockets. So I want to at least give some acknowledgement to some of these bands that had success despite not having as many of the resources as many of the top level BOA band programs. Some of the more successful marching band programs from West Virginia included Fairmont, Frankfort, Parkersburg, Point Pleasant, Wheeling Park and Paden City. If you would like to the see the video of Paden City at the 1985 BOA Grand Nationals it is HereThe most successful band from West Virginia during that era (both in the state of West Virginia and in BOA) was Greenbrier East HS 'Spartans' from Lewisville, WV. Yes they still have a competitive marching band. This band was a consistent BOA participate at the BOA Eastern (West Virginia) regionals from the mid 1980s through the mid/late 1990s. They made regional finals on several occasions. Their most successful seasons were in 1995 and 1996. In 1995 they placed 26th overall at Grand Nationals and in 1996 they finished 18th in the first BOA Semi Finals. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Greenbrier East remains the only West Virginia band to make Grand National Semi Finals. I happen to have stumbled across a somewhat lengthy short documentary on this band from the 1995 season. There are a lot of student interviews and some clips of a dress rehearsal performance. The video showcases what it was like to be in marching band in the mid 1990s (not much different from today I imagine) and at least has some performance highlights from what I still consider the most successful West Virginia band that has competed in BOA to date.
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Post by musicgirl on Oct 10, 2021 13:02:16 GMT -6
So looked this up on wiki. Vandegrift High School, in Austin TX - The school is named for United States Marine Corps First Lieutenant Matthew Ryan Vandegrift. who was killed in action. Vandergrift, Pennsylvania - In the 1890s the Apollo Iron and Steel Company ended a bitterly contested labor dispute by hiring replacement workers from the surrounding countryside. To avoid future unrest, however, the company sought to gain tighter control over its workers not only at the factory but also in their homes. Drawing upon a philosophy of reform movements in Europe and the United States, the firm decided that providing workers with good housing and a good urban environment would make them more loyal and productive. In 1895, Apollo Iron and Steel built a new, integrated, non-unionized steelworks and hired the nation's preeminent landscape architectural firm, Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot, to design the model industrial town: Vandergrift. (named for Capt. J.J. Vandergrift, a director of the steel company). Upon research of both surnames, turns out they are of Dutch origin. They are two variants of essentially the same surname (Van de Grift) and (Van der Grift). Luckily they did not name the school Vandergrift HS, PA. That would have been really confusing to the BOA world. Kiski Area has a Vandergrift address but serves several different communities in that area outside of Pittsburgh. The school isn't technically in Vandergrift but Allegheny township. It includes several townships and towns-I believe it's something like you can have an address in 8 different towns for the school district.
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Post by musicgirl on Oct 10, 2021 13:07:11 GMT -6
A Little Bit of Golden Age Hollywood, Some Beatles and Lots of Jazz - Kiski in the Early 90sJust like my Kiski post covering the late 1980s, I am going to reference Kiski's website that has videos of one performance per season going back to 1985. The videos can be viewed on the link but are no longer viewable on YouTube. By the early 1990s, Kiski Area HS from Vandegrift, PA (the Kiski Cavaliers) were among the nations top high school marching bands. One of the things I always loved about Kiski was how clean their performances were; just solid. They also had exquisite marching technique. One of the things that started to gain in popularity during the early-mid 1990s was for bands to start coming up with a more clever name for their show. You can see that occurred with Kiski on that website. As the level of competitiveness increased during the course of the decade and many new powerful programs from large suburban schools emerged, a lot of mid sized school band programs (Class AA in BOA) found it every more challenging to remain among the top echelon of high school bands. Kiski was an exception to this. They remained a Class AA powerhouse. In 1990, we were all disappointed that Kiski did not attend Grand Nationals. In fact, they only attended Grand Nationals four times during the entire decade, even though they had the goods to do quite well each and every year of the decade. They were one of those bands who chose to take more variety of trips, to give their kids different experiences. I am sure there was also a cost factor involved with having the band travel/stay overnight in Indy. Kiski did attend the BOA Eastern (Morgantown, WV) regional and won for the third consecutive year. Much like the 1980s, in the early 1990s these eastern regionals were among the most competitive of the BOA regionals. Their show was notable for its use of props that were carried around at different times and functioned as performance platforms throughout the show, one of the earliest uses of props in this manor. The performance on the website is from the BOA Eastern Regional. In 1991, Kiski ended up finishing second at the BOA Eastern Regional behind George Rogers Clark KY. It was their first loss at this regional since 1987, so I am sure it was a little disappointing. Kiski did attend Grand Nationals this year and they obviously made some big improvements since their appearance at the Eastern Regional. This was the first year of the Class Championships format. At the conclusion on the Class Championships/Prelims, Kiski was crowned GN Class AA Champion. Turns out they tied Marian, but Kiski had a higher GE score which was the tie breaker. This was their first of two GN Class AA titles. Kiski and Marian actually had the highest score of all competing prelim bands. In Finals, Kiski ended up in third place. Their show was centered on the music of the Beatles. It was a big hit with the crowd, especially our baby boomer generation parents who had grown up listening to the Beatles. The video on the website is their Class Championship/Prelims performance. In 1992, Kiski reclaimed their title at the BOA Eastern Regional. In fact, they beat Centerville who went on later that season to win the Grand National title. Kiski did not attend Grand Nationals this year. Now that does not mean that if they had attended they would have won the GN title. The Eastern Regional was much earlier in the season. So who knows how that would have played out. Kiski's show that season was titled "City of Angels" and paid homage to Hollywood's Golden Age. The video is of their regional performance. Even though the quality of the video is not the best, I can tell that I would have loved this show at Grand Nationals. In 1993, Kiski took on an ambitious music performance with their show "A Tribute to Dizzy", honoring Dizzy Gillespie. As you would expect, they had a really good trumpet soloist. They won the Eastern Regional again, their fifth win over the previous six seasons. This was another show that would have been a hit at Grand Nationals had they attended. The video is of their BOA regional performance. In 1994, Kiski sported stylish brand new light blue uniforms (making them look more like the award winning band that they were). George Wozniak was now the director, although Scott Koter who was responsible for Kiski's rise to the top still worked with the band. I suspect that since they were attending Grand Nationals this season they took on a little more ambitious show. This was especially true from a visual standpoint. In what I am sure was a shock, they finished 4th in finals at the BOA Eastern Regional. They were however only three tenths away from second place. Yes this was still a very competitive regional. That fourth place finish proved to do nothing but ignite a fire under them as their performances at Grand Nationals were spectacular. After the Class Championships/Prelims, Kiski won their second Grand National Class AA Title by a razor thin margin over Marian. In fact, they had the highest score of all participating bands. In Finals, they delivered a very strong performance. Now I am not saying that Marian should not have won, but before the finals awards, I had placed my bets that Kiski was going to win the GN Title. They ended up coming in 2nd place by 0.15 points (they actually got a tenth point penalty so their raw score was only 0.05 points behind Marian). This was their highest ever finish at Grand Nationals and the closest they would ever get to the GN Title. They did win the Visual Performance award in finals (and rightfully so). Their show was titled "Come Rain or Shine". It is probably my favorite Kiski show. It was an early example of a type of theme based show where the musical selections were chosen to fit the show concept, something that was becoming a more popular way of presenting these themed shows. Kiski proved that Centerville was not the only band that could do jazz. They also had an amazing saxophone solo at the end of the show, still one of the best sax solos at Grand Nationals in my opinion (yes I said one of the best as I know some Texas bands have recently had some amazing sax solos). The performance on the video is from GN Class Championships/Prelims. I will showcase Kiski's 95-99 performances in another post. www.kiskiareabands.org/marching-band-videos.html I marched Kiski 1990-1992. Back then, they only marched 10th-12th grade and select 9th graders. I soooo wanted to be in it in 9th grade and so wanted to go to Nationals that year.The Beatles was the best show ever.I still get chills watching that video. I wish we had better videos for my other years. I love Come Rain or Shine too, was in the stands at Nationals for that one.
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Post by musicgirl on Oct 10, 2021 13:11:01 GMT -6
boahistorybuff, Great thread! I haven't bern on this site in a while. I admittedly just read the Kiski stuff first but I am going to go back and read/watch it all soon!
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 10, 2021 13:29:42 GMT -6
Glad you enjoy it. There will be more posts on Kiski to come. They were certainly one of the best bands of the 1990s. And yes I loved the Beatles show and really loved Come Rain or Shine. That 94 show was my favorite Kiski show.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 11, 2021 4:57:48 GMT -6
A Utah Giant
For those that have been following BOA for the last 15 years or so, you are all very familiar with American Fork HS, from American Fork, UT. Although there are other Utah bands that have had success in BOA over the decades (Sky View and Mountain Crest both have one regional title), no other Utah band can match the success of American Fork, both in Utah state competitions and for their BOA success. As of this post, since 2008 American Fork now has 9 BOA regional titles and counting. They have appeared in Grand National Semi Finals several times and have a few top 20 BOA GN finishes. By the way, I have loved their shows over the past several years. An interesting point about American Fork is that despite the last decade and a half which has had by far the strongest performances in the history of this band, their one appearance in Grand National Finals actually occurred way back in 1995. Even though their recent GN performances have been much stronger than 95, the competition at Grand Nationals is much tougher than what it was 25 or so years ago. As I stated in an earlier post, BOA expanded the Grand National Finals format to the top 14 bands in the 95 season instead of the top 12. This was because they had a large number of bands in prelims and wanted to give bands a little better chance of making finals. There was also a big sentiment that it was a shame to have bands travel such a long distance, only to perform once. So yes, the following year in 1996 BOA introduced the Semi Finals format, which gave many more bands the opportunity to perform more than just once. So back to 1995, most of us at Grand Nationals had never heard of the band American Fork (remember the internet was still pretty new and the idea on sharing online video performances of bands was still science fiction stuff). American Fork ended up making Grand National finals by finishing 14th overall in Prelims. I remember it was a bit of a shock. There was a lot of buzz, there is a Utah band in finals. Yes, this marked the first (and so far last) time that a band from Utah made Grand National Finals. So American Fork really benefited from that expansion to 14 bands in finals. They ended up finishing 14th in Finals. Forums were still pretty new at the time (with a lot of ugly comments). There were several who thought AF should not have been in finals; many saying they only made it to encourage more bands from out west to come to Grand Nationals. In my opinion, there was simply a bit of a gap in the performance level between the 13th and 14th placed bands. That was often a common occurrence back in the 80s and 90s. I know Mona Shores (who was 15th in prelims) was a bit upset, and I certainly would have loved to see another Michigan band in finals. And yes Mona Shores did get hit with a few questionably low scores. However, I disagreed with many of those forums comments. I thought American Fork deserved to be in finals. Just because they were not quite at the level of Union and Prospect (the 12th and 13th place finishers), neither was Mona Shores (or the 16th place band, another western band, Northglenn HS CO). I actually think making finals was a toss up between those three bands. It does not mean AF did not deserve to be in finals. American Fork not only made history by being the first and only Utah band to make Grand National Finals, they also helped make 1995 the only year that two bands from west of the Rockies were in GN Finals (the other band was Etiwanda CA).
I have been unable to find a video of American Fork's 1995 Grand Nationals performance online. The closest that I could come to was a 1993 performance at the Fiesta Bowl. Given that the Fiesta Bowl was in December, American Fork took on a holiday themed show. I will say that some of the visual designs were a little dated in comparison to what the top level BOA bands were doing during that era. Although it has been a very long time since I have seen it, I think their 1995 GN performance was a bit stronger than this one. Anyway here is some vintage AF, from the 1993 Fiesta Bowl.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 12, 2021 5:20:05 GMT -6
Show Me a Vintage Missouri Band
The band I am going to showcase has been around for quite some time. Their biggest success in BOA actually occurred in the early 1990s. That band is Parkway West HS, from Ballwin MO (west side of the St Louis suburbs). In 1991, they made finals at the BOA Indy regional and placed 19th overall at Grand Nationals. In 1992, they again placed 19th at Grand Nationals. At the time I predicted that this band was heading for GN finals in the future and would be the first Missouri band to make GN Finals. Well, I was wrong. Although they became more frequent BOA participants when they started holding yearly regionals in St Louis, Parkway West was unable to match the success they had in the early 1990s. It would not be until 2015 when a Missouri band by the name of Blue Springs would become the first Missouri band to make GN Finals. I was unable to find a performance of Parkway West at the 91 or 92 BOA Grand Nationals. I did however stumble across this performance from the 1991 season. It is at Busch Stadium (an open air baseball stadium) in downtown St Louis. They obviously converted the baseball diamond into a football field. 1991 was a few years before the Dome downtown St Louis was built.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 16, 2021 12:41:02 GMT -6
Leander's Road to Their First BOA Regional TitleI have to do another Leander post or LeanderMomma might boot me off the Forums My last Leander post went thru 1992. So the next two videos will showcase their 1993 and 1994 performances. Similar to 1992, Leander had a solid music book and looked clean on the drill execution. Visually and music GE wise, probably not yet to the level of a top level BOA band, but still very strong. The 1993 video contains both prelims and finals performances at the UIL State Championships and the 1994 video has two UIL performances. 1993 1994 I have been unable to find a video of Leander's complete 1995 show. The only video I found was a short clip of their performance at the 1995 Rose Parade Bandfest (took place late Dec 1995). It is a very bad and unsteady camera angle. So I won't post it. Based on their 1996 show and success, the band underwent a bit of a transformation between 1994 and 1996. Now in 1995, Leander did attend the BOA San Antonio Regional (not yet a super regional) and finished 8th in finals. In 1996 they attended the BOA Denton TX regional. While this regional was also attended by Broken Arrow, BA was not quite the BOA giant they are today. The band that was actually heavily favored to win this regional (note the biggest Texas powers of the day were not in attendance) was Union, OK. The year before in 1995 Union was a Grand National Finalist. It was a big upset when Leander defeated Union and won this regional. This marked Leander's first BOA regional title (they would have to wait 19 years for their next one). Leander also became the first Austin area band to win a BOA Regional. In putting together this post, I just stumbled across the 1996 video. Even though the video quality is not the best, I am so glad I found this. What a transformation. They were still under the direction of Dennis Hopkins. Their music style was much more of a symphonic band style sound and it was really quite good. Their visual design was also more on par with current trends at the time. I could certainly see this show being a contender for Grand National Finals at the time (they of course would not attend GN until 1999). I also noted that one of the assistant directors was Amanda Drinkwater, who would go on to direct Marcus in the 2000s and 2010s. I guess it should not be surprising then that there were some sections of this that gave me a little Marcus mid-late 2000s vibe. Now I have a feeling that the amazing musical quality with which Marcus displayed in the 2000s (the music in their 2007 show was extraordinary) influenced some of the performances over the past decade from bands like Hebron, Flower Mound, Vandegrift, Vista Ridge, etc etc etc. So if Leander was a band that had a lot of influence Marcus, that would suggest that Leander has made a much bigger mark on BOA and UIL than I have given them credit for. So anyway, here is the 1996 performance of Leander from the Texas UIL state championships.
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Post by LeanderMomma on Oct 16, 2021 14:28:35 GMT -6
Thank you boahistorybuff! Leander definitely has some great history from back when they were the ONLY LISD high school. 💙💙 Leander has been around since 1899 which is almost as long as Round Rock HS. ☺️ I have definitely seen big changes in the program from their not so glorious days in the 2000s to their amazing rise in the last 7 years. I wasn’t around during the Drinkwater years but I have always appreciated her influence on Leander. Thanks again for your history lesson here, Buff. Leander often gets overshadowed by the big 6A Texas bands in the area, but those LHS kids are special and the program definitely is a successful one.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 18, 2021 5:28:53 GMT -6
More Vintage Franklin
Several posts back, I showcased some early 1980s era videos of Franklin HS, from Franklin TN. I stumbled upon another video from Franklin, this time from 1995. This was still a good 15 years or so before Franklin entered the BOA competitive circuit. Even though Franklin may have come into the BOA spotlight a little more recently, Franklin is one of the oldest competitive marching bands from the greater Nashville area. Prior to their more recent BOA years, they were focused on the competitive circuits in and around Tennessee and were frequent participants at the MTSU Contest of Champions. In this 1995 video, you will see that Franklin marched a very large band (much like they did in the 70s and 80s). During this time period, their style was a little more 'old school' compared to what was being done among the top level BOA bands of the day. But that is OK. They were still a good marching band; played well and pretty clean. By reading the posts, I guess they referred to this as their 'Jazz Show'.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 19, 2021 5:41:58 GMT -6
The Empire State' s Only Regional ChampionIf you look back at the Grand National results from the mid to late 1980s, you will see three bands from New York that appeared in finals, with several top five finishes. The Big Syracuse Three; West Genesee, Liverpool and Cicero North Syracuse all did very well at Grand Nationals. I have previous posts on each of these bands. Given that, you all (y'all in Texan ) may be surprised to find out that the state of New York has only one BOA Regional title under its belt. During the late 1980s, while those three Syracuse area bands were among the best in the country, they simply did not attend any of the BOA Regionals during the 1980s. I am sure the cost of travel was the big reason as the nearest BOA regionals to Syracuse New York were several hundred miles away (far fewer regionals back then). So these bands opted to use their travel budgets to attend the big BOA event; Grand Nationals. During the 1990s, the West Genesee Wildcats remained the big dominating force from New York as Liverpool and Cicero North Syracuse fell in the rankings a bit. On a side note, I will post about the other New York power that emerged in the 1990s, Webster HS, at a later time. West Genesee actually only attended Grand Nationals six times (85,86,87,90,91,95) and landed in finals each time. In addition to earlier posts from the 80s, I do have earlier posts of their 90, 91 and 95 shows. Over the decades, West Genesee has won dozens of New York State Championship titles. While this band has slipped a bit in recent years, they are by far the most decorated band from New York state. Although West Genesee only attended three Grand Nationals in the 1990s, they became more frequent participants at BOA regionals. In 1994, West Genesee traveled to BOA Toledo. They left a very big impression and they won the regional title. Some of the big name bands that they beat at this regional included, Marian Catholic, Lake Park and Plymouth-Canton. This regional win marks the only regional title for any band from New York state. While the video of that regional is not on line, West Genesee's 1994 State Championship performance is. You will see why many were disappointed that they did not attend Grand Nationals this year. This show also exemplifies how bands were upping the visual demands this decade. It also showcases why marching bands were now being taught conditioning; having to maintain steady airflow to play well while also doing a lot of strenuous movements. And yes, West Genesee was a band that many considered very innovative during that era.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 23, 2021 11:32:34 GMT -6
The End of Times, PCEP Style
After doing shows based around a Broadway Musical for the last seven years, Plymouth-Canton MI took a little different turn in 1995 with their show titled "Prophecy of the Earth, by David Gillingham". This show was still however very much in the style of their shows the previous few seasons, very dark and very theatrical. As I mentioned in earlier posts of Plymouth-Canton, they were very much a pioneer in the use of amplified vocalization and electronics during the early 1990s. Again, electronics was still not allowed in DCI at the time, so most of these innovations were occurring in the high school marching band circuits, especially BOA. To give a little bit of background as to what the 1995 Plymouth-Canton show was about, here is an excerpt I found online: Prophecy of the Earth is a symphonic poem for band and organ, which was commissioned by the J.J. Pearce High School Band, Matthew McInturf, conductor. Hear the cry of the Earth! Heed Her tale of woe! Havoc and destruction She has to come to know. Care for and nurture Her mighty expanse, And render eternal peace And life advance. - David R. Gillingham (1993).
The video of this show is of their performance in the 1995 BOA Grand National Finals, where they ended up in 5th place. The quality of the video is not the best (a little bit of static). Note how they used all of the vocalizations and electronics to add a bit of drama and help tell the story. In terms of today's standards, I am sure many of you may wonder; "What is the big deal?" I assure you that in 1995 this was considered a very cutting edge show. Online forums were pretty brand new at the time. Most of the comments about this show actually revolved around the drum feature. Many considered it one of the highlights of finals. So here it is.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 27, 2021 14:07:27 GMT -6
Finding Success and Innovation Amidst Turbulent Times
While I don't want to focus too much on this bands fall from the top echelon of BOA band programs, I do want to point out that despite mounting internal struggles, this band powered through. The band that I am talking about is Westerville South HS from Westerville, OH. I have several earlier posts from their late 80s/early 90s glory years. This post will focus on the 1995 to 1998 time period.
Their extremely ground breaking 1994 show (showcased in an earlier post) was followed by the 1995 season. Now I actually think that most of this bands struggles began after the 1995 season. However, their performance at the 1995 Grand Nationals was not quite as strong as the previous three years. They still however made Grand National finals and finished in 9th place. Their show was based on a music of a ballet (can't remember the name). What was unique about this show was the staging of the pit right next to two large black platform props. Now in terms of today's standards with all of the fancy and colorful props, these props probably seem overly simplistic/minimalistic. Back in 1995 of course that was not so much the case. What was unique about these props is that during portions of the show band members marched and stood atop of these very high props, in one segment some band members were going under the props while others were going over them. It was during the 1990s that bands were experimenting with the use of props as performance platforms, trying to give a three dimensional view to the visual design. At the time, Westerville South's props in the 1995 show seemed really high. Many of us were like 'I hope no one slips and falls'. Luckily that did not happen. I will admit that in 2018, when I saw Dobyns-Bennett show with the band on those tall platforms, I thought back to 1995 Westerville South. Obviously the Dobyns-Bennett design team improved upon and expanded this concept. So here is 1995 Westerville South in Grand National Finals:
After the 1995 fall season, problems began to surface at Westerville South. The first issue was the loss of longtime director Dustin Werner (it was a bit of a scandalous departure which we will not get into). That kind of set into motion a serious of struggles that would mount between the new director(s), school administration and parents. In 1996, it seemed Westerville South was powering through these struggles as they were having a relatively successful season. At the 1996 Grand Nationals, the semi finals format made its debut. The first two years of the semi finals format, BOA selected only the top 10 scoring bands from Semi Finals to advance to finals; then increased the number back to 12 in 1998. In 1996 GN Semi Finals, there seemed to be about 13 or 14 bands vying for the top 10 spots. Westerville South just edged into finals by finishing 10th in semis. Then in finals, they jumped up to 9th place. Their show was titled "The Wall". It was a type of show where the music selections and visual design fit the show concept. Of course they did some Pink Floyd. It was this type of themed show that was starting to emerge in the 90s, which then became hugely popular in the coming decades. Again, in terms of today's standards, this show may seem a bit minimal. I assure you all that in 1996 this was considered a very innovative show. Even though back then I was still not fond of singing or vocal narration in the shows, I really did enjoy this show very much. This also marked Westerville South's 10th time in Grand National Finals, it would end up being their last. The video I will show is of their performance at the 1996 Grand Nationals. I actually do not know if this is prelims, semi finals or finals. The low crowd size would suggest it was not finals. However they were the first band to perform in finals and as we all know, sometimes it takes people time to trickle into their seats at the start of finals.
In 1997, the internal problems at Westerville South continued. The band had yet another new director, now their third director in three years. You could also tell that the membership in the band was falling. While they made a couple regional finals, their placements did not suggest they would be anywhere near finals. Despite the challenges, I thought they gave a really strong show in semi finals. In fact, they finished in 12th place. Had BOA not stuck with a top ten for finals this year and instead chose a top 12, Westerville South would have made an 11th GN finals appearance. That was not in the cards however. While their 97 show did not have all the frills of the last few season, I still really enjoyed it. The music performance scores are what really kept them out of finals as they had the general effect and visual ensemble scores to make it in. So here is the 1997 GN performance.
In 1998, they did not lose another director, but from what I understand there was still a lot of internal strife between parents and school administration and the director. 1998 Westerville South's show was titled "A Forest Primeval" and used props and tarps, certainly a more progressive show compared to what they had done the previous year. They ended up finishing 19th in Semi Finals. This would mark their last time in the top 20 as in 1999 they were 28th in semi finals and in 2000 they failed to make semi finals. That was near the end of Westerville South's BOA years. Interesting that during the late 1990s, while Westerville South was struggling, Westerville North was very much on the rise and actually came in 14th in Semi Finals in 1999. I almost wondered if some of the staff left the turmoil at South and headed to North. In the early 2000s, budgetary cuts in the Westerville School district negatively impacted both programs. In fact, Westerville South did not even field a marching band in 2003. Anyway I did however want to post the 1998 performance of Westerville South at Grand Nationals. Knowing all of the problems ongoing in the program, I think the kids put together a nice performance at nationals.
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Post by Allohak on Oct 27, 2021 15:01:09 GMT -6
However, their performance at the 1995 Grand Nationals was not quite as strong as the previous three years. They still however made Grand National finals and finished in 9th place. Their show was based on a music of a ballet (can't remember the name). Westerville South 1995 included Ballet Sacra (Holsinger) and Grant Us Peace
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 27, 2021 15:40:00 GMT -6
However, their performance at the 1995 Grand Nationals was not quite as strong as the previous three years. They still however made Grand National finals and finished in 9th place. Their show was based on a music of a ballet (can't remember the name). Westerville South 1995 included Ballet Sacra (Holsinger) and Grant Us Peace Thanks. I guess I probably could have listened to the intro a little closer rather than trying to rely on memory. Nice to have other history buffs on the forums.
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Post by srv1084 on Oct 27, 2021 19:00:30 GMT -6
I almost wondered if some of the staff left the turmoil at South and headed to North. In the early 2000s, budgetary cuts in the Westerville School district negatively impacted both programs. In fact, Westerville South did not even field a marching band in 2003. Anyway I did however want to post the 1998 performance of Westerville South at Grand Nationals. Knowing all of the problems ongoing in the program, I think the kids put together a nice performance at nationals. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember reading about the former South director leaving South in 1996, going to North and then having to depart North after 1999. Was that not the case?
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 28, 2021 7:13:00 GMT -6
I almost wondered if some of the staff left the turmoil at South and headed to North. In the early 2000s, budgetary cuts in the Westerville School district negatively impacted both programs. In fact, Westerville South did not even field a marching band in 2003. Anyway I did however want to post the 1998 performance of Westerville South at Grand Nationals. Knowing all of the problems ongoing in the program, I think the kids put together a nice performance at nationals. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember reading about the former South director leaving South in 1996, going to North and then having to depart North after 1999. Was that not the case? Dustin Werner, who was director of South, left the district in 1996. Larry Kelley (who sadly passed in 2010) was the director of North. I think Mr. Kelley went to the new Westerville Central for a few years as well (after North's brief BOA glory years). It is possible that some of the assistant directors/staff from South went to North, but I am not sure on the specifics of that.
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Post by Uncle Baby Billy on Oct 28, 2021 13:27:36 GMT -6
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to remember reading about the former South director leaving South in 1996, going to North and then having to depart North after 1999. Was that not the case? Dustin Werner, who was director of South, left the district in 1996. Larry Kelley (who sadly passed in 2010) was the director of North. I think Mr. Kelley went to the new Westerville Central for a few years as well (after North's brief BOA glory years). It is possible that some of the assistant directors/staff from South went to North, but I am not sure on the specifics of that. Dustin Werner is now working as a middle school band director in the Brevard County School System (FL). He is proof that even the demonic forces in cancel culture (even back then) could not succeed in keeping such a gifted HS Band CEO down forever.
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Post by macwinlin on Oct 29, 2021 0:22:54 GMT -6
Dustin Werner, who was director of South, left the district in 1996. Larry Kelley (who sadly passed in 2010) was the director of North. I think Mr. Kelley went to the new Westerville Central for a few years as well (after North's brief BOA glory years). It is possible that some of the assistant directors/staff from South went to North, but I am not sure on the specifics of that. Dustin Werner is now working as a middle school band director in the Brevard County School System (FL). He is proof that even the demonic forces in cancel culture (even back then) could not succeed in keeping such a gifted HS Band CEO down forever. Why was he "cancelled?"
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Post by boahistorybuff on Oct 29, 2021 1:06:41 GMT -6
Let's not get into all that on these forums. My point of the post was that despite all of the turmoil, the kids and staff at Westerville South put together some good shows.
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