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Post by boahistorybuff on Dec 27, 2020 4:43:08 GMT -6
An Early Pioneer in Electronics - Northrop
Prior to the formation of the 'pit' in 1982, several high school bands used an amplifier carted around on the field for use with an electric bass. It was not long after the formation of the 'pit' that high school marching bands decided to place electronics in the pit. During these early years that mainly consisted of electronic keyboards and microphones. The microphones were typically used to amplify woodwind solos and in some instances stringed instrument solos (vocal soloists also emerged in the late 80s and 90s). Of course, as technology evolved over the coming decades, the use of electronics became far more sophisticated. Since electronics were not allowed in DCI, high school marching bands paved the way in finding ever more creative uses for electronics. During the early years, the use of electronics was not however universally accepted. There were many in the activity who despised them and felt that it gave the bands that used them an unfair advantage. That viewpoint would change over time. Although there are still some 'old school' types that feel that electronics are used too much today.
In 1984, Northrop HS from Fort Wayne, Indiana proved one of the big early pioneers in electronics. They used electric keyboards and they used microphones to amplify soloists, including some stringed instruments. I will show the video of Northrop at the 1984 BOA Grand National Finals. This was Northrop's second trip to Grand Nationals. Their first trip in 1981 garnered them a 4th place finish. This year they finished 12th in finals. That placement was actually a shock to many (and I am not sure if a penalty affected their placement). Just the year prior, in 1983, Northrop won the MBA Indianapolis Regional Title (their first and only BOA regional title) and they won the Indiana Class A State Title (their first and only state title), beating the Indiana power houses of Ben Davis and Chesterton. In 1984, Northrop placed 2nd at the Indiana Class A State Championships. So at the 1984 BOA Grand Nationals, with 5 Indiana bands in finals, they were very shocked to have placed 12th. It has been a long time since I have seen the full 1984 GN finals. I do think Northrop should have placed higher, but I did not see this performance as a top 5 contender. They did redeem themselves in 1985 when they bounced back from a rough performance at the Indiana State Championships and finished 6th in Grand National finals.
So here is the 1984 'Big Orange Pride' in their Grand National Finals Performance. In addition to the electronics, Northrop also embraced asymmetrical drill segments which were rapidly becoming the norm in visual designs.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Dec 29, 2020 4:31:48 GMT -6
A Gem From the Magnolia State
OK I may have gotten a little overly creative with the title on this one.
The Magnolia State is of course Mississippi. In recent years we have seen DeSoto Central HS perform well in BOA competitions and have seen a bit of a comeback from Clinton HS. Clinton HS was quite successful in the late 1980s and early 1990s. For those who have been following the activity for a while, Jackson Academy of course comes to mind when speaking of Mississippi bands. They had great success in the early 1990s, then again in the 2000s. A separate post will be made for this band as I consider them one of the most influential small school band programs in BOA history. For this post, I am going a little farther back in time. Before I talk about the band who is the main topic of this post, I will first mention two other successful Mississippi bands from the early years of MBA/BOA. The first is Kosciusko HS. Kosciusko is the first band to be crowned Grand National Class A Champion at the first Grand Nationals in 1976. They ended up being a finalist three of the four years that the Grand Nationals were held in June during the 1970s. When the Whitewater event become the Summer Nationals in the 1980s, Kosciusko made several appearances in finals. At the regional level, they were a finalist numerous times from the late 1970s through the 1980s and have several MBA/BOA regional Class A titles under their belt. The other band is Grenada HS. Grenada's success spanned the mid 1980s through the early 1990s. They were a finalist a several BOA regionals during this time period and picked up a few BOA regional Class AA titles. In 1985, they outright won a BOA regional title. Grenada attended Grand Nationals three times; 1986, 1988 and 1991. In both 1986 and 1988, Grenada was one placement away from making Grand National finals. In fact, in 1988 they fell just 0.05 points short of making Grand National finals. Although they did not come as close to finals in 1991, many of our parents who saw their performance said "that Mississippi band was really very good" and felt they had a shot at making finals. Although GN finals was not meant to be for Grenada, their success is still worth noting.
The band that is actually the subject of this post is Pearl HS 'Pirate Band' from Pearl, MS. Pearl was the most successful Mississippi band in MBA/BOA during the 1980s. They were a finalist and Class Champion (a couple years in Class A but mostly in Class AA) at numerous MBA/BOA regionals throughout the decade. In fact, they won three regional titles; 1983, 1986 and 1987. They appeared in Grand National finals twice; 1983 and 1986. Now I know there have been many upsets at BOA regionals over the years. I would actually say that in 1986, Pearl was involved in the biggest upset for a regional title ever in BOA history. This occurred at the Conroe, TX regional (known back then as the BOA Southwest Regional). Westfield TX was likely heavily favored to win the regional title. Not only had they won it the prior two years, they were coming off their 1985 season where they were runner-up to the Grand National title. The recaps show that Westfield won prelims. Pearl was actually 4th after prelims and nearly eleven points behind Westfield (they were the second band to perform so perhaps an early AM time slot?). In finals, Pearl improved their score from prelims by over twelve points, wow! They not only ended up beating Westfield to win the regional title, they won by a comfortable margin (over a point). Proving that this was no fluke, they went to Grand Nationals later in the season and place 5th and took the caption award for best marching. This was probably Pearl's best performance. If the video was available on line somewhere, I would show it. Unfortunately, I have not found any videos on line from Pearl's glory years. The exception is their 1983 Grand National finals performance. They finished 7th in this their first appearance in Grand National finals.
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Post by MadScientist on Dec 29, 2020 11:04:19 GMT -6
Merry Christmas
Russian Christmas Music - A very popular piece of music back in the day for drum corps and marching bands. I would say it is probably the most frequently used Christmas themed song on the field (The Nutcracker might be 2nd). I auditioned for drum major in high school and this was the piece that they had us conduct. It was a drum corps arrangement. Not sure which one, but I suspect SCV. Our wind ensemble concert band played the original version of Russian Christmas Music at our holiday concert in December every other year. Loved it! Also, Russian Christmas is generally celebrated January 7, so we have a few more days to enjoy Russian Christmas Music until we have to put it back on the shelf until next year.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Jan 4, 2021 5:15:39 GMT -6
The Other Clovis
Those of us who have followed Clovis West HS from Fresno, CA in BOA for the last couple decades may not have realized the early success of their neighboring school Clovis HS from Clovis, CA.
Now Clovis West has been a finalist numerous times at various BOA western regionals. While many of you may remember their regional wins in 2010 and 2016, Clovis West actually won their first BOA regional in 1988. In fact, during the late 1980s and 1990s, Clovis West was one of the best bands in California and won numerous WSMBC championships. Prior to Clovis West's rise, it was actually Clovis HS that was the power house. Clovis won many competitions throughout California in the 1980s. Clovis HS was also active on the summer competitive circuit. They were a finalist at a few of the MBA/BOA Summer Nationals in Whitewater, WI in the 1980s. In 1983, they were the Summer National Open Class Champions and were runners up to the Summer National title.
I thought that Etiwanda HS was the first California band to attend the fall Grand Nationals when they were a first time finalist in 1992. I then stumbled across this video and realized I was wrong. The first California band to attend the fall Grand Nationals was Clovis HS. Now the video says 1985 but this was actually 1984 (you can even see 1984 on the banner in the back of the field). Unfortunately, they did not make finals (I am not sure how close they came to finals). Anyway, here is the video of Clovis HS at the 1984 Grand Nationals, their first and only trip to fall Grand Nationals.
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Post by hewhowaits on Jan 4, 2021 6:27:50 GMT -6
The Other ClovisI thought that Etiwanda HS was the first California band to attend the fall Grand Nationals when they were a first time finalist in 1992. I then stumbled across this video and realized I was wrong. The first California band to attend the fall Grand Nationals was Clovis HS. Now the video says 1985 but this was actually 1984 (you can even see 1984 on the banner in the back of the field). Unfortunately, they did not make finals (I am not sure how close they came to finals). Anyway, here is the video of Clovis HS at the 1984 Grand Nationals, their first and only trip to fall Grand Nationals. It is unfortunate that the results archives on musicforall.org only go back to the 1985 season.
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Post by bandfan4 on Jan 4, 2021 18:09:09 GMT -6
I fortunately have some recaps prior to 1985.
For 1984 Grand Nationals, Clovis West had a 81.25 in prelims. They went on 9th in prelims. Keep in mind well before they did a semi-finals show. That score placed them tied for 15th (with Paoli HS). 49 bands in prelims.
Northrup had a 84.90 (actually a 85.0 with a .1 penalty). 7th in prelims. They were 1st in Music GE #1 (19.4). They finished 12th in finals with a 77.65.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Jan 5, 2021 4:27:18 GMT -6
I fortunately have some recaps prior to 1985. For 1984 Grand Nationals, Clovis West had a 81.25 in prelims. They went on 9th in prelims. Keep in mind well before they did a semi-finals show. That score placed them tied for 15th (with Paoli HS). 49 bands in prelims. Northrup had a 84.90 (actually a 85.0 with a .1 penalty). 7th in prelims. They were 1st in Music GE #1 (19.4). They finished 12th in finals with a 77.65. Thank you so much for the information. Interesting that Northrop dropped so much in finals. It was somewhat common back then for scores in finals to be very different from prelims (they liked to spread the scores out in finals a lot more back then). The placement jump is usually what told the story.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Jan 6, 2021 4:16:38 GMT -6
An Early Tennessee Powerhouse...John Overton HS
In 1988, when I was a freshman in high school, there was no watching videos on line. In order to see other band performances you either had to watch them live in the stands or buy/borrow a video taped performance. Occasionally, a big competition would be broadcast on PBS (that is actually how I saw my first DCI competition). During Christmas break in 1988, PBS showed a rebroadcast of the Middle Tennessee State University Contest of Champions that had occurred in the fall of 1988. The MTSU Contest of Champions is a very big region-wide competition, especially back in the 1980s. Many of the participating bands are from Tennessee and Kentucky I saw a band that I was unfamiliar with as they had not competed in Bands of America. Note: back then BOA had far fewer regionals and less bands competing at nationals, so there were a lot of strong bands who did not participate in BOA. That band was John Overton HS from Nashville, TN. Turns out, they won the MTSU Contest of Champions in 1983 and 1985 and were runners-up in 82,84,86,87, and 88. Most of the times they were runner up they had been beating by either North Hardin KY or McGavock TN. In watching these old John Overton videos, I noted that this band had the goods to either be a Grand National finalist or a band that would come very close. So here are a series of performances by John Overton from their glory years.
1982
1983
1984
1985 - could only find their prelims performance on line
1987 (could not find 86 show). Note that this show was built around a centralized theme; Broadway. Shows built around a central theme gained popularity in winter guard in the late 70s/early 80s, then in drum corps in the mid to late 80s and in high school marching bands in the late 80s/early 90s.
1988 - Another themed show, built around a circus. Note in these early years of the themed shows costuming began to take hold in the guard. The guard and in some instances the drum majors were tasked with really selling the theme to the audience.
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Post by 78haworth on Jan 6, 2021 12:37:27 GMT -6
Johnny O LOVED those feathers! They were very good at the themed shows. I moved to Franklin in 1985 and went to my first COC in 1986. Overton, McGavock, Columbia, North Hardin, Lafayette and then Paul Laurence Dunbar. Now those were some great bands at COC. Broken Arrow even attended in 1993 placing 7th. COC has such a rich history dating back to 1962!
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Post by boahistorybuff on Jan 9, 2021 5:20:29 GMT -6
1984 - What a Season For the Marching Panthers
By 1984, Western HS from Russiaville, IN (under the direction of Larry Neuhauser) already had a couple Indiana Class C State titles under their belt. Although they did not attend MBA/BOA regionals until 1989, they become a perennial Grand National participant beginning in 1983. At Grand Nationals in 1983, they finished 23rd in prelims. Then came the 1984 season. They again won the Indiana Class C State Title. Many have said that their 1984 performance was the best Class C state champion performance of the decade (and I have heard some say one of the best of all time). A few weeks after their state championship performance, Western went to Grand Nationals (which was in Indy for the first time). They not only made Grand National finals, they placed 5th in finals and won the Grand National Class A Title. It remains one of the highest placement jumps into finals from one year to the next. 1984 also marked the last year a Class A band would finish in the top half of finalist bands. Western HS attended Grand Nationals every year from 1983 to 1991 and made Grand National finals a total of 7 times (4 of which they made based on class). They also won 4 Grand National Class Titles through this period and were runners up to the Class A title 4 times. After a near 20 year absence from BOA (they continued to remain strong in ISSMA), Western returned to BOA competition in the 2010s and ended up winning their 5th GN Class A title in 2012.
The video that I have selected is from the 1984 ISSMA State Championships. Being later in the season, their GN performance that year was obviously stronger. It is just not available on line. As you can see, Western really embraced the changes that were going on during that time period with respect to drill design. First of course was much more asymmetry in the drill. The other aspect was significantly more curve linear designs. Westerns 1984 show was almost entirely curve linear. While it is hard to see from this high cam video, at the beginning of the show, the guard wore large black capes (black on the outside, very colorful on the inside). The guard used their capes to add visual interest (pops of color). Capes and/or skirts used in this mannor was a common feature of the Western guard in the mid 1980s.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Jan 14, 2021 20:13:51 GMT -6
A Little Bit of Visual Trickery
There were several instances in the 1980s when Santa Clara Vanguard performed a little bit of magic on the field. One of the things that comes to my mind is the closer of their 1989's Phantom of the Opera Show when they made the drum major disappear followed by the entire corps disappearing at the end. 1989 SCV is one of my all time favorite drum corps shows by the way. In 1985, SCV did another optical illusion with the changing of the color of their pants. These were just a few examples of the many types of ways in which drum corps and marching bands were adding more artistic flare to their programs during the 1980s.
Here is a DCI clip from that 1985 moment where Santa Clara Vanguard gave the audience a little bit of magic.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Jan 18, 2021 10:08:24 GMT -6
The Rise Of BOA's Greatest Legend - Marian Catholic
This will be the first of many posts of Marian. Their 3-peat will be covered in a later post.
In 1977, Greg Bimm was hired by Marian Catholic and became director of the marching band. From what I have read, at the time the Marian Catholic band had 77 members and was not even considered among the top bands in the state of Illinois. Over the next several years, Mr. Bimm, along with some very dedicated students and instructors, built the band program into a national power. Marian, like many Midwest bands, had both a summer and fall competitive marching season. They actually kept a summer competitive season going all the way through 1988 (by which time most national powers had abandoned their summer programs to concentrate on their fall programs). In 1980, they won their first state title in their class. They kept improving during the course of the early 1980s. I am not sure what year Marian first competed at the Summer Nationals. I do know that they were a finalist at the Summer Nationals in 1983. During the fall of 1983, they won the overall Illinois State Title. In the summer of 1984, they became the BOA Summer National Champions (it would be their first of 5 consecutive Summer National Titles). That fall they again won the Illinois State Title and they made their first trip to the fall Grand Nationals. They ended up finishing 7th in finals. This would be their first of 34 consecutive appearances in Grand National finals. That video is not on line. One thing that stood out with Marian was that they sounded more like a wind symphony on the field.
In 1985, Marian won the BOA Summer National title again and they defended their Illinois State Title. In an interview I saw of Greg Bimm years ago, he talked about the 85 season. He said that at Grand Nationals in 84, he felt that Marian was not where it needed to be visually compared to the top placing bands (I have a feeling he may have meant that they were not to the level of Rocky Mount visually). So they went about fixing that. Marian attended two BOA regionals in the fall of 1985. The first was an early season regional in Whitewater, WI (the only regional held at the site of the Summer Nationals). This regional was not highly competitive and Marian ended up winning by a comfortable margin (around 8 points). This was their first BOA regional title. Two weeks before Grand Nationals, Marian attended the Indianapolis regional. They ended up finishing 2nd to Lawrence North IN by just a half a point. I have never seen their regional performance (no videos of regionals back then). They must have had immense improvement in the two weeks leading into Nationals (something that has been a consistent trait of Marian). At the 1985 Grand Nationals, Marian came into finals as having won prelims. They ended up winning the Grand National title by the third highest point separation between 1st and 2nd place. Their symphonic sound really struck a chord with the music judges. They also showed that a marching band can play slowly and softly and still make an impact during their performance of Pie Jesu. They took caption awards for brass/winds, general effect and marching and maneuvering and they won the Class AA Title. They were by far cleaner visually than all of the other bands. So Mr. Bimm's efforts to improve visually certainly paid off.
For an updated Marian 85 video, go to page 17.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Jan 20, 2021 16:39:56 GMT -6
The Commandant's Own
On this inauguration day, I thought it was fitting to show a vintage video of The Commandant's Own Drum and Bugle Corps. No matter what your party affiliation is, every one of us should enjoy seeing and hearing the Commandant's Own Drum and Bugle Corps perform on inauguration day. I for one love their military precision. The Commandant's Own has frequently been performing in exhibition at both the DCI World Championships and BOA Grand Nationals for many many years. I have included videos of their performances after the conclusion of the 1985 and the 1989 BOA Grand National Finals.
1985
1989
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Post by boahistorybuff on Jan 29, 2021 4:37:18 GMT -6
Another Texas Giant - Duncanville
This will be just one of a few different posts for Duncanville HS, from Duncanville, TX. In terms of the word giant, with Duncanville I mean this both figuratively and literally. They are one of the biggest high school marching bands I have ever seen and man could they play. Duncanville, like so many other Texas bands of the 1980s, had a lot of traditional elements within their show. This included a dance team. Also like many of the Texas greats during this era, they were clean visually but lacked some of the difficulty on the visual front that was common among the top level BOA contenders of this time period. I will detail the Texas band that broke this mold in a later post. One thing that Duncanville did have was an amazing ensemble sound (I am sure the sound quality on the early videos do not do it justice). Even back in the 1980s, that awesome sound was a trademark of the great Texas bands of the day. And yes, the musical quality of the top level Texas bands has done nothing but improve in the decades since. Here is a video of Duncanville from the 1986 Texas UIL State Championships. This is the firs year that they won the conference 5A state title (1990 was the other year). I will show some of their early 90s videos in a later post.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Jan 30, 2021 9:21:15 GMT -6
And All That Jazz - Centerville in the 1980's
The Centerville I am talking about is of course Centerville HS from Centerville, OH. I remember seeing an interview with Dr Tim way back in the late 1980s. This is an analogy that he made that has always stuck with me. He said that if you compare Grand National finals to a four course meal, then Centerville would be the desert. They certainly were a huge favorite among the Grand National crowd back in those days.
In looking at what Centerville did in the 1980s, I want to first go back a little farther into time. Looking at high school marching band and drum corps shows of the 1960s and 1970s, while many bands/corps did have their own signature song selection or drill move(s), the structure of shows both musically and visually were very similar to one another. During the course of the 1980s, with the advent of asymmetrical drill, artistic color guard routines, theme based shows and less restrictive judging, that mold would slowly be broken. You started to see much more variation among the bands/corps; a trend that kept growing over the next few decades. In watching the old Grand National finals videos of the 1980s, Centerville was a band that certainly stood out. In 1984, their debut at Grand Nationals, they brought to the field an all jazz musical repertoire. It was almost like they were a blend of the Blue Devils (with their jazz) and the Velvet Knights (with their laid back attitude) at a high school performance level. Centerville also was one of the early pioneers in using electronic amplification (they may just have had the largest amplifier ever carted around the field). This included the use of bass and electric keyboards as well as using a microphone to amplify soloists. This was actually a bit of a controversial thing back in those days, as you will hear in the 87 clip which includes some commentary. One other point I must make about Centerville is that they had some amazing saxophone features. They were not the first to use extended saxophone features and soloists (Ben Davis IN and Northrop IN had some great saxophone moments in the early 1980s), but Centerville really took saxophone features to another level.
The Centerville marching band has a history that goes back into the pre World War II days. In the mid 1970s, Wayne Markworth became director of the Centerville Marching Elks. He improved the performance level of this band, making them one of the best bands in the state of Ohio. Here is an old video of Centerville participating in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1982. They are wearing their old late 1970s/early 1980s uniforms.
While Centerville did participate in their first BOA regional in 1982, where they were a finalist, their BOA days really began in 1984. 1984 was a huge turning point for Centerville. This is when they adopted an all jazz show and debuted brand new uniforms that had more of an artistic flair compared to what other high school bands were wearing at the time. They effectively went from the Centerville Elks to the Centerville Jazz Band. In 1984, Centerville was a regional finalist and made their first trip to Grand Nationals (they have attended Grand Nationals every year since; well minus 2020 of course). Not only did they make Grand National finals, they finished 6th which was their highest finish in finals of the decade (even though I think their 87 and 88 shows were stronger). Here is their 1984 finals performance:
In 1985, Centerville did quite well at the two BOA regionals they attended. They were runner-up to the regional title at the Akron, OH regional and finished 4th at the Indy regional. I am sure they were considered a lock for finals. However, I think they may have had an off performance in GN Prelims and they missed finals. They ended up in the dreaded 13th spot in prelims. Here is their 1985 prelims performance:
In 1986, Centerville was again runner up at the BOA Akron, OH regional. At Grand Nationals, they just barely made finals, coming in 12th in prelims. Once in finals though, they ended up finishing in 8th place. Here is their 1986 GN finals performance.
Competitively, 1987 may have been the best year of the decade for Centerville. They won the BOA Toledo Regional. This was their first BOA regional title and the first regional title for an Ohio band. In Grand National prelims, not only did their performance land them in finals, they finished 5th overall in prelims. In finals, they placed 8th for the second year in a row. Here is their 1987 GN finals performance.
In 1988, Centerville may just have had their most crowd pleasing show of the decade. I remember sitting watching GN finals in the stands and we were all excited to see Centerville come onto the field. I think after watching the 88 Grand National finals, if you had done a survey of our band and asked them what finals band would you most want to have been a part of; Centerville was probably the number one pick (yes Marian was probably a very close 2nd). The 88 season started out strong for Centerville as they were runner up at the Akron, OH regional. In Grand National prelims they actually just barely made finals. They were 12th in prelims by a mere 0.05 points. Let me just say that if they had not made finals in 88, it would have been a huge shock and very big disappointment. In finals, they ended up finishing 8th for the third year in a row. The only video that is on line is of their prelims performance. I think they did a little better in finals and the finals crowd gave them a lot of love during their performance of "In The Mood". So here is their 1988 GN Prelims performance.
In 1989, Centerville attended the BOA Morgantown, WV regional for the first time and were runner-up to the title. Later in the season they finished 4th at the Cincinnati, OH regional. Centerville had a strong prelims performance at Grand Nationals and were 6th. In GN Finals, Centerville placed 10th. This was their 5th appearance in GN finals. Their jazz style arrangement of Over The Rainbow was also a pretty big hit as was their closer. Centerville really knew how to close a show. I will have additional posts of Centerville in the 90s at a later time. Here is the 1989 Centervile Jazz Band in BOA Finals.
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Post by Allohak on Jan 30, 2021 10:16:35 GMT -6
For those of you at home thinking "Elks? Why would a school have a grammatically incorrect mascot/nickname?", I live in Centerville and wonder the same thing. There is no Elks Lodge here.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Jan 30, 2021 12:14:21 GMT -6
For those of you at home thinking "Elks? Why would a school have a grammatically incorrect mascot/nickname?", I live in Centerville and wonder the same thing. There is no Elks Lodge here. That is strange. Of course I grew up in a town called Flushing. Thankfully our mascot was a Raider and not something to do with toilets.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Feb 2, 2021 6:10:19 GMT -6
The Other Lawrence
At the start of the 2014 season, the marching bands at Lawrence Central HS and Lawrence North HS of Indiana merged to form the Marching Pride of Lawrence Township (MPLT). It is legal for a marching band to be comprised of members of more than one high school as long as those high schools are all from the same school district.
Prior to this merger, there were two marching bands; Lawrence Central 'The Spirit of Central' and Lawrence North 'The Lawrence North Regime'. From the mid 1990s up through the 2013 season, it was Central that was the dominate band. In fact, they were one of the best bands in Indiana (winning multiple Indiana Class A State Titles) and they were among the best bands in BOA (including winning two Grand National titles). Lawrence Central is actually one of the most successful bands to ever have participated in BOA. Before Central's rise in the early/mid 1990s, it was actually Lawrence North that was the more successful of the two. Lawrence North's glory years were during the 1980s and early 1990s. In Indiana competition, they were the Class B state champions in 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1985 before moving into Class A in 1986. They remained a Class A state finalist for several years thereafter. They did not participate in Bands of America every year (they would have had more finals appearances if they had). However, they still had much success on the BOA front. They were a regional finalist several times. In 1985 they won the BOA Indianapolis regional (edging out future GN Champ Marian to win the title). This was their first and only regional title. Also in 1985 they made their first trip to Grand Nationals (at least I think it was their first trip). They finished 4th in finals which would be their highest finish ever at Grand Nationals. Between 1986 and 1992, they attended Grand Nationals only three other times and made finals each time. In 1986 they placed 6th; in 1989 they placed 6th; in 1992 they placed 8th. 1992 was the last time the Lawrence North Regime appeared in Grand National finals.
I have stumbled across one video that has 4 Lawrence North performances on it; 1984, 1985, 1986 and 1987. 84-86 were their performances at the Indiana State Championships. I am not sure where the 87 performance is from. Their style in these videos is very typical of the visual and musical styles of many top level high school bands during the mid 1980s. I will say that their performances at the 85 and 86 Grand Nationals, being a few weeks later than the state competition, was certainly cleaner/stronger. That saxophone soloist in 86 was really awesome and from the old VHS tape I could tell got a strong response from the Grand National audience.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Feb 4, 2021 5:11:07 GMT -6
Another Huge Texas Band
Yes, everything is bigger in Texas and that includes marching bands. Here is another vintage Texas band video that I have stumbled across; Abilene Cooper Marching band at the 1986 Texas UIL Championships. Is the entire high school in this band? I have to imagine that sitting in the stands listening to this huge band was quite the experience. Like so many Texas bands in the early to mid 1980s, this band had a lot of traditional (ie college half time style) elements. While visually not at the difficulty level of top level BOA bands of the day, they still had some interesting formations and great execution of straight lines.
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Post by abtwitch on Feb 4, 2021 21:17:35 GMT -6
Another Huge Texas BandYes, everything is bigger in Texas and that includes marching bands. Here is another vintage Texas band video that I have stumbled across; Abilene Cooper Marching band at the 1986 Texas UIL Championships. Is the entire high school in this band? I have to imagine that sitting in the stands listening to this huge band was quite the experience. Like so many Texas bands in the early to mid 1980s, this band had a lot of traditional (ie college half time style) elements. While visually not at the difficulty level of top level BOA bands of the day, they still had some interesting formations and great execution of straight lines. Abilene represent!
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Post by boahistorybuff on Feb 7, 2021 4:31:41 GMT -6
And Then Came Westfield
Upon viewing many of the available videos of Texas marching bands in the 1980s, there are a few things to note. There was certainly evidence in those early years of superb ensemble sound from the top level Texas bands. There was also a lot of traditional style elements that remained in the corps style band programs. While very clean visually, most of the top level Texas bands did not have the visual difficulty that was common among top level BOA competing band programs of the day. There were actually several top level Texas bands in the 80s that were still not marching backward (they would turn and face the back of the field in lieu of marching backwards). I suspect that the judging in UIL was significantly different compared to BOA (probably more so than today). I suspect back in those days that while many Texas bands would score well musically in BOA, they would get killed in the visual marks. This is probably why most Texas bands did not compete in MBA/BOA in the 1980s. Don't get me wrong, there were still several bands that competed in the BOA Southwest Regional (held every year in Texas). Lake Highlands actually became the first Texas band to win a regional title in 1982. The number of Texas bands competing in MBA/BOA back then was still a small fraction of those that compete in the circuit today.
In 1981 a new high school opened up in the Spring ISD. That high school was named Westfield. Philip Geiger became director of the marching band, The Westfield Big Red Band. Since the Spring ISD had one of the best music programs in the state, the Westfield marching band was able to bring in students who were already strong musicians. So the marching band had a meteoric rise during the early to mid 1980s. Westfield also hired a drill designer, the legendary Steve Brubaker who was the designer for the Cavaliers. Over the course of the decade, Mr. Brubaker pushed the Westfield marching band with visual routines far more complex and difficult than anything that other Texas bands were doing at the time. They also took on some of the more challenging music in relation to other Texas bands. What ended up happening is that Westfield not only became a Texas power house, they also became the first Texas BOA powerhouse band program. Westfield also inspired many Texas band programs to achieve new heights, most notably was Spring in the 1990s. Below are some of the videos from Westfield's early years in the 1980s (their success in the 1990s will be highlighted in later posts.
In 1983, Westfield attended the BOA (MBA) southwest regional (this may have been their first BOA competition). They were a finalist. There is an early season video of Westfield from 1983, but I think it is a very early season video, so I will not show it. In 1984, Westfield won the BOA Southwest regional, their first BOA regional title. I will show a video from 1984; I think an early season football game. In 1985, Westfield won their second BOA southwest regional title. They did not participate in the UIL state championships. Instead, they attended the BOA Grand Nationals, the first Texas band to do so. In fact, this was the only appearance by a Texas band at Grand Nationals the entire decade. Westfield made finals (becoming the first Texas band to be a Grand National finalist) by finishing 4th in prelims. In finals they jumped to 2nd place, winning the Open Class Title and taking the caption award for best percussion (Westfield had an amazing percussion section in their glory years). I have looked for a video of Westfield from 1985 but have not found any. From my memory I do think they had a more difficult visual package compared to their 84 season. In 1986, despite easily winning prelims at the BOA Southwest Regional, they got upset in finals by Pearl MS and finished 2nd. This would be the first of many time that Westfield would win prelims at a BOA competition only to finish 2nd in finals. At the Texas UIL competition Westfield finished 2nd to Duncanville. The video is from their 86 UIL performance. I will also show the videos from their UIL performance from 87, 88 and 89 (I absolutely love their 88 and 89 shows). They won the Texas UIL Title every year in the late 80s. In both 87 and 88 Westfield also won the BOA Southwest Regional. In 1989, while they won prelims, the finished 2nd to Klein TX in the BOA Southwest Regional finals.
1984
1986
1987
1988 (first video)
1988 (second video with commentary)
1989 (multi camera)
1989 (high camera)
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Post by boahistorybuff on Feb 12, 2021 6:41:18 GMT -6
The Most Progressive High School Color Guard of the 80s - The Union Renegade Regiment
As I have stated before, the color guard underwent a huge transition during the 1980s; from a more military style guard at the start of the decade to a more artistically styled unit by the end. During the early to mid 1980s, there were several winter guards (most notably the independent guards) who infused more modern dance routines into the color guard in a much more effective manner and added a lot of visual interest in doing so. Color guard routines were becoming much more fluid and several of the guards started using body movement much more effectively. There was one high school guard that took those trends to new heights. That guard was Union HS from Tulsa, OK. Correct me if I am wrong but I believe their instructor was a young Wes Cartwright.
1986 was the most successful year of the decade for Union. It was not just the guard, the whole band (especially that drum line) was very good. In addition to winning the OBA State Title, they also won a BOA regional title. While they had attended the Whitewater Grand Nationals of the late 70s and were a finalist at the 1981 Summer Nationals, 1986 marked their first trip to the fall Grand Nationals. They ended up finishing 4th in finals (they of course won the coordinated auxiliary award), the highest finish at GN ever for this band. If there was a video available of Union's 1986 Grand Nationals performance, I would show it. The only video I have found of Union 86 is an early season performance in the rain. Obviously their GN performance was better, but here is the Union 86 show. I heard at Grand Nationals, many in the audience could not keep their eyes off the guard; they were in many ways ahead of their time in terms high school marching band guard in 1986.
Union's winter guard also won the WGI World Title in 1985, 1987 and 1988. Here are their 87 and 88 winter guard shows.
1987
1988
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Post by kvgdc on Feb 13, 2021 17:54:57 GMT -6
An Early Pioneer in Electronics - Northrop
Prior to the formation of the 'pit' in 1982, several high school bands used an amplifier carted around on the field for use with an electric bass. It was not long after the formation of the 'pit' that high school marching bands decided to place electronics in the pit. During these early years that mainly consisted of electronic keyboards and microphones. The microphones were typically used to amplify woodwind solos and in some instances stringed instrument solos (vocal soloists also emerged in the late 80s and 90s). Of course, as technology evolved over the coming decades, the use of electronics became far more sophisticated. Since electronics were not allowed in DCI, high school marching bands paved the way in finding ever more creative uses for electronics. During the early years, the use of electronics was not however universally accepted. There were many in the activity who despised them and felt that it gave the bands that used them an unfair advantage. That viewpoint would change over time. Although there are still some 'old school' types that feel that electronics are used too much today. In 1984, Northrop HS from Fort Wayne, Indiana proved one of the big early pioneers in electronics. They used electric keyboards and they used microphones to amplify soloists, including some stringed instruments. I will show the video of Northrop at the 1984 BOA Grand National Finals. This was Northrop's second trip to Grand Nationals. Their first trip in 1981 garnered them a 4th place finish. This year they finished 12th in finals. That placement was actually a shock to many (and I am not sure if a penalty affected their placement). Just the year prior, in 1983, Northrop won the MBA Indianapolis Regional Title (their first and only BOA regional title) and they won the Indiana Class A State Title (their first and only state title), beating the Indiana power houses of Ben Davis and Chesterton. In 1984, Northrop placed 2nd at the Indiana Class A State Championships. So at the 1984 BOA Grand Nationals, with 5 Indiana bands in finals, they were very shocked to have placed 12th. It has been a long time since I have seen the full 1984 GN finals. I do think Northrop should have placed higher, but I did not see this performance as a top 5 contender. They did redeem themselves in 1985 when they bounced back from a rough performance at the Indiana State Championships and finished 6th in Grand National finals. So here is the 1984 'Big Orange Pride' in their Grand National Finals Performance. In addition to the electronics, Northrop also embraced asymmetrical drill segments which were rapidly becoming the norm in visual designs. Hah! I'm in the crowd somewhere for this. We were in the block in the upper deck though. My sister is on the field. Some of the shock was that they were just a bit behind Ben Davis at ISSMA state finals not but a week before in that dome despite having phased the opener. I don't recall the details but I recall talk that they were scored much higher in prelims then plonked in the finals despite not having a bad run or anything. There were Ben Davis parents who came by to express their shock too and that they had been worried about Northrop passing them in finals that night, Ben Davis had finished 4th. The whole incident gave Indiana bands a bad taste about MBA (as it was then..not BOA) and a deprioritization of it vis a vis winning the State finals. At the time, it was all about the judges. But looking back, it was probably about the sheets as well. This was the last year before Northrop began pulling in 'national' designers and arrangers. The drill was largely written by staff on the band who were graduates of Northrop. The Drum feature (Dirty Sneakers) that is double timed with the long lines of drill was written by a graduate and a modified reprise of the 1983 show musically, the drill was the same. Despite the asymmetry and synth (which we were doing since 81, I think?) it was written with ISMMA in mind. In 85 we had the first of three years of drill written by Chops Czapinski then switched to Greg Cesario my senior year in 88. We also got arrangers for our numbers over time that were 'known' although their names are slipping my memory. So there was some effort in the program in recognizing the 'staff wars' that were to come in order to remain competitive. We came back my freshman year for a 6th place finish, which actually felt sort of bitter as we'd placed 6th in ISSMA finals just before this which was the lowest in some time. We had a VERY rough opener run at ISSMA finals due to a bit of panic over the starting time. Snider High School had been assessed a timing penalty at the ISSMA regional (there was no semi-state back then) that knocked them out of state finals. So all the directors were warned about timing penalties for finals and 'on edge.' Our director was concerned about our set up time not meaning we'd have time to get off the field and gave the "go" to the head drum major while the drum major for side 1 was headed back to their spot after fixing some opening set lines. (We had diagonals in two V formations that extended from beyond the back line and into the endzones down to beyond the front line for the opening set.) They were literally RUNNING to their spot when heard the count off from the box and...that opening hit from the Wasps was a massive tear across the ensemble. Part of the problem being the Hoosier Dome made it impossible to hear across the field, the field majors had a heck of a time trying to get us together. The show had a natural stop before Time for a Change, which we marched in 9/4 with a drag step.) and we had probably our best run ever for that and First Circle and the closer. But that opener disaster put us 6th. So 6th at GN felt sour. As did getting 6th at ISSMA finals the next year. We were...tired of that number.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Feb 15, 2021 10:17:15 GMT -6
Tradition VS Innovation
With all of the trends going on in drum corps and competitive high school marching bands in the 1980s, several debates emerged about haw far innovation should go before loosing the traditional military elements. There were many who wanted to retain as many of the traditional "old school" elements of drum corps early days as possible, while others wanted to push the envelope by infusing more artistry and showmanship into the program. This debate would go on for a long time. Here is a DCI clip from 1987 that touches on this debate.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Feb 16, 2021 20:44:00 GMT -6
Not a video post - but the back of an old MBA album A member who marching with Flushing back in the early 1980s posted a digitally enhanced version of the back of one of the Grand National Finals albums from 1980. Back in the early 1980s, MBA put out finals performances on a record (in addition to VHS video tapes). The 12 finalist bands performances were put on three albums. The top three bands would each be on a different album. On the back of these albums, there was a lot of detailed information about the bands and their performances. Here is the back of the volume 2 (don't have volume 1 or 3) record from the 1980 MBA Grand Nationals in Florida. The audio performances on volume 2 included, Seminole (FL), Flushing (MI), South Cobb (GA) and Southern Garrett (MD). www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10157634268147330&set=pcb.10158874642895867
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Post by boahistorybuff on Feb 18, 2021 10:28:51 GMT -6
MFA 45 Years Video Montage
I am sure many of you have seen this video posted back in November. If you have not, it is well worth the time to view. To put into context a little, the opening introduces Westfield TX in BOA GN finals. This was 1985 and was a historic moment as Westfield 85 marked the first Texas band to appear in Grand National Finals. The first two to three minutes show a lot of video footage of the Grand Nationals and Summer Nationals of the 1980s, both when it was Marching Bands of America and Bands of America. A lot of the video clips are from the 1981 Grand Nationals in Johnson City TN and the 1985 Grand Nationals in Indy. Also, for those who were not around back then, the three female drum majors in the yellow-ish colored short shorts are the Drum Majors for Marian Catholic.
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Post by kvgdc on Feb 20, 2021 12:21:17 GMT -6
I fortunately have some recaps prior to 1985. For 1984 Grand Nationals, Clovis West had a 81.25 in prelims. They went on 9th in prelims. Keep in mind well before they did a semi-finals show. That score placed them tied for 15th (with Paoli HS). 49 bands in prelims. Northrup had a 84.90 (actually a 85.0 with a .1 penalty). 7th in prelims. They were 1st in Music GE #1 (19.4). They finished 12th in finals with a 77.65. Oh good find! Yeah. I remember there was a penalty and a pretty sizable drop in the over all score. And that the Music GE was sky high at prelims. I think there was an outlier score somewhere in the finals panel that was low too that the director was point at at some point. In then end though, the specifics of the scores stopped being talked about in the program as it was a point of pain for the kids to have been plonked in finals after doing pretty well. Oh, and it is Northrop. Various places would misspell it as Northrup much the groans of the band and fans every time. I mean the parents group would do a super loud and super coordinated "gimme an N!" and spell out the whole name every time we came on the field. Then we'd get a program book or video after the show with "Northrup". Gah.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Feb 20, 2021 18:18:57 GMT -6
It would be great to see all of the recaps prior to 1985. I have never seen 1984. The judging back in those days (at least in my opinion) was not as consistent as it is today. I do not know when BOA started using the chief judge to provide a little bit of oversight. If you look at the recaps on the BOA site from the late 80s, you will notice that the point spread between 1st and 12th was much larger in finals compared to prelims. This I am sure was by design. So just because a band scored 85 in prelims and then scored 78 in finals did not mean they had a bad show in finals (in some instances their show was better).
Considering what Northrop had achieved prior to their 84 finals appearance, I can certainly imagine why that 12th place finish in finals was shocking. In 1981 at Northrop's first trip to Grand Nationals they placed 4th. They did not attend GN in 1982 or 1983. In 1983, in addition to winning the Indiana Class A State title, they won the MBA Midwest Regional Title. Then in 1984, they were 2nd at the Indiana Class A State Championships, beating Chesterton and Lafayette Jefferson, both of whom finished ahead of them at Grand National finals. Chesterton was actually the top placing Indiana band at 3rd place.
In 1985 they did return to Grand Nationals and place 6th (which yes I guess they were sick of that number), this was after their 3rd place finish at the BOA Midwest Regional. Northrop's BOA Participation was then not as consistent. They finished 3rd at the BOA Midwest Regional in 87 and were regional finalists again in 89, 90 and 91. However, they did not return to Grand Nationals until 1992. In a later post, I will highlight that 92 Grand National performance.
On a final note; I believe technically Marching Bands of America (MBA) became Bands of America in 1984. However, the program books and banners on the stadiums and everything still said Marching Bands of America. My guess is these were already printed when the change occurred, but not entirely sure on that. In 1985, all of the program books, etc used the phrase Bands of America.
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Post by bandfan4 on Feb 20, 2021 20:01:23 GMT -6
I will pull all of the recaps I have prior to 1984. I do have others. Will let you know what I have.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Feb 23, 2021 15:19:07 GMT -6
More of the Wildcats
In the 1980s, there were three national caliber marching bands in New York State; West Genesee, Cicero North Syracuse and Liverpool.
This will be another post that highlights a couple of the West Genesee 'Wildcats' memorable performances. West Genesee won the New York State Championships all but three years of the decade. Liverpool won in 85 and 88 and Cicero North Syracuse won in 87. Like the other New York powers, West Genesee did not attend any MBA/BOA regionals this decade; I am sure travel expense was the big reason. West Genesee did attend three Grand National Championships. In 1985 they finished 3rd, in 86 they were 2nd (their highest finish ever at Grand Nationals) and in 1987 they finished 3rd (after taking 3rd at the New York State Championships that year). 1987 was actually my favorite show of the three. The only performance on line that I know of is 86. West Genesee was known for having interesting visual designs and great execution of those designs, and a very strong percussion section and color guard. At the 1985 Grand Nationals they won the caption award for coordinated auxiliary and at the 1986 Grand Nationals they won caption awards for best flags and best percussion.
The first video I will show is of their 1984 state championship performance.
The next video is two performances; their 1986 second place performance in Grand National finals followed by their 1986 state championship performance.
Here is a review of the bands performances in the 1980s; short segments of their shows from each season of the decade. This band had the goods to be a top level Grand National finalist every year of the decade had they attended every year.
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