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Post by ohioguy2 on Feb 23, 2021 16:07:08 GMT -6
What about Webster? (sorry, I couldn't help myself) More of the WildcatsIn 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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Post by dbalash on Feb 23, 2021 16:33:10 GMT -6
What about Webster? (sorry, I couldn't help myself)
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Post by boahistorybuff on Feb 23, 2021 17:22:05 GMT -6
Webster HS emerged as a power in the 1990s. In the mid to late 1980s, the big three New York powers were West Genesee; Cicero North Syracuse and Liverpool. Yes, during the 1990s it was West Genesee and Webster. Will get to Webster during the vintage videos of the 90s.
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Post by ohioguy2 on Feb 23, 2021 21:35:30 GMT -6
Webster HS emerged as a power in the 1990s. In the mid to late 1980s, the big three New York powers were West Genesee; Cicero North Syracuse and Liverpool. Yes, during the 1990s it was West Genesee and Webster. Will get to Webster during the vintage videos of the 90s. I know, but you can never pass up an opportunity to revisit the old RAMD/RAMMB days.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Feb 24, 2021 12:50:52 GMT -6
Songs of the 1980s
These are a few song selections that were very popular among the repertoire of marching bands and drum corps during the 1980s. Of course, these songs are not exclusive to the 1980s; various arrangements of these songs have been played throughout the last 5 or 6 decades of the marching arts. It was just in the 1980s that these songs were played extensively by marching bands and drum corps. They proved to be songs that worked well on the football field.
Pictures at an Exhibition
I will say that nobody played this song better than Santa Clara Vanguard in 1987. However, the video I am going to show is the 1985 University of Kentucky marching band playing this song.
1812 Overture
This next video is not a vintage video; it was from 2017. However, this was a really cool moment in college marching band history. The marching bands of the University of Michigan (Wolverines) and the Michigan State University (Spartans) did a combined performance of this piece of music. They created the map of Michigan on the field. This was during the big U of M/MSU football game; a big deal in Michigan. Yes in Michigan you are either a Wolverine fan or a Spartan fan, not both.
Variations on a Korean Folk Song
Another not so vintage video as this was from 2007. I do not know if it is South Korea or Japan (my guess would be Japan because of the drum corps presence in that country). I also no Japan has indoor marching band contests.
Rocky Point Holiday and Rhapsody in Blue
The Garfield Cadets popularized Rocky Point Holiday in the early 1980s; their 1983 performance of this song was incredible. In 1984, Rocky Mount HS won the Grand National title with this; one of their song selections. This is a video of 1989 Western Michigan University 'Broncos' playing both Rocky Point Holiday and Rhapsody in Blue.
Festive Overture
Another not so vintage video from 2007. This is the James Madison University "Marching Dukes"
Pines of Rome
This is definitely in Japan and very recent. Still unique to see this.
Sound of Music OK so this post is not having a lot of vintage videos. When theme shows started gaining traction in the mid to late 1980s, the music from the Sound of Music was very popular. Here is a video of Ohio State performing this in 2015.
West Side Story
Another big hit from the early days of theme shows was the music from the musical West Side Story. In 1984, the Garfield Cadets were awesome with their West Side Story show. Here is a performance of West Side Story by the University of Michigan Marching band.
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
The most popular piece from the Wizard of Oz. This is the signature song for the Cavaliers. Here is a clip from 1985 of The University of Kentucky performing this song.
Bottle Dance
No one performed this like Santa Clara Vanguard and they performed it many times. Here is a DCI clip of classic SCV and Bottle Dance.
Overture From Candide
The Cadets blew us away with this song in 1990. In the BOA World, Marian Catholic absolutely nailed this song in their 1988 GN Championship performance. Here is a performance of this piece by James Madison University (they actually open with the Phantom of the Opera, which became very popular in 1988 and 1989 thanks to Santa Clara Vanguard).
Music From Cats
Another musical that became very popular for bands to play in the 1980s (and beyond). Here is 1986 Acadiana HS (Louisiana I think) performing this. Looks like the guard even dressed as cats. The song Memory was hugely popular as well.
Yes there are many many more. These are just what comes to mind at this time. I left Appalachian Spring off; we have all heard that many many times.
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Post by jmike16 on Feb 24, 2021 16:03:17 GMT -6
Cant forget about Barber's Medea Dance of Vengeance. I hear that at least 10 times every marching season.
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Post by MadScientist on Feb 25, 2021 12:09:05 GMT -6
Songs of the 1980sThese are a few song selections that were very popular among the repertoire of marching bands and drum corps during the 1980s. Of course, these songs are not exclusive to the 1980s; various arrangements of these songs have been played throughout the last 5 or 6 decades of the marching arts. It was just in the 1980s that these songs were played extensively by marching bands and drum corps. They proved to be songs that worked well on the football field. Pictures at an Exhibition Yes, we did Pictures at an Exhibition for our opener my Freshman year (high school). 1988. Sounds like the same arrangement in this video, but it's been a while. Like, a looooooong time ago... Songs of the 1980sVariations on a Korean Folk Song Okay, we didn't do this in marching band, but we did play this in our concert band (in the late 80s). And this story just has to be told: We were in rehearsal one day, and for some reason, half the percussion section was out. We were playing this song, heading toward a transition in the piece where there was a light gong hit on the downbeat to start the next movement. I heard the percussion players say "Who's got the gong?" I looked up and saw that they were all in a huddle halfway across the band room, and there was no way they were going to make it to the gong in time. Then one of them flung a mallet toward said gong....and it HIT right on the downbeat, as if nothing was ever amiss! I about fell off my chair laughing, as the percussionists gave each other high fives. Songs of the 1980s1812 Overture Okay, last story, but the best one. Again, not marching band, but we played this in our concert band for our end of year concert (probably '90 or '91). For this concert, our tradition was to play a few songs, ending with Stars and Stripes Forever, then present awards. After awards, we finished the night with something iconic, which this particular year was 1812 Overture. Well, for the Stars and Stipes Forever this year, someone had the brilliant idea to affix a large American Flag to the projector screen and lower it from the ceiling to hover over the band just as we were playing the big hit at the end. However, whoever was in charge of lowering the flag forgot. Oops. We finished, had awards, and started 1812. Then, near the end of 1812, down came the flag! Why? I have no idea, but it cracked me up. As we were heading back to the band room after, though, we heard a kid as his dad, "Why did they lower the American flag at the end of that song?" He replied something like, "Well, son, in 1812, America had a big war with England and we won..." (Facepalm)
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Post by kvgdc on Feb 25, 2021 18:13:14 GMT -6
Yeah we can add Mars and Jupiter to that from Holst.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Feb 25, 2021 23:15:37 GMT -6
Yeah we can add Mars and Jupiter to that from Holst. Yes the planets from Holst was quite popular. I think it was 85 and 86 Cavaliers that rocked that. I guess a few more that come to mind are John Rutter's Gloria (Marian was fantastic with this piece in 87 and 89), Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra, Maleguena and American Overture.
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Post by kvgdc on Feb 28, 2021 9:20:00 GMT -6
Jupiter was Northrop's opener in 83 when they won ISSMA state finals. They made it sparkle and thrill. I remember them coming off the field in Terre Haute (this was the last year finals were there) and thinking, "It doesn't matter what Ben Davis does, that musical performance just beat them."
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Post by boahistorybuff on Mar 5, 2021 4:49:27 GMT -6
The Late 80s Marian Dominance and BOA's First Three-peat
The year after Marian's first Grand National title, 1986, saw Marian win their third Summer National title. While it has been many years since I have seen Marian's fall 86 show, I don't think the final show was quite as clean as 85. They finished behind Lake Park for the overall Illinois State Title. They did not attend a BOA regional in 86 (not sure if the BOA Midwest regional got rained out or what). They did pull off a good show at Grand Nationals and ended up finishing 3rd in finals and won the Class AA title.
In 1987, Grand Nationals moved to the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Mi. It was held here in both 1987 and 1988. Fun Fact: The Pontiac Silverdome was the largest venue in terms of seating capacity to ever hold Grand Nationals. Heading into Grand Nationals in 1987, I suspect Marian was favored to win. They had won the 87 Summer National title. They also were crowned the overall Illinois State Champion and won the BOA Midwest Regional Title. Marian delivered a strong performance in finals and did indeed win the Grand National title. They did however have strong competition from Cicero North Syracuse HS of New York. This was the very first BOA event CNS ever attended. During the award ceremony, Cicero North Syracuse took caption awards for brass/winds, percussion and general effect. Marian took the caption awards for marching/maneuvering, flags and coordinated auxiliary. I imagine during the award ceremony that it may have looked like CNS was going to win. They ended up finishing 2nd (winning the Class AAA title) and were a touch over a point behind. So why did they not score closer to Marian? First off, back then the brass/winds and percussion captions were two components of music performance but not all of the components. Marian actually had a slightly higher overall music performance score. Marian and CNS tied in total music effect. These two bands had very different music styles. CNS had an overall uptempo somewhat traditional style music. Their music was crisp and clean. Marian had a more symphonic style music program, very nuanced. On the visual front, CNS was also extremely clean and had a higher visual effect score than Marian. That is what gave CNS the higher overall general effect. So the competition came down to visual performance (marching/maneuvering). The visual individual judge actually had CNS with a higher score than Marian. However, the visual ensemble judge had CNS a whopping 3.2 points lower than Marian. That sunk CNS and allowed Marian to claim their 2nd BOA Grand National title. Now I do think that CNS should have scored much higher on visual ensemble. I do at least remember them having some spacing issues from time to time. Marian, however, had a much more difficult show from a visual standpoint, which should have garnered them a higher score. So in short, I think the placement was correct, I just think Cicero North Syracuse should have scored much higher. The next post will be of Cicero North Syracuse. A couple points about Marian's 87 show. First off, I loved their musical selections. They were quintessential 80s Marian Catholic. Also, the tight block that Marian opened the show with was often called a 'Marian block". For the 1987 audience, it was really cool to watch them expand that block at the start of their show. Also, just my opinion and no disrespect to Cicero North Syracuse, I kind of think Marian should have scored higher in over general effect.
Perhaps Marian Catholic's most successful year ever was 1988. They won their 5th consecutive Summer National title. This year marked the last year that they would have a summer competitive season. In the fall of 1988, Marian won the overall Illinois State Title and again won the BOA Midwest Regional Title. They actually won that regional by a little over 7 points. 1988 was my freshman year and first year competing in BOA Grand Nationals. Before finals there was a lot of buzz among people saying that Marian was really good and was going to win. They were actually heavily favored to win going into finals. They certainly delivered. I remember watching with amazement at how good their show was. The drill was very demanding yet they still played very well. Looking back at that show and comparing it to what other high school marching bands had achieved at that time, I would say that it set a new bar for music effect. Marian also had an exceptionally good color guard this year. If you look at 1989 Phantom Regiment, you can tell they had the same guard designer/instructor. They took caption awards for brass/winds, general effect, flags and coordinated auxiliary. Marian ended up becoming the first band to break 95 points in BOA. They also had the highest BOA score of the decade and won by over 5 points, the highest point separation between 1st and 2nd ever. Fun fact, 1988 was the first year that Chuck Henson was the announcer for Grand National Finals (he announced prelims in 87).
The final year in the three peat was 1989. Marian found themselves with a little stiffer competition in Illinois from Lake Park. Lake Park actually won the overall Illinois State Title. Marian did win the BOA Midwest Regional (Lake Park did not attend that regional). This was the third year in a row that Marian won that regional. In 1989, there was buzz that there would be a bigger battle for the Grand National title after the BOA Mideast regional where Norwin edged out Kiski and Lake Park by a tiny fraction of a point. So there were four bands considered as contenders. Marian ended up taking 2nd in prelims (Plymouth although 7th in finals gave a stunning prelims performance and had the higher score). Despite having an unlucky draw and having to be the second band to perform in finals, Marian delivered a very good show in finals and ended up winning. Their opener and closer was fast with some very complex drill moves. The drill had a Brubaker-esque feel to it (very Cavaliers looking in some spots). The middle of the show was the slow and emotional Pie Jesu (best performance of that song on a football field if you ask me). Marian took the caption for general effect and won by a mere three tenths of a point. I would say that if they had performed later, they would have won by a larger margin. While there were several strong guards this year, I thought Marian deserved the coordinated auxiliary award (they did not win it). So Marian made the history books by becoming the first band in BOA to three peat. This year also marked their 5th consecutive GN Class AA Title. This also gave them four total GN titles (one more than Rocky Mount) making them the band with the most BOA GN Titles for the first time.
For the updated videos, go to page 17.
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Post by kvgdc on Mar 6, 2021 18:36:16 GMT -6
1988 Marian Catholic came to the Chesterton Invitation in Indiana when a show got cancelled in the Chicagoland area. Northrop traditionally went up there every year and this was no exception. It was my senior year and we'd just gotten new uniforms with white pants and a stripe that showcased that'd we'd become much stronger in M+M than we had been for years as a program. We had just learned our closer but hadn't cleaned it so we didnt perform it that year. Marian Catholic marched their summer program they won summer nationals with as they were still learning their fall show as well.
I remember when the director came in to the band room for concert band the monday before and announced that Marian Catholic was coming to Chesterton, there was talk Lake Park might come too at that point, but they opted for some other show or a week off. Suddenly the Chesterton show went from a "long trip for an easy win" to "biggest day in the season until State regionals." We cleaned and practiced hard that week. Alumni Mike Hardiek came back that week to clean marching and feet. He'd been with us for the summer. We also had Greg Cesario as a drill writer that year so Greg had come for the Thursday double practice before going up to Chesterton to see both bands.
We pipped them by .1. We were over the moon with that win. Marian Catholic was nothing but class the whole day too, came over to our busses to congratulate us and we talked shows and such as we caught their show from the back endzone after leaving the field. They had seen our from the same area waiting to come on. (logistics at Chesterton were always weird and tight.)
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Post by boahistorybuff on Mar 7, 2021 4:46:17 GMT -6
So for kvgdc lets showcase some performances from his high school years with Northrop HS IN. (I will bump Cicero North Syracuse to the next post) I do not have their 85 Grand National finals performance (I could not find any performance on line of 85 Northrop). The 86, 87 and 88 performances are from ISSMA state championships. Like most of the top Indiana bands during this time period, they did not attend Grand Nationals any of those years. Northrop certainly had the goods to be a Grand National finalist each of those years had they attended. You can certainly see the improvements in visual design compared to the Northrop shows of the early 1980s. I must also say, excellent marching technique by this band. Their 86 opener 'American Overture' could also go on the songs of the 1980s list, very popular piece for marching bands back in the day. I think 87 may be my favorite show of the three (probably helps that the video quality is better). The fact that Northrop got 4th in Indiana Class A finals with that 87 show showcases the depth of high quality Indiana bands even back then. That 87 show had the goods to place in the top 5 at Grand Nationals had they attended, in my opinion. The video quality of the 88 show is pretty bad, but it is the best I could find.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Mar 9, 2021 5:16:22 GMT -6
A Brief But Spectacular Time in the BOA Spotlight - The NorthstarsThe Northstars is of course Cicero North Syracuse HS from Cicero, NY Competitive marching bands in the state of New York goes back several decades. The state of New York was actually one of the earliest to organize a state-wide marching band circuit and conduct a state championship. This all came about in the early 1970s. Many of the early greats in New York were from the Syracuse area. Two of those early bands were Cicero HS and North Syracuse HS, both of which were among the best in the state. Cicero was the one that had some of the biggest success and actually beat out the powerful West Genesee HS for the state title in 1978. In 1981, a school merger occurred between Cicero and North Syracuse and the Cicero North Syracuse 'Northstar' band was born. The Northstars entered New York State competition in 1982 and were immediately among the best in the state. By the state championships in 1986, they were 2nd but came pretty close to West Genesee. Then came 1987. Under the direction of Ray Elwood, CNS had an amazing season. They went undefeated in New York (impressive considering how good West Genesee and Liverpool were). They won the 1987 New York State title; this would actually be their only state title as the Northstars. In November, Cicero North Syracuse headed to Grand Nationals, their first ever BOA competition. In the late 1980s, the nearest BOA regional was all they way down in Morgantown, WV. CNS, West Genesee and Liverpool all did not attend BOA regionals, probably due to the distance. Liverpool was however a finalist at Grand Nationals in 1984 and West Genesee was a GN finalist in 85 and 86 and were runner up to the title in 86. In 1987, all three of these New York powers headed to Grand Nationals (cutting through Canada shortens the distance to Michigan). This was the only time all three of these bands attended Grand Nationals at the same time (and all three landed in the top 5). Cicero North Syracuse proved why they were undefeated in New York. They gave an amazing performance in GN finals and took caption awards for brass/winds, percussion and general effect. They came in 2nd place and won the Class AAA title. At the time, they actually had the highest 2nd place score in BOA history (Lake Park HS IL would overtake that in 1989). As I pointed out in the Marian discussion, CNS was just behind Marian in the overall music performance scores, they tied Marian in music effect and had a slightly higher visual effect score to give them the general effect caption. The visual ensemble judge, however, scored them over three points lower than Marian, solidifying their second place finish. From the video it looked like they may have had a couple members out as there were some spacing issues. Otherwise, the performance was just incredible; high energy, crisp clean brass and woodwinds, amazing drum line and some pretty clean drill executions. You can see that their style was a little more traditional compared to Marian Catholic. 1987 CNS was no doubt one of the best Grand National performances of the decade not to win the Grand National title. Cicero North Syracuse did not have as much success in 1988, but still had a strong show. They did a new opener but kept the rest of the show (music and much of the drill) the same as their 1987 show. Recycling material was not uncommon in the 1980s. At the New York State championships, they finished 3rd behind Liverpool and West Genesee. In the video of their 88 state performance, there were obviously a few members out (some gaping holes in the drill). That was not the case just one week later when they performed at Grand Nationals. In Grand National finals, CNS gave a strong performance and ended up in 3rd place (they actually finished ahead of New York state champion Liverpool, West Genesee did not attend nationals this year). 1988 was Cicero North Syracuse's second and last appearance in Grand National finals. In the early 1990s they had some significant staffing changes which I believe also included the loss of their director. So they slipped a bit in placements at New York competitions. They did not participate in BOA in the early and mid 1990s. CNS did attend several BOA regionals from the late 1990s into the 2000s and were in finals. In 2004, Cicero North Syracuse made their first trip to Grand Nationals since their 1988 appearance. They just missed making semi finals. That was their last trip to Grand Nationals. This link of Cicero North Syracuse has their 1987 New York State Champion performance followed by their 1987 BOA Grand National Finals performance. This link is of their performance at the 1988 New York State Championships (their 3rd place finish).
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Post by kvgdc on Mar 11, 2021 11:38:53 GMT -6
Aww! Thanks! Yeah, i've found those that have been posted. Never have found the 85 show, it was a doozie as we did Time for a Change and First Circle. We marched Time for a Change in 9/4 even with a drag step, not the 4/4 arrangement that got popularlized at some point. 88 show was my favorite but the video quality there is not selling it of course. I'm not sure we'd have gone top 5 in 87 with GN but I'm willing to accept it... hah So for kvgdc lets showcase some performances from his high school years with Northrop HS IN. (I will bump Cicero North Syracuse to the next post) I do not have their 85 Grand National finals performance (I could not find any performance on line of 85 Northrop). The 86, 87 and 88 performances are from ISSMA state championships. Like most of the top Indiana bands during this time period, they did not attend Grand Nationals any of those years. Northrop certainly had the goods to be a Grand National finalist each of those years had they attended. You can certainly see the improvements in visual design compared to the Northrop shows of the early 1980s. I must also say, excellent marching technique by this band. Their 86 opener 'American Overture' could also go on the songs of the 1980s list, very popular piece for marching bands back in the day. I think 87 may be my favorite show of the three (probably helps that the video quality is better). The fact that Northrop got 4th in Indiana Class A finals with that 87 show showcases the depth of high quality Indiana bands even back then. That 87 show had the goods to place in the top 5 at Grand Nationals had they attended, in my opinion. The video quality of the 88 show is pretty bad, but it is the best I could find.
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Post by kvgdc on Mar 11, 2021 11:45:18 GMT -6
Also on the 87 show. That high mark time in the opener.....SO much work getting leg positioning right for everyone. Particularly those who had just HAULED wth the large steps to remain in time rather than going double time to get to their spots for that hit.
We worked hard on our marching and maneuvering in those years as a program. There was always the sense that we weren't getting full credit for it because of the previous perceptions of "Northrop is excellent with music, but they wear brown to be invisible from the waist down for a reason." We added bands of gold sequins down the leg this year to try to bring more visibility to the leg and foot cleaning we'd do. It was the last year for the orange jackets and brown pants. We went to brown jackets and white pants for 88 (which POPPED the marching and we finally started seeing credit on the ISSMA sheets).
Also that nutso cuckoo clock thing we did for The Cuckoo after the opener. Chops invented that thing and it took a ton of energy to do then play. Paricularly for the tenor saxes as adding in the arm motions meant we were sort of balacing our horns on the thumb hook and neckstrap while waving our other arm and bobbing up and down while in double time on tiny steps. Heh.
We had a a fair few from these years go on to march with Star of Indiana in Brass and Guard for 89-93 shows. After Star was done with DCI, some of Northrop's marchers would go to Glassmen. There were never a ton of us who did summer DC stuff, largely because we had summer band stuff to learn our shows, but we followed it avidly. Those who did DC typically did it after HS graduation. We had a few who did DC then joined us when the summer was done. Their infusion would totally reignite our discipline and focus in rehersals.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Mar 11, 2021 13:03:50 GMT -6
Also on the 87 show. That high mark time in the opener.....SO much work getting leg positioning right for everyone. Particularly those who had just HAULED wth the large steps to remain in time rather than going double time to get to their spots for that hit. We worked hard on our marching and maneuvering in those years as a program. There was always the sense that we weren't getting full credit for it because of the previous perceptions of "Northrop is excellent with music, but they wear brown to be invisible from the waist down for a reason." We added bands of gold sequins down the leg this year to try to bring more visibility to the leg and foot cleaning we'd do. It was the last year for the orange jackets and brown pants. We went to brown jackets and white pants for 88 (which POPPED the marching and we finally started seeing credit on the ISSMA sheets). Also that nutso cuckoo clock thing we did for The Cuckoo after the opener. Chops invented that thing and it took a ton of energy to do then play. Paricularly for the tenor saxes as adding in the arm motions meant we were sort of balacing our horns on the thumb hook and neckstrap while waving our other arm and bobbing up and down while in double time on tiny steps. Heh. We had a a fair few from these years go on to march with Star of Indiana in Brass and Guard for 89-93 shows. After Star was done with DCI, some of Northrop's marchers would go to Glassmen. There were never a ton of us who did summer DC stuff, largely because we had summer band stuff to learn our shows, but we followed it avidly. Those who did DC typically did it after HS graduation. We had a few who did DC then joined us when the summer was done. Their infusion would totally reignite our discipline and focus in rehersals. Hard to tell too much from an old video, but I was extremely impressed with the marching in that 87 show. Considering there would have been a few more weeks to clean, at Grand Nationals the marching scores would have been up there with Marian and Central Cabarrus that year; again just in my opinion. Perhaps it would have been tough to beat Marian, Lake Park and the New York bands in overall score in 87, so maybe top 6.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Mar 12, 2021 6:34:46 GMT -6
The Quakers - A Timeline
The band I am speaking of is the New Philadelphia 'Marching Quakers' from New Philadelphia, OH.
Given that it is women's history month, I wanted to feature this band. Their director during their glory years was Cheryl Anne Graham. While things have been slowly changing in recent years/decades, back in the 70s and 80s I would guesstimate that the percentage of male head directors of marching bands was around 95 percent. There were plenty of woman instructors and assistant directors, but the head director position was heavily male dominated. Mrs. Graham was one of the early female directors who broke that mold and directed one of the most successful small school marching bands in the country during her tenure. From 1980 through 1990, New Philadelphia won 12 BOA regional class A titles and were regional finalists somewhere between 15 and 20 times (they usually attended two regionals a season). They also made 6 appearances in Grand National finals and won the Grand National Class A title twice. Mrs. Graham was hired by the New Philadelphia school district in the 1970s to head the marching band because the school and community wanted to have a competitive marching band. Cheryl Graham certainly delivered.
Below I have posted several New Phily shows from the 1980s. You will be able to see how drill design and the color guard changed so dramatically through the decade. You will also note that during the decade the marching band got smaller. This was actually universal for small school bands in the 1980s. In the 1970s and early 1980s it was not uncommon for small high schools to field a marching band with over 140 members. Some bands had a third of their student body in the marching band. Back then a lot of people blamed the explosive growth of video games and cable television for the drop. I don' t really buy that theory. In my opinion it was more of an economic factor. Due to more stringent funding, a lot of schools had to tighten the purse strings more. So to have a high quality marching band, that meant more fundraising and more subsidizing by parents. An economic recession in the late 1980s and early 1990s probably meant that a lot of parents could not afford to keep their kids in band. I think another factor was that more high school students were taking on part time jobs (the explosion of fast food restaurants across the country meant more part time jobs were available). So I think there were a lot of kids who opted to take on a part time job rather than be in marching band (obviously the time commitment for a marching band in the summer and fall made it difficult to hold a part time job and attend school). So in short, a lot of the smaller school marching bands saw their numbers decline during the decade.
On a final note; you will notice in the videos that New Philadelphia (New Phily as we called them) certainly had the most distinctive uniforms.
This first video is from the 1981 Summer Nationals. New Phily was a finalist (the powerful Herscher beat them for Class A title). In the opening commentary there is a interview with Joe Sills who was the director of the 1977 Grand National Champion Murray HS marching band. BOA founder Larry McCormick was also one of the commentators.
This video is from the 1982 Summer Nationals. New Phily was again a finalist and second in Class A. Note that in the fall of 1982, New Phily was runner up to the BOA Toledo regional (albeit Norwin beat them by several points). It was their highest finish at a BOA regional.
This is their Grand National finals appearance in 1983. In 1983, New Phily made their first trip to the fall Grand Nationals. They made finals and finished 10th (their highest finish in Grand National finals) and were runner-up to the Class A title.
Their 2nd trip to Grand Nationals in 1984 garnered them another spot in finals. Despite the stiff competition, they did not make finals on class, they were in the top 12 in prelims. In finals, they finished 11th and were again runner-up to the Class A title. Here is their 84 GN finals performance.
Upon looking at the regional results in 1985, I would have thought that this would be the year when at least one of the Class A bands were advanced to finals on class. That did not happen as both New Phily and Western finished in the top 12 in prelims. New Phily actually finished ahead of Western in prelims. In finals, New Phily tied for 11th and were 2nd to the class A title for the third time. Here is their 1985 GN prelims performance.
After taking a year off from Grand Nationals in 1986, New Phily returned to Grand Nationals in 1987. They had been beat out for two Class A titles at the regional level by Marlington OH, the reigning Grand National Class A champ. I suspect Marlington was favored to make GN finals and take the Class A title. That did not happen. New Phily and Western were the top 2 Class A bands in prelims (they both advanced on Class but were 13th and 14th in prelims). New Phily ended up finishing 12th in finals and finally won the GN Class A Title. Here is their 87 finals performance.
In 1988, New Phily made GN finals on class again. Western IN had actually finished in the top 12 in prelims, so there were 13 bands in finals this year. New Phily finished 13th in finals and were runner up to the Class A title. Here is their 88 GN Finals performance.
In 1989, both New Phily and Western advanced to finals on class. New Phily was heavily favored for the Class A title and they delivered. They placed 13th in finals and won their second GN Class A title. In 1990, New Phily started the season in Class A and won a Class A regional title. It was found that their school enrollment was actually a touch higher than the Class A threshold so they were in Class AA the rest of the season. A few years later they went back into Class A. Although they remained a consistent BOA competitor, the early 90s saw New Phily drop off the top of the small school bands.
Here is a clip of their 1989 GN prelims performance.
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Post by kvgdc on Mar 12, 2021 7:36:30 GMT -6
I remember this band! If you saw them once you would remember those uniforms at least. They were real good.
Also yeah, you're right on about the economic pushes on band membership. We were big at Northrop during this time but that was in part because we had a massive and well organized parents group behind the band that made up for funding cuts with fundraising. There were kids who quit band because, "I had to get a job," or they wanted to get a job instead, but by and large fundraising made it possible for a lot of kids to keep on with band. But that too depended on having parents with the time and resources to make that happen.
A lot of Northrop's decline is typically attribute to the churn of directors after Ashton retired, and while that's a factor, the big change was the demographics change in Ft. Wayne and how the school district allocated funding for arts between different schools designating some schools as "arts schools" while others would be "sciences schools" etc. The money in Ft. Wayne moved out toward where jobs and industries were growing, SW and the GM plan and Lutheran hospital and associated businesses that used the airport and closer access to Indianapolis fueled the growth that made Homestead rise. NE and the explosion of Parkview Hospital and its massive network of employment has fueled Carroll's growth. And look which bands from Ft. Wayne have risen...
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Post by boahistorybuff on Mar 15, 2021 3:55:25 GMT -6
Before They Were a BOA Powerhouse - Plymouth in the Mid 1980s
Known as Plymouth Centennial Educational Park back in those days (we in Michigan just called them Plymouth), PCEP did not have a fast rise to the top. Rather, they improved gradually for over a decade before finally becoming a Grand National finalist caliber band in the late 1980s. Under the direction of James Griffiths, the PCEP marching band was formed in the early to mid 1970s. Plymouth Centennial Educational Park (the Centennial was dropped and replaced with Canton around 92/93) was built as a high school campus in the early 1970s, consisting of Canton HS and Salem HS (a third high school - Plymouth HS was built in the early 2000s). The marching band (which comprised members from both high schools on the campus) entered the Michigan competitive circuit in the 1970s and slowly grew in size and improved season by season. In 1984, Plymouth won their first Flight I state title. They defended that title in 1985 and made their first trip to Grand Nationals. Their musical sophistication and visual designs proved to be not quite ready to excel in BOA and they placed 31st. A much improved Plymouth then emerged in 1986 and won their third consecutive Flight I state title. They again attended Grand Nationals and did much better than in 85, but finished 14th, still not quite to GN Finals level. The 1987 season ended up being a highly disappointing one for them and a bit of a step back in what had been a gradual season by season improving trend. They attended the BOA Midwest (Terre Haute) regional but just missed finals. A disappointing performance at the state championships left them in 3rd place. Then at Grand Nationals they again came up just a bit short of making finals, they were 16th. That 87 season however seemed to have lit a fire under this band. In 1988 they had a much stronger music book and had a more intricate visual design. A big part of this was some new staff that had been brought on, which included the late legend State Brubaker as drill designer and Jeff Fieldler (yes of DCI fame) as a visual instructor. While they did not attend a BOA regional this season, they did regain their state title (I think they went undefeated in Michigan). At Grand Nationals (in their backyard in Michigan), they finally made finals. They even surprised us (and themselves) by finishing 5th. After their 88 season, James Griffiths retired as the marching band director. The assistant director Glen Adsit took the helm and together with a very talented staff led Plymouth through their early 1990s BOA championship seasons.
The first video is Plymouth's 1985 state championship performance (the end of the video shows the Flight I awards ceremony). You will note that even in the mid 1980s, Plymouth was experimenting with electronics in the pit as well as singing. They would of course take that to a whole new level in the 1990s. The next video is NOT 1988 as it says (I was not consulted). It was their Grand National prelims performance in 1987. I know this from the music selections. In 1988 Plymouth did music from The Music Man and had a much stronger show.
Here is the 1985 State Finals Performance
Here is the 1987 GN Prelims performance. AGAIN THIS IS 1987 (NOT 1988 LIKE THE CAPTION SAYS).
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Post by boahistorybuff on Mar 16, 2021 4:38:08 GMT -6
Flushing's Return to BOA - 1987 and 1988
When I started this I originally was not going to post too much about my high school band. However, I think that a lot of the struggles we faced are common among many other competitive marching band programs past and present. Lets face it, there is a lot involved in putting together a competitive marching band that is competitive at the state, regional and national level. For many bands, things don't always run smoothly. There are always a lot of road blocks and challenges. This post will focus on Flushing's return to BOA after budget cuts nearly wiped out the program.
From my earlier post, you may remember that in the 1970s and early 1980s, Flushing was an undefeated state power and was one of the best marching bands in the country. Massive budget cuts in the early 1980s then led to the loss of the director and then the elimination of the elementary band program and the requirement for all junior and senior high school students to have to pay to play (all extra curricular activities went to a pay to play status). These cuts and loss of key staff took their full toll on Flushing in 1983 as they lost their undefeated status in Michigan and abruptly became a band not even close to GN finals caliber. In 1984, Walace Ayotte (who was the assistant director of the marching band from 78-80) was hired as director of the marching band and Paul Minert would be assistant director. At the time Flushing was still in the pay to play status and the marching band, which had numbered over 140 members in 1980 had dropped in size to under 75 members. To try to get some type of elementary program as a feeder program, the band boosters organized a program where elementary students (5th and 6th grade) from the 4 elementary schools in the district would come to the high school before school started (twice a week I believe) for elementary band instruction. The parents had to pay entirely for this and provide transportation to and from the high school. I was in 5th grade at the time and was fortunate that my parents could put me in this program. On the marching band front, in 1984 Flushing competed in Flight II competition and managed to win the Flight II state title (thanks largely to their high percussion score). In the summer of 1985 another tax increase proposal was put forth to the voters. This time it passed and that meant more tax payer funding to the school district. Students would no longer have to pay to play and the elementary band program was restored. This led to hope that the marching band could return to its success from its glory years. I actually think this may have been wishful thinking as the school district would be much tighter with the purse strings. For one, no additional band directors were hired. Wallace Ayotte and Paul Minert were tasked with teaching elementary, junior high and senior high in addition to leading a competitive marching band. Obviously it would take some time for the improved financial standing to affect the band. At the state championships in 1985, Flushing (still with under 75 members) finished 2nd in Flight II. In 1986, some additional staff was brought on and the band actually gained some members (I think they had around 80 members). Flushing went undefeated in Flight II competition in 1986, which included winning the Flight II state title.
Then came the 1987 season. This was the year before I was in the band, but I heard all about this season. The band started the season in Flight II. It was determined that they were so dominate in this Flight that they were moved up to Flight I (with permission from the Michigan Competing Band Association). Back then Flights were determined by band size, not school size; a policy that changed in the early 1990s. This put Flushing in direct competition with Plymouth and Durand; the two state powers at the time. Durand had a very small school but managed to field a band of over 130 members. In 1987, Flushing only had 89 members total in the band. So they were by far smaller than the Flight I bands. The early season success, however, was marred by the death of one of the snare drummers who was killed in a car accident. This obviously devastated the band and staff. Flushing then set a goal to have as best a season as possible, thinking that would be the best way to honor their comrade. During the latter half of the season, Flushing improved immensely. For the time, Flushing actually had a rather demanding drill package. At the 1987 state championships, held on the Plymouth campus, it poured rain most of the day. By the time of evening finals, the field had become a muddy mess. This may have been one time that being from a school that did have as deep of pockets as others may have payed off. Flushing was used to practicing on a muddy field and gave a very strong performance at the state championships. Plymouth was not used to performing in such conditions. The yard lines had washed away and Plymouth kind of fell apart visually. They ended up finishing 3rd. Despite not taking any caption awards, Flushing had the higher overall score (out scoring Durand) and won the Flight I and overall state title. This was a huge shock. The next weekend, Flushing headed down to Toledo for the BOA Northern Regional (Flushing's first BOA competition since 1983). They were a late season entry so had to perform first in prelims. They did not have a good prelims run and did not think they would make finals. They ended up in 10th in prelims to just barely landed themselves in finals. They had woke up by finals and delivered a strong finals performance. They ended up finishing 3rd and won the Class AA Title (Class titles were based on finals performance back then). This was of course another shock for the band. The local media ended up calling them the little band that could. Next up was BOA Grand Nationals. I suspect that had Grand National not been held in Pontiac, MI this year, Flushing probably would not have been able to afford to attend. Having nationals in Michigan was obviously a cheep trip for Flushing. In Prelims, Flushing delivered a strong show and had the 11th highest score in Prelims. This advanced them to Finals. There were 14 bands in Finals and Flushing ended up placing 13th. This was their first appearance in Grand National finals since 1982 and marked their 5th overall appearance.
Here is the video of 1987 Flushing in Grand National finals. The song selections included; Light Cavalry Overture, a short drum feature into Ponteio, and One Voice. In One Voice, a trumpet soloist begins. The rest of the band is wandering around in bewilderment trying to figure out where the music is coming from until, section by section, the band joins in to close off the show. There were a lot of people in that 1987 audience that did not understand that. Also, the drum major on the podium was Mike Lewis; one of Flushing's best drum majors. He was the drum major for the Central Michigan University Marching Band in 1991 and 1992 and has since been the long time band director at Clarkston HS, MI. Also the younger brother of the featured trumpet soloist in this show was the featured trumpet soloist in our 1991 GN finals performance. Also, the band about to enter the field after Flushing was Marian Catholic.
My first year in the Flushing marching band came the following year in 1988. I was already planning on being in the marching band. All of their success in 1987 made me extra excited to be joining this band. Despite a decent sized freshman class, the band grew to only 93 members, so still pretty small. We took a bit of a departure from out typical shows this season and took on the music of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Requiem. The show was dedicated to the snare drummer who had died the previous year. We did not play Pie Jesu, which is probably the most famous song from this Requiem. We all listened to the actual recording of this Requiem, which to me seems part opera and part chamber music. This show and a pretty demanding visual design (our drill designer was Mark Hart who was a former member of the Cadets and wrote a lot of drill for Michigan bands) proved to be very challenging. In order to pull this music off on the field, the emotion needed to come through. The music and drill was challenging enough, not to mention trying to pull of an emotional performance. I will say that the arrangement was really good. There was also a lot of symbolism in the drill and in a couple of the flag designs. This season did however prove to be a struggle for us. I remember as a Freshman in particular that this was a hard show to learn, mainly getting some of those drill moves down. The BOA regional nearest us was held earlier in the season and in Akron, OH this year. We were a band that did much better at later season competitions. We did not have a strong Prelims show and were afraid we would miss finals. We did make it and ended up 7th in finals. With no Plymouth or Durand at this competition, we were the only Michigan band in finals. I still remember standing on the field listening to the awards; Lake Park won and took a lot of captions. Our show did improve during the month of October right up to the State Championships the last weekend of October. Since we were reigning state champs we hosted the event. We did not have a large enough stadium to hold a state championships so we used nearby Atwood Stadium in Flint, Michigan (which was not in a good neighborhood). We had a few tempo problems in our opener that solidified a third place finish in Flight I for us. Plymouth really upped their game this year and dominated the competitions all season. While this was a bit disappointing for us, we had two weeks to go before Grand Nationals. We had some great practice sessions these two weeks and our run throughs were consistent (consistency was something we struggled with). We ended up giving a strong performance in Grand National Prelims. I still remember how super soft the turf was in the Pontiac Silverdome. I actually think that our Grand Nationals performance was the first time we were able to deliver the music with the emotion needed to pull this show off. So we of course were disappointed not to make finals. Looking back on it, there were a few visual flaws here and there that were going to keep us out of Finals (1988 was a competitive year to make finals). For instance, the cross at the end was not supposed to be lopsided. We ended up finishing 18th overall in prelims. Given how difficult this show was to perform for our band, we were all still very proud of what we did at nationals. For me personally, this was my favorite performance out of my high school career (even though we had some shows in 1990 and 1991 that may have been a touch better). I will detail our roller coaster of a ride to my senior year, 1991 in a later post.
So here is the video of our 1988 GN Prelims performance. It marked my first time performing in the Grand Nationals arena. The selections we played from Webber's Requiem were; Kyrie (our opener); the very up tempo Dies irae; Hosanna, and Libera me as the closer. Robert Longfield was the arranger for this show with our talented percussion instructor Dan Wick doing the percussion arrangements. The drill was written by Mark Hart, who also wrote the drill for the 1987 show.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Mar 21, 2021 5:02:15 GMT -6
What a Difference a Year Makes - 87 Central Cabarrus
There are several examples of a band that failed to make finals one year and then have a massive improvement the next to land themselves in finals. This was especially true in the 80s and 90s when the competition at Grand Nationals was not at the level it is today (ie fewer bands attended Grand Nationals and there just weren't has many powerful programs as there are today). In 1986, Central Cabarrus HS from Concord, NC attended Grand National for the first time and placed 27th. The next year, Central Cabarrus made the trek to Michigan and this time made GN finals. Not only did they make finals, they finished 7th. To my knowledge, this 20 placement jump into finals is the largest that has occurred at Grand Nationals. I have never seen Central Cabarrus's 86 show, but their 7th place show in 87 GN Finals is on line. This would end up being their highest finish ever at Grand Nationals. They did make GN Finals again in 1988 and 1991. They were very close but just fell short of finals in 89, 90 and 93. Central Cabarrus's 1991 finals appearance not only marked their last appearance in finals, but it also marked the last finals appearance for a North Carolina band.
You will see one of their song selections in their 87 show (they also played it in their 88 show) was Choral and Shaker Dance, another song that was a very common piece of music for marching bands in the 1980s. Throughout their glory years, Central Cabarrus had two big strengths, their marching and their percussion. In 1987, they were just 0.05 points behind Marian (who won the caption) in overall marching/maneuvering (now called visual performance). The following year (1988) Central Cabarrus actually won the best percussion award in GN Finals (the last year this award was given out). On a final note, in the late 1980s after the transition to guards wearing artistically styled attire, you will note some, well how should we say 'interesting' guard attire among a lot of the bands.
Here is 1987 Central Cabarrus;
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Post by boahistorybuff on Mar 22, 2021 8:27:31 GMT -6
The Emergence of Themed Based Shows
During the 1970s and well into the 1980s, competitive corps style marching bands had a standard formula for the music presentations; some type of overture piece, a drum feature, a concert piece which was up tempo where the band stood still for a good portion of it, and a ballad; much of which were unrelated pieces of music. That mold began to be broken during the 1980s. One of the things that accomplished that was the idea of the show being tied together by a common theme. Building a performance around a theme first gained popularity in WGI in the late 1970s and early 1980s, then trickled into DCI in the early to mid 1980s before gaining popularity in the high school band circuits from the mid 1980s into the early 1990s. Some of the early and highly popular themes in DCI included 81 and 82 Phantom Regiment's 'Spartacus', 84 Suncoast Sound's Vietnam show, 84 Cadets and West Side Story, 87 SCV and their Russia show, etc. There was a lot of variation in how one of these themed shows were tied together. In some instances the band played songs by just one composer, or perhaps played one specific genre. Themes also emerged when bands played music from a motion picture soundtrack or a Broadway musical. Some of the early shows based on Broadway were often noted for introducing things like costuming by auxiliary members, costumed characters on the field, and even props. While these type of innovations were not that numerous in the 1980s, they became much more common during the 1990s when bands really started to invest on selling their theme to the audience. In many cases, the themed shows of the 1980s proved to have a high entertainment value for the general audience and the students tended to really enjoy performing them. I am sure that is what helped push them into become the standard for show design/concept. As you will see from the next several posts, the themed shows back in the 80s and early 90s in particular were often very literal. During the course of the 1990s and especially into the 2000s, the themes became far more complex and abstract. So much so that this old school guy is often clueless as to what is going on with the story line. I actually really don't care too much because the bands of today play and march so incredibly well (things are performed today in a manner that we never imagined possible 30-40 years ago).
For this post I am going to highlight three early high school bands that took on a theme (the video quality is not the best). Now these bands are not the first to tackle a theme, they are just an example of the earliest days of themed base shows. In several additional posts I will try to highlight what these early themed based shows did to try to sell the theme to their audience. The post immediately after this one will actually highlight a late 1980s show that was years ahead of its time and just plain awesome. But first, here are three examples.
First up is Cleburne HS TX at the 1986 Texas UIL State Championships. They did the music from Jesus Christ Superstar a popular show for marching bands from the mid 80s into the mid 90s. The robes that the Tuba players wore were certainly interesting and innovative. The formation of the cross at the end was also an early example of the use of large fabric to enhance the visual design.
The next video is only a small snippet of the full show. It also looks as though it may be early season, I wish their GN Finals performance of this was online. The video was from 1986 Lafayette Jefferson HS (or sometimes just called Jefferson HS) from Lafayette, IN. This band had much success in BOA during the 1980s. They made Grand National Finals five times from 1982 to 1986. Their highest finish at Grand Nationals was 5th place in 1983. 1983 was also the year they won their first and only BOA (MBA) regional title. The only full show from their glory years is the 1983 GN Finals performance which I highly suggest watching. 1986 was their last performance in Grand National finals. They finished 13th in finals (13 bands were selected because Western IN did not make top 12 in prelims but were the second highest scoring class A band and were advanced to finals on class, then finish ahead of Jefferson in finals). The show they performed was from the musical Cats. Even though the video clip is short, you can tell that guard used a lot of dance and cat like movements to sell the theme. On a side note, this band wore the same uniform jacket as my band back then, so it was also it bit odd watching them.
The third video that I am going to show is 1987 McGavock HS from Nashville, TN. I did show an earlier post of neighboring John Overton HS which had a couple theme based shows. A lot of the bands that competed at the MTSU Contest of Champions really embraced theme based shows early on. Anyway, in 1986 McGavock made history by becoming the first Tennessee band to make Grand National finals (they remain one of only two Tennessee bands to make GN finals). It was their first of five GN finals performances. 1987 was a highly successful year for McGavock. Even though they finished 6th at the early season BOA regional in Terre Haute, they ended up winning the MTSU Grand Champion Title. They then made the trip up to Michigan for Grand Nationals. They ended up finishing 6th in GN Finals, their highest ever at Grand Nationals. They performed the music of Disney. Disney based themes were actually quite common in the late 1980s and early 1990s. McGavock did not have a ton of thrills in their show, which was common even for themed based shows back in the day. Their performance at Grand Nationals (which I wish was on line) proved to be a fan favorite. I actually think the audiences positive response through the show helped them deliver such a strong performance. The video I will show, the one that is on line, is from the MTSU Contest of Champions.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Mar 23, 2021 5:56:40 GMT -6
The Most Innovative High School Marching Band Show of the 1980s
Well, I have not seen every single marching band show of the 1980s obviously, so this is just my opinion. I actually did not even know about this show until it was posted on YouTube several years ago. Had I saw this show without any context, I would have guessed it came out of the late 1990s not the late 1980s. It was as if those that put this show together had a crystal ball that allowed them to see into the future.
I am speaking of the 1988 Center Grove marching band from Greenwood, IN. I did not know of this show until recent because like many of the top Indiana bands in the late 1980s, Center Grove did not participate in BOA. After not attending BOA (MBA) since the early 1980s, they started attending BOA regionals again in 1990, then returned to Grand Nationals in 1993 and have since been perennial BOA participants.
The 1988 Center Grove show took the concept of a theme, still a relatively new idea in the high school marching band arena at the time, to a whole new level. This show was simply years ahead of its time. The show told a story from ancient Japan of someone who must complete three tasks before marrying the emperors daughter. The show concept of story telling really did not became widely done until the mid to late 1990s. This show used props, with the drill actually written around the props. There were characters on the field who acted out the story being told. Amplified vocal narration was used; three years before Plymouth did it at Grand Nationals in 1991. Also, the entire band wore costuming (no military uniform); six years before Union did that at Grand Nationals in 1994. Had this show been taken to Grand Nationals, the 1988 audience would have certainly been intrigued by it and I am sure the show would have been much talked about. I assume this show was referenced for years in the ISSMA circuit.
What also made this show work was that Center Grove was such a good band and performed this show really well. Center Grove had a world class guard (they won the WGI World title in 1986) which certainly helped on the visual front. Center Grove also had one of the best percussion sections in the country back then. The drill design in this show was also fantastic for the era. I am not sure who the drill designer was but kudos. Center Grove ended up finishing 2nd (by a mere quarter point) at the Indiana Class A State Championships. They lost to Ben Davis. I have never seen 88 Ben Davis but if I had I would not want to inject myself into that debate (comments on YouTube looks as though it may have been contentious).
Thankfully both multicam and high camera angles are available on line. I will post both.
Multicam
High Cam
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Post by kvgdc on Mar 25, 2021 8:06:45 GMT -6
Center Grove 88 was my senior year at Northrop and yeah, they were pretty groundbreaking with the theme. I think this was really the first show that went for a full theme integrated throughout the whole production in ISSMA circuit. At least on the Class A level. They went all in with everything from stylized uniforms to fit the Mikado theme to a rack of car parts in the pit to bang on for various effects.
Ben Davis 88 was a GE monster. They put like 325 marchers on the field and had spaghetti drill that went end zone to end zone. The closer pulled out enough mylar fabric to make everyone new uniforms and twisted and turned it through the ranks to create pizzaz.
Center Grove had just come up to Class A after competing in Class B and...particularly then, Class B bands were SUPER good and there was a lot of howling that 'only school size is keeping us from taking over the Class A bands.' Carmel had recently made the jump and was rising fast in Class A that year too. They adorned their uniforms with bands of sequins that made our director quip "It looks like they sprayed the uniforms in glue then marched through the Nashville sequin mines." Homestead was class B at the time too and would soon make the jump as enrollment shifted and demographics moved from burb to burb around Indy and Ft. Wayne.
Center Grove and Ben Davis were bitter Indy rivals as BD was "king" of ISSMA at the time running championship after championship without being caught. Center Grove designed this show to bust that and marched with a ton of attitude. Their music was the winner far more than their marching. They fell prey to the "wear dark pants to hide the dirt and play amazing music" assumption that Northrop once held but dropped with the white pants that year. They pipped us by a few tenths in the North regional (they were assigned there for balance) just before state (there was no semi-state at this time for ISSMA) and broke our unbeaten streak for the season.
They took a LOT of flack for "trying to use flash to cover dirt" talk for this show and marched and played it well with attitude back at their rivals. When they fell short I remember a lot of 'oooooh. it didn't work, they spent all that money and couldn't beat BD's "miles of mylar" show.'
We marched what was considered a very "DCI" show in look that year with a Greg Cesario drill and with the white pants, considered a "Phantom Regiment in white" clone band in some regard. Our chip on the shoulder was "we're a MARCHING band, not a broadway show." Heh. The high school attitude stuff was all over the place of course. We finished 4th behind LN, CG, and BD and felt we should have been at least ahead of LN.
We felt vindicated the next year when Center Grove came out with white pants and marched the snot out of a complex drill using geometric forms and blocks ala what we did the year before instead of spaghetti follow the leader drill....and finally broke BD's hold on ISSMA. Northrop came out that year with a themed-ish show "By George" which was Rhapsody in Blue, complete with a tarp unveiling at the end, trying to keep up with the 'tarp, cloth, theme' stuff. Before that, shows...simply didn't have "titles" in ISSMA at all. It was the "four songs and great drill" era.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Mar 31, 2021 11:35:08 GMT -6
An Early Indiana Giant - Ben DavisTo build on the post by kvgdc I thought I would do another Ben Davis post. Ben Davis was an Indiana powerhouse and one of the best bands in the country from the early-mid 1970s into the early-mid 1990s. Between 1976 and 1993 they won 9 Indiana Class A state titles, including 5 consecutive wins from 1984 to 1988. They only participated in MBA/BOA for a short period in the early 1980s, this included four appearances in Grand National finals from 1981 to 1984. They finished as high as 2nd place at Grand Nationals in 1983. I posted that 83 video earlier. In addition to playing well, they had some very indicate drill in the early 80s symmetrical drill era. After 1984, they did not participate in BOA at all, despite having much success in Indiana. They did not return to BOA competition until 2000. I have looked for videos of the Ben Davis 'Marching Giants' from 85 - 88 but have not found any videos online. The closest I could find was their 1989 performance at the Indiana State Championships. They finished 2nd to Center Grove this year. It is not a theme based show but they closed with Les Miserables. Songs from this musical were very popular during this era. Several bands did the full musical for their theme in this era as well. From this 89 clip I can tell that Ben Davis was a strong contender on the music front. It is all high camera angle so hard to tell what the individual marching was. They are an Indiana bands so I assume really good. The visual designs may not have been quite as competitive with bands like Marian Catholic and Lake Park, perhaps one reason they did not compete in BOA. So here is 1989 Ben Davis.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Apr 9, 2021 3:28:23 GMT -6
The 1980s - The Lancers Rise to Become a BOA Power House
The Lancers I am speaking of is of course the Lake Park HS 'Lancers' from Roselle, IL. Before talking about the Lancers rise, it is important to first mention the early years of their legendary director Ken Snoeck. Mr. Snoeck is actually a fellow Michigander; born and started his career in Michigan. He Graduated from Central Michigan University and I read he also did the percussion arranging for their marching band. In the 1970s, Mr. Snoeck became director of the Bridgeport HS Marching Band from Bridgeport, MI (outside of Saginaw). In the 1970s, Bridgeport was my bands biggest competitor at the state level. Under Mr Snoeck's direction, in the 1970s Bridgeport attended the first three MBA Grand National Championships held in the summer in Whitewater, WI. They ended up being Grand National finalists in 1976, 1977 and 1978; finishing as high as 3rd overall in 1976. I think it was around 1981 that Mr. Snoeck left Michigan to become the band director at Lake Park. I am not sure if he left Bridgeport at that time or earlier. I am also not sure as to the reason he left Bridgeport, but I suspect it was because the school district began having financial issues sometime around the late 1970s/early 1980s that led to cuts to the band program. In fact, by the mid/late 1980s, Bridgeport could no longer support a competitive marching band.
Now Lake Park was still a successful band program prior to Mr Snoeck's arrival. Although they did not make finals, Lake Park did attend at least one (that I know of) MBA Grand National Championships in the 1970s. In 1979, Lake Park became the first Illinois State Champion at the first unofficial state championships. After Mr. Snoeck's arrival, he began to build the Lake Park marching band into the national power that it would become. Along with fellow Illinois power programs of the early 1980s like Herscher and Marian Catholic, Lake Park developed a music program that seemed part symphonic band and part marching band. In 1984, Lake Park returned to BOA competition by attending their first regional championships. They were a finalist. In 1985, Lake Park returned to Grand Nationals and this time under Mr. Snoeck's direction, they made finals and finished 7th. This would end up being their first of 18 consecutive Grand National finals appearances. In 1986, Lake Park won the Illinois State title over defending Grand National Champion Marian Catholic. At Grand Nationals, they again finished 7th in finals.
The three videos that I will showcase highlight Lake Park the last three years of the decade. You will hear that for the times they had an extremely sophisticated music book (I believe Mr. Snoeck was the principal arranger). I heard their music once described as 'wonderfully layered'. Lake Park also developed a rather demanding visual package for the era. I always liked how their deep blue uniforms looked against the turf. One unique aspect of the Lake Park marching band during the late 1980s (and into the early 1990s) was their size. Despite coming from a large high school (well two schools; one for 9-10th grade and one for 11-12th), they marched a pretty small band. The total size of their marching band during this period was only between 110 and 130 members. I am not sure if that was by design or due to the enormous time/financial commitment or both. In fact, in both 1988 and 1989, I think they are in the record books for being the smallest marching band to win the BOA Grand National Class AAA Title.
The first video is 1987 Grand National finals. This was a banner year for Lake Park as I really think they improved over the previous couple years. While they were runner-up to Marian Catholic at both the Illinois State Championships and the BOA Midwest (Terre Haute) Regional, they finished 4th in Grand National finals. This would end up being their first of 11 consecutive top 5 finishes in Grand National Finals.
In 1988, Lake Park took on a little more of a theme-based show. They did music selections from eastern Europe, specifically Slavic music. To play up the theme a little bit, the guard, drum majors and pit dressed in costume. This would be the first of several years that Lake Park took on themes based on a specific nationality or geographic region. Drum majors would even yell commands in the foreign language of their theme. On the competitive side, Lake Park again won their class at the Illinois State Championships and finished second to Marian Catholic. They made the trip over to Akron, OH for the BOA MidEast regional championships and ended up winning. This would be end up being their first of 8 BOA regional titles. At Grand Nationals, it was pretty clear that no one was going to beat Marian. The battle for Lake Park was going to be for 2nd place and the Class AAA Title (Marian was a AA band). Their biggest competition was the two New York bands. They ended up beating them in finals and finished 2nd and won the Class AAA title. Here is their 1988 BOA GN Finals performance.
In 1989, Lake Park did another eastern European theme, more specifically taking on Hungarian music. They won the overall Illinois State Title. They would win this title every year until 1998. This year the BOA Mideast regional was held in Cincinnati two weeks before Grand Nationals. Despite winning music and visual performance, Lake Park finished 3rd behind Norwin PA and Kiski Area PA (they were only a half point behind Norwin). One of the Music Effect judges gave them a low score (probably too low of a score). This must have lit a fire under them a bit because they came into Grand Nationals very determined. They gave a very strong performance in finals. I personally loved the quality of their sound. They again finished 2nd and won the Class AAA Title. Unlike 88, where they did not win any highest achievement awards, this time they won both music and visual performance. In 1988, they finished over five points behind first place Marian. This year, they were only three tenths of a point behind first place Marian. In fact, their score of 93.70 is the highest score of the 1980s not to win the Grand National title. Below is their 1989 GN Finals performance. One point I wanted to make was that their most interesting and difficult drill maneuvers came near the end of the show. Unfortunately, the multicam cut to close ups (ugh).
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Post by kvgdc on Apr 9, 2021 7:51:16 GMT -6
Lake Park 87 was a great band. Northrop was at that rain soaked Terre Haute show. We actually beat Lake Park in prelims pretty strongly but they slipped by us in the night show. Our director let us listen to one of the judges tape for prelims because he was raving over us being, "The only band that makes it look like it isn't just pouring rain!" We sort of rose to the challenge and went all out in the rain because it was a crazy fun thing to do.
By the night show, our uniforms were still wet and soggy and cold. The temps had dropped dramatically and a wind picked up. We were miserable getting into them and then our usual rowdy parents block had chosen to go up under the stands in the lower part of the stadium for shelter from any further rain and their usual noise got sucked into the acoustics of the place. So when we took the field, the usual roar of "Gimmie an N!" etc. wasn't all that audible on the field and the big block of orange jackets and shakers losing their heads wasn't visible, we were like "where are the parents?" All that led to a sort of less spirited show in the night show. We weren't used to doing a day show and a night show all that often anyway and tended to underperform in night shows when we did.
We got to listen to Lake Park and Marian Catholic from the lineup in the end zone back stands though and I remember thinking, "That music book is fantastic."
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Post by dbalash on Apr 9, 2021 10:44:04 GMT -6
It is truly heartbreaking as someone who has been around Illinois marching band for 20 years now. Lake Park was still a strong band through the 2000's, and they've just basically fallen off the face of the earth.
Since 1979: -14 ISU Championships, including 10 consecutive from 1989-1998. Last one in 2003. -18 GN Finals appearances. Last one in 2002. -2 GN Class AAA Championships -Outside of Finals appearance, 9 GN Semifinals appearances, last in 2013. -9 regional championships. -9 regional class championships. -36 regional finals appearances, last in 2011.
By my count from a 2020 parent performance, they marched ~80 percussion/winds. That would place them in 2A at all Chicago area shows, which is 67-96 players. Up until 2019, they were 3A, or 97+.
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Post by boahistorybuff on Apr 9, 2021 14:08:33 GMT -6
There are a lot of bands like Lake Park who were once among the elite marching bands in the country but have since fallen on difficult times. One of my reasons for this thread and the season review thread is to give some acknowledgement to these once powerful band programs. The strong band programs of the past helped push the envelope and helped make other bands strive to be as great or better. It is why the elite high school marching bands are so incredibly good today. When I was in high school, we looked up to Lake Park with a lot of respect. Kind of like Marian, they played such wonderful music and yet did so while doing a very complex and challenging drill routine. There will be many more Lake Park posts ahead. While they had risen to the top of BOA elite by the end of the 1980s, some of their best years were still ahead.
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