August 21 - Montreal, Que

DCI World Championship
Finals

Well, it's all over. It really did not end the way I'd hoped. We dropped to 7th behind 27th Lancers. Can you believe it? We beat them all season along. Drums got dumped too. 5th place. I'm pretty bummed.  Blue Devils finished their season undefeated and Bridgemen won their third drum title in a row.  I guess I need to give special mention to a few people who were an important part of the adventure. Thom Hannum, Chris Thompson and Fred Sanford for writing some cool notes. Mark Thurston, & Robbie Robinson for being such an inspiration. Jim Dwyer for keeping me laughing (mostly at my own expense). Frank McVeigh for sharing the long drives almost every weekend. Randy Norris for being such a cool seat-mate (sorry about that little fire with the car battery under the seat). And finally Big Robbie and Charlotte Robinson for taking care of us as if we were their own kids. This has definitely been the greatest summer of my life. I finally got to live the dream. Pretty amazing.

Corps

Position	Corps	Score
1	Blue Devils	95.250
2	Santa Clara Vanguard	93.550
3	Garfield Cadets	92.250
4	Phantom Regiment	92.150
5	Madison Scouts	90.750
6	27th Lancers	88.650
7	Crossmen	88.050
8	Bridgemen	86.150
9	Freelancers	85.800
10	Sky Ryders	83.100
11	Cavaliers	81.950
12	Spirit of Atlanta	81.650

Drums

Position	Drumline	Score
1	Bridgemen	19.10
2	Santa Clara Vanguard	18.80
3	Blue Devils	18.60
4	27th Lancers	18.10
5	Crossmen	18.00
6	Garfield Cadets	17.90
7	Phantom Regiment	17.80
8	Madison Scouts	17.20
9	Cavaliers	17.10
10	Freelancers	16.90
11	Spirit of Atlanta	15.50
12	Sky Ryders	14.70

August 20 - Montreal, Que

DCI World Championship
Prelims

Prelims today. We went on after Phantom and before Blue Devils. It was a pretty good show. 6th place overall. We got dumped on in drums. 6th place behind Phantom. What a joke!

They turned us loose in Old Montreal tonight. That was interesting.

Position	Corps	Score
1	Blue Devils	94.950
2	Santa Clara Vanguard	93.500
3	Phantom Regiment	93.100
4	Madison Scouts	91.950
5	Garfield Cadets	90.950
6	Crossmen	87.700
7	27th Lancers	87.450
8	Freelancers	85.900
9	Bridgemen	85.550
10	Sky Ryders	85.050
11	Spirit of Atlanta	84.400
12	Cavaliers	83.100
13	Suncoast Sound	81.100
14	Troopers	77.600
15	Geneseo Knights	76.250
16	North Star	74.600
17	Alliance (MA)	73.350
18	Valley Fever	72.600
19	Memphis Blues	72.500
20	Defenders	72.050
21	Velvet Knights	70.200
22	Les Eclipses	69.050
23	San Jose Raiders	67.350
24	Colts	67.200
25	Seattle Imperials	66.050
26	Boston Crusaders	65.300
27	Avant Garde	65.150
28	Kingsmen	64.150
29	Pride of Cincinnati	63.700
30	Saginaires	63.250
31	St. Croix Rivermen	62.100
32	Guardsmen	57.750
33	Bluecoats	56.250
34	Glassmen	55.500
35	Imperial Guard	54.350
36	Southwind	53.800
37	Blue Stars	53.100
38	Renegades	52.100
39	Fantasia III	47.550
40	CMCC Warriors	47.000
41	Night Hawks	46.600
42	Southernairs	45.800
43	Patriots	45.000
44	Emerald Knights	43.150
45	Buckeye State Caballaros	40.650
46	PAL Cadets (PA)	38.350
47	1st Canadian Regiment	34.350
48	Connecticut Classics	29.750

August 19 - Montreal, Que

We had a really good practice today. We also did a full dress run of the show. There must have been 1000 people there to see us and Madison do our last run throughs before Prelims. We were SO HOT!!!! I swear if we had been judged, we would have been 5th place. We completely blew Madison away. They knew it too.

 

The Maltese Cross in "Artistry"

August 18 - Montreal, Que

Practiced at U. of Montreal again. Madison Scouts showed up this afternoon. They wil be sharing the practice facility with us. It was really warm yesterday, but got cold and rainy today. Luckily it rained during Madison's practice time and not ours.

 

Madison's drum line during the rain 

 

Mark Jones & Kelly Fonner goofing around

August 17 - Montreal Que

We were going to stay at University of Montreal, but supposedly they upped the price. So we are staying at some place called Queens College (I think) ?? It's in a pretty rough part of town. Instead of having individual dorm rooms, we have 10 guys to a room. I think it's actually a classroom. - Oh well,  it's drum corps.

We practiced at University of Montreal this evening. It's a really nice astro-turf field. You can even see Olympic Stadium from there.

August 16 - Pittsfield, MA

On the way to Pittsfield, we lost Bus 2 - What's New?

The show was in a baseball stadium with the field marked off way out in Center Field. We were probably 50 yards away from the stands. Talk about weird. We drummed a 3 ticker tonight. We were absolutely sure we had won drums. But Bridgemen only had 1 tic (what a joke). They set a record for the highst drum score ever.

That was the last show before Finals - On to Montreal.

Corps
1. Garfield Cadets  92.30
2. Crossmen  89.05
3. Brisgemen  86.50
4. Cavaliers  85.30
5. Defenders  72.95
6. Memphis Blues  72.50
7. Alliance  70.95
8. Velvet Knights  66.75
9. Les Eclipses  63.50
10. Pioneer  52.05

Drums
1. Bridgemen  19.8
2. Crossmen  18.9
3. Garfield  18.6

August 15 - Boston, MA

CYO Nationals

This was a very strange day. We got up early and did some laundry.  We did a complete head change and then went right out and practiced. We never did warm up.

The show was at Boston College and on the way, bus 2 caught fire. We stopped in the middle of some ritzy neighborhood, put the fire out, and kept on to the show. We had a super show, but dropped 2 points from last night. If ever we performed a 90, it was tonight. I do not understand these judges.

Corps
1. Blue Devils  93.25
2. Garfield Cadets  90.30
3. Phantom Regiment  89.60
4. Bridgemen  87.10
5. Crossmen  86.85
6. 27th Lancers  85.60

Drums
1. Bridgemen  19.2
2. Blue Devils  18.2
3. Crossmen  18.0

August 14 - Boston, MA

We got to Chestnut Hill very early in the morning. We are staying at Catholic Memorial HS and practiced here all day. The show is the Lancer Invitational II in Lynn, MA at the Manning Bowl.

We had a great show!  11.4 in Execution!  The Bridgemen beat us in drums but we are right there with them. I got to see the Blue Devils from the front for the first time. They are unreal! If the don't break 95 at Finals, they are getting screwed. We were only .85 behind Phantom!

Corps
1. Blue Devils  93.70
2. Garfield Cadets  90.80
3. Phantom Regiment  89.60
4. Crossmen  88.75
5. Bridgemen  85.55
6. 27th Lancers  85.45
7. Cavaliers  84.60

Drums
1. Bridgemen  19.1
2. Crossmen  18.7

August 13 - Lansdale, PA

No show tonight. We practiced all day at North Penn HS. Fred was supposed to fly out today, but we talked him into staying and working with us for one more day. It's about 10:00pm and we are getting ready to leave for Boston.

August 12 - Lansdale, PA

Fred Sanford came in to work with us today. It was great to see him again. We all love to see Fred. The guy is a percussion genius. We made a little drill change to the drum solo so Frank now stands next to me during "El Salvador".  I got to have lunch at McDonalds with Cole.

Had a really hot show tonight. 11.3 in Execution and a 7.3 in P.A.  Cole said Phantom did a much worse show than last night but still had a 91. That's DCI for you.  Fred was hyping us to the judges after the show. He told them that either us or Blue Devils should win high drums.

Corps
1. Phantom Regiment  91.00
2. Crossmen  86.30
3. 27th Lancers  83.30
4. Cavaliers  82.50
5. Sky Ryders  81.70
6. North Star  74.35
7. Memphis Blues  69.90
8. Black Knights  49.45

Drums
1. Crossmen 18.5
2. Phantom  18.0
3. 27th   17.8

Augut 11 - West Chester, PA

We practiced this morning in Hanover. It was another dreary day. We then went on to West Chester. Cole and Mary Candler were at the show. It was raining so some of the corps went on in street clothes. Phantom went on in uniform so Vinnie had us wear ours too. Luckily it stopped raining before we went on.

We played a good show. Dave Lorenzi was on Execution and he gave us an 11. Our P.A. score was pretty respectible too (7.1). We beat Phantom by .2 in drums. Staying up in Lansdale tonight.

I just heard a bad rumor that Garfield beat SCV??!!??


Corps
1. Phantom Regiment  89.70
2. Crossmen  86.55
3. Cavaliers  84.35
4. Sky Ryders  83.75
5. Defenders  72.10
6. North Star  71.30
7. Memphis Blues  68.20

Drums
1 Crossmen  18.1
2. Phantom  17.9

August 10 - Hanover, PA

We got here real early in the morning. It was a dreary day. Overcast and rainy (of course).

A crazy thing happened on the way to the stadium:  We had warmed up way down the street in some park. We were marching back to the stadium, and Thom Hannum was stopping traffing so we could cross. Well this big Cadillac comes flying down the street, slams on brakes and almost hits Hannum. The dude got out and starts giving Thom a bunch of flak about being in the middle of the street. Really going off. So we broke formation and surrounded the guy. Had he made one wrong move towards Hannum, it was ON! Hannum calmly suggested he rethink his position and leave. Wisely, the guy did. Unreal moment.

We won the show, beating Sky Ryders

Corps
1. Crossmen  84.80
2. Sky Ryders  81.55

Drums
1. Crossmen  17.4
2. Sky  15.4 

August 9 - Columbus, OH

U.S. Open
Finals

After Prelims we went back to the school and crashed. While we were there, we learned that Chris Richards' father had a heart attack and died at his hotel. He had come just to see Chris play. Everyone is really bummed out.

The show tonight was in County Stadium where the Columbus Clippers play baseball - Drum Corps in a baseball stadium??? We played a pretty good show, but Phantom beat us in drums and 27th tied us for 2nd.

Still thinking about Chris and his family. 

Corps
1. Phantom Regiment  88.25
2. Crossmen  84.30
3. 27th Lancers  82.05
4. Sky Ryders  81.90
5. Freelancers 81.40
6. Spirit of Atlanta  76.45
7. Defenders  71.95
8. North Star  71.55
9. Memphis Blues  65.05
10. Alliance  64.65

Drums
1. Phantom 17.5
2. Crossmen  17.4
   27th

August 9 - Marion, OH

U.S. Open
Prelims

We drove all night to get here - arriving at about 8:00am. We ate, warmed up and went on. We had a good show. We had an 11.4 in execustion going into "Russian" but threw away a couple of tics. Still won drums by .2 over Phantom. Second in overall corps. 27th was right behind us.

Corps
1. Phantom Regiment  88.25
2. Crossmen  84.30
3. 27th Lancers  82.05
4. Sky Ryders  81.90
5. Freelancers  81.40
6. Spirit of Atlanta  76.45
7. Defenders  71.95
8. North Star 71.55
9. Memphis Blues  65.05
10. Alliance  64.65

Drums
1. Crossmen  17.6
2. Phantom  17.4 

August 8 - Michigan City, IN

I can't believe these judges! They are so fill of sh*t! Jim Campbell dumped us in P.A. tonight. We won execution 10.9 to 10.6 but got blown out in P.A. 7.7 to 6.5.  Rodney Goodhart was on Execution and wanted to give us an 11, but we threw away a couple of tics in the Russian Christmas "Push" section.

As we were getting ready to step off, he came up to the snares and said "Make my last show a good one". I'm not sure what he means by that, but I sure hope we will see him in Montreal.

Corps
1. Santa Clara Vanguard  88.40
2. Crossmen  82.00
3. 27th Lancers  79.80
4. Cavaliers  76.95
5. Sky Ryders  76.65
6. Spirit of Atlanta  76.70
7. North Star  70.45
8. Defenders  68.05
9. Troopers  66.50
10. Boston Crusaders  53.60
11. Guardsmen  47.90

Drums
1. SCV  18.3
2. Crossmen  17.4
3. 27th  ??

August 7 - Whitewater, WI

DCI Midwest
Finals

After Prelims, we went back to the dorms and ate and played a little. It rained HARD! (Here comes the rain again). Finally it stopped so we dressed for Finals and played a little with the horns. The mosquitos here are the size of BIRDS!

We had a pretty good show tonight. The overall scores were a lot more realistic. Garfield was put back in their place - 5th only 3 points ahead of us. In drums, the execution guy let a lot of stuff slide for the Blue Devils. They won Ex with a 10.5. We were 3rd in Ex with a 10.2 - 4th overall drums.

Corps
1. Blue Devils  91.15
2. Santa Clara Vanguard  89.00
3. Phantom Regiment  87.40
4. Madison Scouts  86.20
5. Garfield Cadets  84.75
6. Crossmen  81.00
7. Bridgemen  80.00
8. 27th Lancers  78.85
9. Cavaliers  77.45
10. Sky Ryders  77.40
11. Freelancers  73.80
12. Suncoast Sound  68.25

Drums
1. Bridgemen  17.7
2. Blue Devils  17.6
3. Phantom  17.2
4. Crossmen  17.0
5. SCV  16.7

August 7 - Whitewater, WI

DCI Midwest
Prelims

Woke up early and practiced in Rockford. We did a complete head change and had a little talk. We have decided that it really does not matter what the judges think. If they give us the scores, fine. If not...F them!

We got to Whitewater, warmed up, and went on. It was a pretty good show but the scores were a little messed up. We dropped a point from last night. We won Percussion Execution and were Second in overall drums (only .3 behind Bridgemen and .1 ahead of SCV).

Garfield third????? No way. Madison ahead of Phantom??? Also Spirit got SCREWED! They got a 72 and missed Finals.

Corps
1. Blue Devils  88.60
2. Santa Clara Vanguard 87.20
3. Garfield Cadets   86.45
4. Madison Scouts 86.25
5. Phantom Regiment  85.40
6. Crossmen  81.50
7. Bridgemen  80.35
8. 27th Lancers  80.20
9. Cavaliers  78.75
10. Sky Ryders 77.40
11. Freelancers  77.20
12. Suncoast Sound  74.55
13. Spirit of Atlanta  72.50
14. Alliance  69.10
15. North Star 66.75

Drums
1. Bridgemen  17.7
2. Crossmen  17.4
3. SCV  17.3
4. Blue Devils  17.0
    Madison

August 6 - Rockford, IL

While the rest of the corps went on to Rockford, the drum line took a detour. We went to Chicago where Fred Sanford gave us a tour of the Ludwig Drum Factory. That was awesome! We got to see how the drums are made from beginning to end. Afterwards we got to play a standstill performance for the Ludwig employees so they could see what people are doing with their product. They seemed to really enjoy it. Maybe they were just glad to get an extra 30 minute break.

By the time we got to Rockford, we were running late so we did not get a full warm-up. Because of the, we did not play a particularly good show. We tied with SCV and Bridgemen in Execution and got shafted in P.A. again (6.1 to 7.6 for Bridgemen). Got screwed in Brass too (7th). I think we should have beaten Madison but instead, ended up 5th behind Bridgemen.

Corps
1. Santa Cara Vanguard  87.15
2. Phantom Regiment  86.30
3. Madison Scouts  84.45
4. Bridgemen  82.80
5. Crossmen  82.10
6. 27th Lancers  79.75
7. Spirit of Atlanta  77.75

Drums
1. Bridgemen  18.0
2. SCV  17.8
3. Phantom  16.5
4. Crossmen  16.4
5. 27th  15.9
6. Madison  15.7
7. Spirit 14.0

August 5 - Indianapolis, IN

What a crazy night! Everyone was so pissed off after the show there was bound to be trouble. All of the guys who are entering Individuals were out practicing in the parking lot late tonight. Apparently the neighbors did not appreciate that too much and called the cops. Everyone was freaking out. Big Robbie was trying to get everyone quiet. Chris Richards (Marimba) was just inside the front door of the school so he did not get word to stop playing. When Dave Oechle came in and saw him playing he completely went off on Chris. As I hear it, he even threw a punch when Chris tried to explain that he had never been told to stop playing. There are also people saying that Jim Dwyer has been kicked out of the corps and all he was doing was trying to calm everyone down. Just another day in drum corps I guess...jeez!

August 5 - Indianapolis, IN

What a way to start Second Tour - a 15 hour bus ride. We had a good practice today but the show was a joke! Garfiled beat us by 5 points! They went from .6 ahead to 5 Points ahead in 5 days. That's bullsh*t! I hope things get better fast. Tomorrow we see Santa Clara, Phantom, Madison &  Bridgemen.

Corps
1. Garfield  88.45
2. Crossmen 79.45
3. Spirit  78.40
4. Defenders  65.15
5. Memphis Blues  64.80
6. Avant Garde  62.30
7. Guardsmen  40.20

Drums
1. Crossmen  16.7
2. Garfield  16.3