Right then 2012...

Hello to everyone again. Yes I know after the updating and writing in 2010 I've been a right lazy ******* in 2011 and didn't write anything on this blog. Some interesting stats for some of the stuff I wrote in 2010 though - apparently it was viewed in the UK, USA, Canada, Ireland, Latvia, Germany, Holland and Iran?? wtf??? Although I did think that President Ahmadinejad looked like he was secretly in to his Drum Corps :o) 

Well 2011 was a pretty good year, We played some cool music, we retained the DCUK title and came second in the DCE championships to The Company. I gained a few pounds along the way in 2011 (allegedly!) although the uniform was getting a little snug by finals nite. We had a bigger drumline than in 2010 with 8 snares, 3 tenors and 5 basses and a couple of old and new faces appeared on the line. All in all a fab year culminating in putting the entire stand on it's feet for our DCE finals show - now that felt pretty good looking up and seeing everyone between the 5 yard lines up for a standing O.... We'll take it!!!!!

So not much more to say about that really - good year, got fatter, didn't win the lottery, increased alcohol intake, smashed up a car, travelled to the UAE a few times for work, daughter got more obsessed with 'drums!', won dcuk, thought about exercise, failed at undertaking exercise, travelled to DCE in Rob Swindells car, broke sound barrier getting to DCE in same car, laughed uncontrollably at some of Kenno's stories about mating cows on way to DCE (can't explain but seriously funny) - can't think of much else - I think thats it in a nutshell!

Anyway onto the 2012 drum corps season within the Kidsgrove Scouts. Well this promises to be a pretty good year and I'm going to attempt to kick my arse into gear and keep this blog going throughout the season and throughout our second tour to DCA in August - woohoo!!!

So where are we now. Well it's February and its bloody cold in England and thats about all I have to say about that really. We had our first rehearsal of the year way back in November (once again first rehearsal the Sunday after the Saturday evening banquet so hangover is an understatement!!!). Went well and we started learning new warmups and the opener for the show. At this time I can't say anything about the show as nothing has been released yet so you'll just have to be patient - but (and although I obviously don't like giving complements to my good friend Tez) the show is 'baby throwing' material so you'll just have to wait and see :o)

Size of the drumline is at the moment 8sn, 4tn and 5bs with a few new faces which is nice to see and sad to see some old faces go. Not sure of the frontline numbers yet and not really sure about hornline but I think numbers are sitting a little bigger than the last couple of years and when we ensemble with them in the sports hall I can't hear sh!t... We did have a fun time a couple of rehearsals back when the junior corps joined us for part of the afternoon session and we played some warmups together. The kids seemed to really enjoy it and did really well to, I think in total we had around 12 snares, 8 bass drums and 5 tenors in a very confined space but it was nice to be all together. The main issue for me was the height of some of these kids - seriously am I shrinking or what? Hopefully we will be doing more of this in the future too... I think that was the same day Gav from the hornline came and discussed the issue of 'hindu' with us to help us improve our posture etc. Although looking around at the age and athletic profile of most of us on the line, I think we are far more suited to the buddha concept! Anyway after all agreeing we needed to get fitter etc. we headed of to McDonalds to discuss how we should achieve our fitness goals... 

So we've had several weekend rehearsals at this point and things are going nicely. The hornline have finished the book and we aren't far behind. We have got a rehearsal this weekend and the drumline should finish the closer which completes the book for us too. Now this has it's advantages and draw backs... Its great that we've finished so early etc etc however it has given some people (namely Robert Swindells et al.) the opportunity to start learning the visual show at the next rehearsal at the end of February. Now I'm no metrologist, however I'm pretty sure that at the end of February in the UK it's frigging freezing - in fact as I type this there is snow on the ground! I'm sure when we hit Annapolis in the summer and it's boiling hot and we're all getting tanned these snow covered rehearsals will be a funny story, however in a very cold Kidsgrove in the depths of winter its about as funny as a sexually transmitted disease!!

Anyway on that bombshell I think I'll leave this first post for the 2012 Kidsgrove Scouts season. I'll try and post some pics etc after this weekends rehearsal and keep this blog up to date as we travel through 2012 in the UK, Europe and the USA. Happy reading :o)

 

One last Show.... Into Europe we go!!!!

Well after a crazy few months, here it was. The last weekend of the 2010 Drum Corps season. The end of a season that start in April for me, after thinking I would never set foot on a drum corps field again. We were 6th Place in DCA, DCA - International World Champions, DCUK Champions and now for Europe!!!

I headed to Holland on Friday 24th September due to work commitments. This was a day later than the rest of the corps but at least I had the chance to travel on the Eurotunnel and take my 15 year car across the continent (and it made it in none piece)!!!!!

After meeting up with another 'Kidsgrove car; in Calais we headed to the town of Opoeteran in Belgium where we were housing for the European Championships. It was only around a 45 minute drive to the Kerkrade stadium in Holland. Everything was going well until we reached Opoeteran and then trying to find our housing site ( affectionately nicknamed Staalag 17 after a couple of days of being there). Robert and I attempted to communicate the fact that we were lost to an old guy in a clothing shop in the town but to be honest I think even our typical 'overseas English' wasn't working (you know the one, speaking really slowly, louder than normal and then upwardly inflecting the end of ever sentence whilst still speaking entirely in English - Can't understand why people in other countries can't understand us!!!). Anyway we eventually found it and then found our rehearsal site and off we went. Rehearsal was good and everyone was in good spirits. We had the floodlights of the football club and so we could rehearse later on the Friday evening which was fun, apart from the things that were biting (insects that is - not the Belgium people!). We added a new ending to the show, i.e. the Corps running off away from the scene of the Heist and did our final full rehearsal run of the year - quite sad really to be doing that. Then back to Staalag for some food (thanks to Chris, Wendy and all of the team again) and a little continental liquid refreshment (it would have been rude not to sample the local offering). I think the shopkeeper in the local 'Spar' shop was a bit overwhelmed with us clearing out his shelves of 'pop'. Anyway a warm around the camp fire we had built (I guess we are Scouts afterall :o) and then to bed. Show Tomorrow!!!

Saturday morning started early with breakfast and then a brief visual rehearsal at the rehearsal site and off to the Stadium for warm ups and semi finals. We arrived at the stadium in plenty of time and set about doing our warm ups. We were performing at around 3pm (I think - that's the weird thing I noticed most about this year, particularly on show days and in America - I really had absolutely no concept of time, particularly during show days. It was actually really refreshing to have that feeling!) Anyway, we performed our semi finals show to a packed stadium, it seemed like everyone in Europe wanted to see not only us as the UK champions, but also to see what all the fuss had been about in the USA. The show was good and to be fair, the crowd went 'ape shit' - that might be a stoke phrase so apologies if it is, but it means they really loved it. We won semi finals (not for the first time in Kidsgrove History) but this really was ours to lose now. In somewhat of a break from tradition, we stayed at the venue in the afternoon, had some lunch (Subway as usual) and then got ready for the evening performance. We commandeered an area of the industrial park near to the stadium and blocked it off with the buses and this became our warm up area.

The drumline had a smaller area just up the road for our warm ups. Our final warm up was good and it was wierd, and eerie, that when we started there were lots of lines and corps around us warming up and one by one they disappeared to perform their finals show until in the end it was just us left... I've never had that experience before and so that was cool. Around 8:30 (I think) we moved off to go to the stadium and perform (obviously to our them tune now Superstition by Stevie Wonder - Tune!!!). Our finals performance was bang on, in terms of the snare line anyway, the best show we had performed by far and I think everyone else did OK but to be honest I was just overwhelmed by the whole thing...

Onto results and retreat, firstly we were given the honour of playing all the other corps onto the field for retreat then onto the results. I can't actually remember the captions, all I can remember is we won and shit that felt good - Very good!!!! We did a full marching repeat performance which was watched by a lot of people in the audience who stayed behind. The DCE trophy is possibly the biggest trophy ever seen and we carried this back to Opoeteran where I think most people had a couple of drinks of shandy to celebrate the success!!!

I've no idea what time that all ended and we got to bed, but I think Matt Williams and Tez's singing were still going on at around 3am on Sunday morning.... Next morning was a strange feeling, that was it, season over! Mission accomplished and Heist successful - We'd taken the silverwear that we wanted from the UK, USA and Europe. Job done. Travel back to England - I think we left Belgium at around 11am and arrived back in Stafford at 8:30 Sunday evening. What next? Work on Monday for a start, trying to explain to my first class of the day why their lecturer was bleary eyed and mentally and physically worn out after 6 months of the most satisfying punishment known to man!

Bring on the end of season Banquet in November and then 2011 although I wasn't sure what I would be doing in 2011 and whether my body (and brain) could take another round of Drum Corps or whether on that note I should finally hang up the sticks and shoes....


Epilogue:
I thought about summing up the year in 3 words and I came up with Dream, Success and Subway!!!!


I can no longer eat Subway after 2010 when we lived off their fine sandwiches in the UK, the US and Holland. Someone was offering subway freebie vouchers the other day and when he thrust one in front of me I couldn't help myself but I ask him politely to f*** off!!! Sorry dude!!!!


an ode to our song from the US & A...

Onto DCUK Finals..

We returned from DCA on Tuesday 7th September and had one rehearsal weekend before we went to defend the DCUK title in Mansfield on Saturday 18th September.

The rehearsal on the 12th was COLD!!!! thats the main thing I can remember. Rehsearsal went OK but I think everyone was still in the clouds a little bit from the US trip.

We moved to Mansfield on Friday 17th September. Everyone was due to arrive at Walseby Scout camp (our base for the weekend) at around teatime and we were to rehearse that evening. One problem, the truck broke down on the M1 on the way to Walesby!!!! Please don't let this be an omen for the weekend!!! The time passed and it was becoming more apparent that there was no way the truck was going to get there in time for any rehearsal (more worryingly how was it going to get to Holland next weekend?!?!). So in true tradition, (the adults amongst us) we discussed the finer points of the show over a couple of cold ones in the bar! I think there were a lot of mental run through's done that evening... That was after the drums had done some cleaning (or at least we paid some of the Irish guys who were visiting and staying with us to clean our drum for us - Thank you again by the way!)

Saturday morning the truck was here (arrived later on Friday night) and we had a brief rehearsal in the morning before taking lunch, changing and moving the Mansfield town stadium for warm ups and the show. The drumlin found a nice car park and warmed up before we went on for the show. Our afternoon, prelims show was good, very good! It seemed to get the audience straight away and they loved it. We won semi finals by over a point from the Company and were well placed for the evening.

We stayed at the stadium for a little while and watched the juniors compete, and then headed back to the Walesby. After some food and a shower we changed and headed back for our finals show. It is true to say that our finals show was flat and not anywhere near the standard we wanted or expected to achieve. Had we blown it???

As the scores were announced and the captions were announced I think everyone started to get anxious. I believed the Company had overtaken us and taken the title and then the announcer stated the score for 2nd and 1st place as 81.85... I thought I'd heard it correctly, was it a tie? I was standing next to Nigel Morgan and remember asking him if it was a tie and had I heard it correctly. Suddenly I was transported back 14 years when I remember being in the stadium in Orlando and hearing the first ever tie for a DCI title... how ironic I thought... Oh well... Then he announced in 2nd place was the Company and we had won the UK title by virtue of winning the Overall Effect caption. Bugger me, We'd won!!!!!!!! What a bizzare feeling. After years of standing on the field and hearing how low down we'd come, or how we were fifth, or we'd achieved the lowest score in history (see the earlier posts if you don't know what I mean) we were British Drum Corps Champions!!!!! I know I said earlier about it not being about the winning etc etc.. but it did feel bloody good to win I have to admit.

Well job done! We headed back to Walseby after doing our repeat performance abd celebrated with a couple of cold ones and some wicked curry, courtesy of Big Dave in the pit - thanks mate!!!!!!

A bit of a lie in on Sunday morning and then back to normality - for a few days anyway until we do it all again for the European Championships in Holland!!!!

The rest of DCA

Well its been ages since I updated this blog as the last few days in the USA on our DCA tour went by in a flash and before we knew it we were back in London and heading home. But hear were some of the highlights for completeness...

On Thursday 4th September we were back rehearsing after a day of lazing by the pool or at the water park, the former in my case. As usual it was nice an cool for the rehearsal (Not!) and we rehearsed at a stadium type venue a few minutes down the road from the School. At least this was on astro turf and so a little easier on the legs and knees but still scorching. We took some tea (one bus to Burger King and one to McDonalds - I was on the BK bus - shiiit!) but then when we got back it started to rain a little bit. The temperature dropped slightly and the rain cam for about 5 minutes - this was met with cheers as everyone started to cool off. This turned to despair about 20 minutes later when the sun came out, the heat rose and the moisture turned into sever humidity - Arrrgggghhhh!!! Anyway we continued and that evening from 8:30 was an open rehearsal and lots of people came over to watch us - loads of thanks to all those who did as that was a first for all of us! We packed up rehearsal at around 10 and headed back to the hotel for showers and a little liquid refreshment in the bar.

Friday was hot (again!) and we rehearsed at the School in the morning and headed over to take part in a show and tell with the Empire Statesmen at lunchtime. We performed for each other at their rehearsal site and it was a great experience. Very friendly people and really really welcoming (which is something we come to expect from everyone at DCA). Loads of thanks to them for that experience. In the afternoon we headed back to the hotel for the Individuals / Ensembles competition which a lot of our corps were performing in. The drumline also did a performance with the Kilties and the Governaires drumlines on the bridge outside our hotel which was fun. Plus we all had a few drinks together.

Saturday was semi-finals day and was met with some intrepidation, excitement and probably nervousness from everyone associated with the corps!!! We did some rehearsing in the morning and then packed up and said goodbye to the School for the last time. Back to the hotel for showers (After the drumline had been to the venue to unload equipment and the fontline - as usual the hornline had a nice long break whilst we were working - I'm not bitter about that.... not at all!!!!) then off to warm ups and the show. Warm ups were fun, the drumline managed to steal a corner plot not far from the stadium and set about our business. I think this was the first warm up where it felt like the Snare line had become a 'snare line'... The atmosphere was buzzing as we moved to the stadium and performed our semis performance. We were on pretty early as we were seeded 10th based on our score from the last weekend... The show was pretty good and the crowd was big (probably to see these brits everyone was talking about) but once again the crowd were great and everyone from other corps we came across were really friendly. After the show we went back into the stadium and waited for scores. The corps who performed after us kept getting lower scores than us and it soo became apparent that we had climbed from 10th to 6th - woohoo!!! We were in a good spot for the Finals on Sunday... Saturday night was a time to relax a little and kick back as this was out last night in Rochester and we were right in the centre of all things drum corps. We made a lot of friends that night around the bar and hotel lobby...

Sunday - Finals Day!!!!! Not only finals days but the day we left Rochester. Everyone had to be packed up and ready to pack the buses as we were leaving straight after the results were announced and heading back to  Newark airport for the flight home. On the positive side our room managed to keep the room all day (thanks to Barry for that one) and so Tez, Barry, Chris and I managed to have a little lie in on Sunday - Get In!!! With the buses packed, the drumline (AGAIN) went to the stadium to help unload the truck and then returned to get ready. The day just seemed to go really fast and before we knew it we were back outside the stadium ready for warm ups. Warm up was good and lots of people coming around to watch us warm up and play through and generally just say 'Hi'. As it started to get darker, the stadium lights came on and then we were lined up outside ready to go on for DCA finals performance. This was it, what we had travelled 3000+ miles for. The first UK corps to perform at DCA in 20 years!!! Can't remember much more detail about the day as it went like a blur!!!! We went on and performed to however may thousand people were in the stand and got the usual standing ovation! Thank you to everyone for their support again!!! It wasn't long before we were ready to go onto retreat and that is something else, very different than those in the UK and Europe and I have to say much more fun!!! We were announced in 6th place and we had a score of 90.413 As soon as the final results were announced (congratulations to the Buccaneers on their win - very cool show) we left the back of the field, said some goodbyes and boarded the buses for the 5-6 hour journey through the night to Newark airport.

The journey to the airport was 'fun'. Everyone was tired and hot. I think it was around 5am when I felt the bus get thrown to the side of the road and come to a grinding halt (thanks again to Fred for the driving!) and I heard his quiet and subtle tones on his Phone. Apparently one of the other buses had suffered a blow out on the roadside. Everyone was OK but we were still about 90 minutes from Newark and if there was no traffic we would just make it in time for the plane!!!! Shiiiiiit!!! Two of the buses got to the airport OK but the third bus didn't make it. Luckily Virgin had laid on an additional plane on that Monday (some problems the day before by all accounts) and so we were able to get everyone on that coach onto the next plane which was leaving only 90 minutes after our original plane. After much discussion between Rob Swindells, the ticket ladies and me acting as go between from us at the airport and Chris Boulton on the late bus we managed to get everything sorted.. I even managed to get a nice little upgrade for the flight home from the wonderful ticket lady - god bless you ticket lady!!!!

Everyone boarded and we left New York and the USA as our journey had come to an end. Satisfaction, pride, sadness, memories.... I think everyone felt all sorts of emotions on leaving the US after what had been something I and a few others who have been around this organisation for many years thought would only ever be a dream. But in the immortal words on Nicky Jones we had been 'LIVING THE DREAM!!!' We arrived back in London Safely and the coaches were waiting to take us back to Kidsgrove. We arrived back in Kidsgrove at around 1am and after picking up my car I arrived back in Stafford at around 3am on Tuesday 7th September 2010 - nearly exactly 2 weeks after it all started. Nothing much to say about this trip other than - F****** H*** that was amazing!!!!! When can we do it all again???????????

Exploring Rochester

Wednesday 1st September

Most of the Corps took a day trip to Darian Lakes theme park today, but I decided to hang out in Rochester and do a little exploring. Plus as it was going to be hot again (90+ degree again) I thought I could grab some time by the pool and relax to try and re-charge the batteries. Wednesday was the last free day of the tour, Thursday and Friday are rehearsal days then Saturday and Sunday are the world championships!

Anyway I explored Rochester and found some really nice places - I like exploring new places :o)

I found my way down to the High Falls area of the city (a waterfall in the middle of the city on the Genesse river). I wandered into the visitors centre and met with Sally and explained that we were in town for the DCA World Championships etc. Learnt a lot about Rochester and the history of the pumping stations, Kodak etc which was great - some wonderful architecture in that part of the city too. I think KS now have a new fan (Hi Sally if you're reading this!) I left them looking at our facebook site and pics / videos from last weekends show :o)

Anyway wandered back to the hotel in the afternoon and hung out by the pool to recharge the batteries - very nice! Then (I'm ashamed to say) went to Dinosaurs again for some tea - I think I'm going to stop eating for the rest of this trip - I was supposed to be losing weight!!!

Rehearsal day tomorrow and people will be coming into Rochester as the DCA world championships kick into gear. Its going to be hot again apparently so another day of melting shoes!!!

Rehearsal Day

Tuesday 31st August

Well it was hot - it was very very hot. We rehearsed at Webster high school around a 30 minute drive from the hotel. A good rehearsal day for us all and it was tough. We rehearsed on the car park of the school as the stadium was under renovation I think. The car park was / is the rehearsal venue for the Schools marching band but is also a car park - lines everywhere!!!! however we got used to it and it ended up being a really productive day. This was the first time on the field since the show on Saturday so everyone could come back down to earth. Temperature topped into the mid 90's at midday, the tarmac on the car park was melting under foot and you were sticking to it if you stood in one place too long - Nice!!! It was even starting to melt the souls of shoes. Anyway, it's topping up the tan nicely with all this good weather. The School have been really good to us, we eat in their canteen and the band have loaned us a couple of pieces of equipment from thier truck which is really appreciated.

It was weird being a real american high school - normally only see them on the movies so don't know what I was expecting, but essentially not much different to going into a school at home - although they do have a public address system which rings out occasionally calling people the school office!

Anyway at the end of the day we headed back to the hotel around 7pm and everybody invaded the swimming pool. Poor life guard :o) probably around 50-60 of us in the pool throwing balls around and generally being a little bit lairy, but good to cool off after the days events! Re-fueled in Legends and off to bed to rest the aching, burning(!) body... Free day tomorrow and most people going to Darian Lakes theme park but I'm planning on exploring Rochester a little more and seeing whats around...

Niagra Day

Monday 30th August

Well we arrived in Rochester safely on Sunday evening after a 6.5 hour drive from New Jersey. The singing got worse as did the smell on bus 3 (I think eventually the air conditioning got fixed!). We checked into our rooms and heading down to Legends Bar and Grill to refuel. Fair play to Nancy and Renee behind the bar as the site of 150 brits hitting the place must have been scary :o) The Radisson is really swish (although coming from the Howard Johnson in New Jersey anything would be posh :o) We are right in the centre of things here - the drum corps block party on Friday in right outside our hotel and a couple more corps are due to be staying in the hotel so it could be really fun - plus we have a working pool which will get some use with the weather staying like it was last week! Pics below show us unloading and the view from our hotel room window!

Anyway Monday was a free day to help us get over the travel up the east cost. We all headed up to Niagra falls at around 10am. The bus journey was bad again (well at least for bus 3) as we still had no air conditioning and the temperature rose again well into the 90's. We travelled into the Canadian side of Niagra (apparently the nicer side according to everyone) and spent 4+ hours exploring and seeing the sites. A few of us started off in Applebees to refuel and then off to the falls. Nothing much to say apart from - WOW! that is a bloody big waterfall! I think everybody managed to go on the maid of the mist - getting soaked on that boat was the best part of the day as at least it cooled everyone down!

There were some shananigans with the buses (again) but we eventually left at around 6 (originally it was going to be 4pm leave). There were some of the usual Kidsgrove issues - someone had left a passport somewhere so was stuck in no mans land between Canada and the US until that got sorted - we came back with everyone we left with though so good times!! We got back to the hotel and re-fueled. I went to Dinosaurs BBQ house with Chris and Shumie, what a place. Essentially I got the biggest plate of meat known to man for around 15 dollars, oh and a apehanger ale to wash it down... This would not be the only visit the Dinosaurs this week I think :o)

Anyway a great day for KS in their tour. Tuesday in rehearsal day out at a high school in Webster... Everyone was watching the weather forecast for the week - HOT! - bugger!