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Monday Memory: When Some of Us Rang in the New Year in Dallas
It started out as a typical winter break drum corps camp in late December 1987. There was plenty of excitement on its own because this was the second off-season rehearsal following Bluecoats cracking into the top 12. But for about a dozen members of the corps, this camp would be different. They would leave early and travel over 1,000 miles to do drum corps. In the off-season. On New Year’s Day.
Monday Memory: Happy Birthday Bluecoats!
Adorning some of our merchandise, you see the year 1972 as the origin of the Bluecoats. But would it surprise you that the birth of the Bluecoats is a little complicated? Not if you know the history of the only drum corps on the planet to win a World Championship after the corps had folded and re-organized. And Bluecoats did that twice!
Monday Memory: When the Banquet was after Thanksgiving
For about half of the existence of the Bluecoats, the season-ending banquet happened the day after Thanksgiving. It was a day of endings and beginnings, as the first rehearsal of the next season began the next morning. Mostly held at the (former) Four Winds banquets facility in northeast Canton, it was a time for everyone to dress up (for once) and to hug and cry and laugh and smile.
Long before there was social media and cell phones, when long-distance phone calls actually cost money, the Banquet ended a long “off season” where you had virtually no communication with your drum corps family. Out of towners would get a hotel room and arrive early (and stay up late). Other than perhaps move-ins, Banquet night may have been the most anticipated date on the calendar.
Monday Memory: When we Came Back for a Second Time
After a summer without drum corps, what does that next year look like? Well it’s something Bluecoats have had more experience than others doing. After a strong decade in the 1970s growing from a parade corps to a Class A nationally known corps, Bluecoats struggled to stay on the field in 1979 and then again 1983. 1984 was the third attempt to get a drum corps in Canton established, and the second comeback attempt in just four years.
Monday Memory: Coming Back Strong after Missing a Year
In 1978 the Bluecoats were sitting on top of the Ohio drum corps world. Tucked into their belt was state championships with the VFW and American Legion, but in their cap? How about the coveted American International Open Class A title? But the accolades hid deeper challenges, according to Director Tom Jakmides about their trek to the Championship Week in 1978, “At the end of the 1978 season… our equipment truck died in Kansas City, our uniforms were six years old and our horns were falling apart.”
Monday Memory: The first time the community helped fund the need
The 2020 Bluecoats are at about 80% of their funding goal, as Fall approaches, in trying to replace lost revenue from a canceled drum corps season and a pandemic-paused Bingo operation. Our drum corps community has helped in large part filled the funding gap. But it’s not the first time the community has come up big for the Canton organization.
Monday Memory: When it took three days to get a contest finished
In modern days, drum corps pull into a power regional and perform once. But it used to be to play the regional Final, you had to place high enough in prelims. Twenty years ago that was a same day gig, doing prelims in the morning and those who made finals got to play again that night. At best a corps might spend two days in town for this one show. But there was a time when it took three days to figure out who was in Finals. And it wasn’t for a regional.
Monday Memory: When the season debut was in... April?
As the calendar turns to June and eyes anxiously check the calendar for the start of the DCI season, in the late 80s and early 1990s, Bluecoats debuted their season in April. April? No, not a finished field show, but it was a debut nonetheless. For years Drum Corps Associates (DCA) held a Spring preview of the upcoming season and several DCA and alumni corps would perform at the Forum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for the annual Serenade in Brass. It was a way to provide a little hype for the upcoming season after a winter where corps have had a chance to rehearse the music for the upcoming year.