On to Show 2...

Well our second show weekend took place over the weekend of July 1st and if I only had one adjective to describe it, it would probably be moist!

Rehearsal on the Saturday took place at our new stomping ground of Staffordshire University in Stoke. This started out well in sectionals adding in some new bits and changing some music in the drum book in preparation for the show then onto the field with the hornline / frontline for some musical ensemble time whilst the guard were on their own field. 10 minutes into this session and cue the rain...not just rain but torrential downpours. We concentrated the musical time on the beginning of the show and the first third of the closer which was probably the weakest part of the show at out last outing. We took lunch just at the rain stopped (lucky - not!).

Dave giving it large in the pit

The first part of the afternoon started with us learning the 'pre-show'. I know a lot of the DCI corps now do this, i.e. start the show as soon as stepping onto the field and through the announcer talking etc. I must confess that being an old fart I wasn't keen on this and I'm not keen on it when it's done in the States. The only time I've seen it done when it worked (well for me anyway) was in Madison in 2002 when Scouts came on in the company front and peeled your face off just as the announcer got to the last 's' of Scouts...  remember watching them rehearse that on the morning of semi's in Camp Randall with the hangover from hell! Anyway I digress, I have changed my opinion, well at least for our show ;o) as I think it really adds to the show and is pretty cool :o) Learnt the 'pre show' and cue the rain but this time make it heavier and throw in a couple of thunder storms into the mix just for good measure... We ran several sections and when it got to 5pm the call was made to run each part of the show once through and then head home. The field was becoming dangerous with standing water and my drum was holding water up to the rim. Pack the truck just as the rain stopped (again lucky!!! Not) then home. Trainers in the tumble drier, clothes in the washer, very hot shower, sausage butty (diet of course) and a can of lager.

KS drumline in Woking, UK

Sunday morning at 5:30 and the alarm goes off. Oh what joy I said. or actually it was more like f**&%^^&% what stupid time is this, whose idea was it to go down south followed by more swearing in the shower as I forgot to change the time the boiler comes on so it was cold. Then off to meet Matt  Williams and Co who was giving me a lift to sunny Woking. About a 3 hour drive down to Woking then onto rehearsal. Bit of trepidation about this as our rehearsal site was right next to a residential area of suburbia but no problems at all and in fact a lot of people coming out to watch us including some dudes in proposer Aussie outback hats, gave the drumline the opportunity for us all to do piss poor Australian impressions. All apart from Stu Hancock who obviously watches to much Home and Away and / or Neighbours with such a good accent :o) More obligatory rain, followed by a little sun then onto pre show warm ups. Warm ups weren't too far away from the stadium today and we walked to avoid the 'carvoy' fiasco of two weeks previous! and onto the show. Much better than the last show and seemed to go well. I even remembered the body movement changes that were put in on the Sunday morning rehearsal session - now thats a miracle!! We won from Black Knights in second and then did the repeat standstill before heading back onto the car park that is the M25 and arriving home around 9:30pm... Another one of them low calorie chinese takeaways that are the staple part of finishing off any show day and then collapse into bed ready for a hard day at the office on Monday morning...

Not really many pics or video from the show, but I'll look to get some online for the next post which will be just after our next show. This is on July 15th and is our 'home' show in Stoke on Trent around 5 miles from our HQ... should be a good crowd and hopefully lots of old members stopping by to have a look so looking forward to that one...

Lot of love in the corps at the moment and a lot being sent over from the US towards us which is really great to see and hear from our point of view as everyone is getting very excited. Can't believe it's only 6 weeks to go until we step on the big bird and head over the pond! Read a great post today from Tom Peashey talking about us (http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/index.php/topic/151826-2012-rankings/page__st__60) very complimentary - thanks Tom :o) Those of us who toured in 2010 still remember the feeling at the Bridgeport show and very excited to get back onto that field. Seeing the pics from the first shows of the DCA season seemed to fire everyone up even more...

I know from the last blog that a lot of people from the US were reading - thank you by the way and looking forward to seeing lots of people in August :o) so I thought I would share some statistics about the upcoming tour (thanks to Adam Kennerley, aka Kenno for these)

• We have a touring party of 162 people.
• During the tour, at it’s peak with staff, drivers, etc we will have around 175 people in our party.
• The youngest person will be around 10 months old and the oldest will be 70.
• If we all average 20kg of luggage we will be transporting 3.24 tons of luggage around (not including equipment).
• All flights are fully paid for.
• DCA are really excited to host us again

First Show Done

Well since the last post a lot has happened.... Last post we were in mid march, we'd nearly finished the music and had done the first 20 odd sets of the show...

So what about April and May - well they went OK. We had a couple of rehearsals in April and then a 'visual' camp at the end of April in Beaumanor, Leicestershire. I say visual camp as we finished the first 2 parts on the Saturday in what we thought was horrendous rain, however that was nothing compared to the Sunday monsoon that passed over the East Midlands which turned the field into a mud pit!

On May 12th we completed our first public performance of 2012 at the Blue Shed in Sheffield. Overall that was pretty good, considering the weekend before was one of the first times that we had ensembled the entire musical show on the Saturday night... The usual issues surrounded our first outing of the season...

• many peoples uniforms seemed to have shrunk over the winter - this seems to be an annual issue and can only be attributed to the UK climate and has nothing to do with increasing waistlines :o)
• the truck was delayed because of traffic
• we rehearsed in an area where one had to check repeatedly that the hole hadn't been stolen from your derriere should you have stood still too long!
• some random kids set fire to the bin outside the sports hall where we were rehearsing as we were unloading the truck
• I made the mistake of following James Moore when we drove to get some food and ended up having a tour of Sheffield
• the list goes on....

Drumline warmup at Sheffield

Show seemed well received by the crowd and that was good to see.  Another day of rehearsal on the Sunday and we're ready for the next camp at the end of May...

The camp in April in Loughborough was a wash out - the camp in the same place at the end of May saw England drenched in a heatwave! Bloody hell it was hot - but I guess good practice for the USA tour in August. The heat bought its own problems - one over cooked tenor player with blisters the size of Wales on his back, one sunstroke hit snare player who didn't even know her own name by midday on the Sunday and several others who struggled with the heat. Fortunately my highly trained athletic body was able to withstand this onslaught (those of you who know me with understand the irony of that statement!) Good weekend though and we pretty much finished the show!

Following that camp a couple more Sunday rehearsals at our new adopted home at Staffordshire University in Stoke and a camp at Walseby in Nottingham and we're ready for the first show. Should mention at this point we welcomed Teddy Mascari from the USA to us when in Nottingham. Teddy will be joining us for the full DCA tour and working with the percussion throughout. His trip over wasn't without issues, lost luggage, car breakdowns and a weekend of rain but I think he enjoyed it and is now initiated in the Kidsgrove Scouts way of doing things, including picking up some of our more colloquial 'sayings'...

First show weekend then - 16/17 June 2012 and so it begins! My little girl was with me all weekend and so she excitedly got herself ready to go to 'drums' but after looking at the horrible cold and rainy weather for the day I had to break the news that she couldn't come to drums today :o( but she could spend the day with Nanny and Grandad and Billy the pug dog :o) which made her smile again. Have to say my drum corps'ing would be screwed without my parents who are superstars with helping me out!

My little Drum girl...

Rehearsal on the Saturday took place on the field of Staffordshire University in Stoke on Trent and despite being cold, windy and very rainy at times, it went really well. The drumline stretch out of a quick 10 minute game of football to demonstrate our silky skills followed by warmup and then about 90 minutes of sectional time on our own and running a couple of things with the front line. When we start to do things like this it really does bring home how complex this show is. There are new things going in to the show, music and visual constantly even on show weekend which does mean sometimes taking a deep breath and having to let this old brain digest it all :o)

Rehearsal went well again and it does feel like every time we do a full run the level goes up as people push more and more. There is a real atmosphere and I guess a buzz around the corps members this year which I don't think I've noticed in the last couple of years as much about this show and excitement about where it is going...

So on to show day! Not too far of a drive up to Bradford (around 90 minutes from Kidsgrove) and after a quick change of rehearsal venue (if we had used the first field I'm sure we would have found a few new undiscovered species in the undergrowth!) we were into pre show rehearsal. This went well and you can't help but think how fast the winter does go when you get to this point. Perhaps it's sign of getting old! We rehearsed segments of the show for around 3 hours before taking lunch, watching the always great junior corps and then getting changed. The drumline stayed at the rehearsal site to change and warmup and we moved to the show in a convoy of cars... herein lay a problem. Somebody who had driven to the show venue earlier that day (naming nobody in particular - Nick Jones!) went at the start of the 'carvoy' and after several dangerous u-turns, asking directions from some random chap doing his gardening, James running down the road in uniform to find the 'lost' car at the back we finally arrived at the show... note to self - use sat nav in the future :o) We did the show and somebody has posted it on youtube (below). I think the best way to describe it was a 'first show'. From my point of view not brilliant - far too many brain farts personally and silly mistakes that hadn't made before and won't be making again - but it was the first one under the belt for lots of people wearing the superman suit for the first time. Everybody knows there is still lots to do, lots to clean, lots to add and I think a lot of people will enjoy this in the UK, US and Europe. We came second on the day with the Company taking first place (congrats to them on that - unfortunately didn't get to see their encore performance as I had to head off straight after the show to pick up my little girl but looking forward to seeing it at some point over the year).

So job done and onto the second show in Woking on 1st July. I'll try and get some pics and videos etc from the rehearsal and the show and update this again after the weekend...

Into the Spring

Well my attempt at keeping right up to date on writing something on this blog are rubbish. It's now coming towards the end of March and we've had 3 rehearsals since my last post with two of those involving us spending some time outside learning the first parts of the drill...

Our rehearsal at the end of Feb saw us heading out onto a nice new astroturf field at our Winter rehearsal venue of Chesterton School (or Chesterton Community Sports College to give it it's correct name - if thats wrong I'm sure Rob S. will correct me!).  Now I had some grave reservations about venturing outside at this time of the year but it was actually pretty sunny! Even tried getting out of it by putting crime scene tape over the entrance but to no avail!

We spent the morning of our 27th Feb rehearsal in sections finishing off the music. The drumline is now fixed with 7 snares, 3 tenors and 5 basses as we've had to lose a couple of people along with way :o( and I believe the hornline is at 50 not sure with the guard as we don't really see them until we're outside completely but they'll be as strong as ever :o) so we're looking a little bigger than the last couple of years.

We finished the music for the closer during the morning. February and we're done (nearly) with the music. There are some breaks to go in at different places and lets be honest some of it is as rough as a grave diggers dog however it's February and we can ensemble a show! Off to McD's for one of those healthy power lunches they serve so well and then on the field for the first time in 2012...

Not sure why but Rory (in blue) reminds me of a Merekat in this picture :o)

And snares....... Relax!

So the afternoon arrives and we're off on the field starting the drill. First stretch out of the year, followed by basics blocks for each section and we're off... We spent about 2 hours learning sets and it was actually quite pleasant - the weather that is not the state that many of us were in after that first initial body shock ;o) Back inside and ensemble the entire show for the first time and then home with head spinning with new music, new drill and a realisation that I might not be in the peak of physical fitness.... The diet definitely starts tomorrow, but tonight I think it would be rude not to reward oneself with some delightful chinese food...

The next rehearsal on the 5th March should have seen us outside again, but bad weather stopped play. Gutted - no really... So we spent the day on music again and ensembled at the end of the day. First time I'd properly heard this years ballad being played by the hornline, frontline with a hint of bassdrum for good measure... I like that - particularly stood in fornt of the entire hornline - its a very cool piece, although my ears did sting a little afterwards...

This last weekend saw us take to the field in the morning for more basics and learning more drill sets for the opener, I think we're up to about 26 learnt now. Then music in the afternoon and learning some of the drum breaks to fill the gaps in the pieces. I think that's it for the indoors rehearsals though! From the next gripping installment in 2 weeks time, we're outside permanently, then once we get Easter out of the way the whole summer will just become a blur I'm sure.

Well thats where we're at in the middle of March. We know a rough provisional itinerary for the US tour which includes stops in Washington, Connecticut, Philadelphia (always think of Trading Places when I think of Philadelphia), New Jersey and of course Annapolis for DCA finals. It all starts to become real again when it gets to that level and everyone is getting excited about another advanture over the pond. The show hasn't been announced yet but I'm sure that will come soon but it is good fun and should keep the audiences everywhere entertained, particularly the closer - thats just stereotypical balls out drum corps music for me which I think most people will love :o) I'll get another update posted after the next couple of rehearsals and hopefully try and get some video together of where we're at...

well for now at least.......

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???????????