Drum Corps Ringing In The New Year

As with any major American holiday, if there’s a parade, there’s a good chance a drum corps is or was a part of it at some point. This is just as true for the New Year holiday, even though it’s pretty much the midpoint between the end of the previous season and the start of the next one. Most corps have started holding their audition camps for the upcoming season, while the members, both current and prospective, may be also gearing up for the indoor season in winter guard, percussion, and winds. The fact that drum corps are able to put something together with all of the above as well as dealing with the holiday season schedule makes it even more impressive when it happens.

Currently, there are only a few examples of drum corps performing in New Year’s Eve/Day parades on YouTube, but those performances which I found are pretty epic. Let’s start with one of the early examples of all-star drum corps units to perform, the 1988 Drum Corps Midwest (DCM) All-Stars performing in the Cotton Bowl parade in Dallas, Texas. This was one of the many all-star drum corps projects that occurred thanks to Bill Cook, Jim Mason, and the Star of Indiana organization, and they did the activity proud as they performed the classic Ken Norman arrangement of Auld Lang Syne, made popular by the Racine Kilties throughout the years. We get a “wow” from the local commentators as well as a futile attempt to talk over the main part of Auld Lang Syne because LOUD.

The following year, the DCM All-Stars returned, this time for the Orange Bowl parade in Miami, Florida. Building of the previous year’s success, the 1989 edition’s performance was so loud, the TV crew on location couldn’t hear their cue that they were back on the air. Also, Joe Garagiola manages to get Run DMC and DCM confused with one another. We can blame how loud the corps was for that. While the video has “1988” in the title, the video poster does acknowledge that it could be 1989. As we’ve already seen the all star corps above, this mystery is solved.

We move forward in time to 2020 and across the ocean to London, England for our next corps. The Saints Brigade, which is one of the few non-competitive drum corps I am aware of, made the journey to London to perform in their New Year’s Day parade, just before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Unfortunately, the video of the Brigade passing by only catches them performing Empire State of Mind after half the horn line has already passed by, but you can still hear how great they sounded representing New York and the United States in the parade.

Of course, the granddaddy of all New Year’s Day Parades is the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. While this parade features the marching bands of the two colleges facing off in the Rose Bowl every year, there are so many more marching bands which make up the parade from all of the country and the world. In some cases, drum corps have also performed in the Rose Parade. One of the most recent examples is from 2019 and the Pacific Crest. It didn’t hurt that PC is based just half an hour away from Pasadena, either, making them another excellent representative of the Los Angeles area. Crest made sure to entertain the crowd with their rendition of the classic theme from the movie, Shaft.

Some drum corps have done the Rose Parade more than once. By some, I mean the Santa Clara Vanguard, and when SCV does the Rose Parade, they do it in style, with all of their history represented. In 2004, the Vanguard combined the main corps with the Vanguard Cadets and Vanguard alumni to put together a power house of a parade unit. Performing classic Vanguard charts such as If You Believe from The Wiz, Festive Overture, Procession of the Nobles, and music from Henry V, the Vanguard made their many alumni, as well as drum corps fans, proud.

The Vanguard returned to the Rose Parade in 2017, and it led to one of the loudest moments for the parade viewers in the stands. During the 2017 parade, a float broke down in front of the Vanguard, leading them to stop and wait for the float to either get repaired or moved over in a way that let the parade continue past. While waiting, Santa Clara did what any self respecting drum corps would and should do under the circumstances: Turn to face the crowd and hit them with a wall of sound. In this case, it was an arrangement of The Canyon, which the corps performed and won with in 1999, that fired everybody up. Make sure you watch the video from the start, however, as Santa Clara also performs a killer arrangement of Uptown Funk while on the move prior to the float breakdown.

If you know of any drum corps which have performed in a New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day parade that I didn’t talk about, or if you were a member of one of these drum corps during a New Year’s performance, let me know in the comments below.