Two well-known, Chicagoland dynasties have joined forces to bring Chicago football fans a new facet to the NFL game day experience. The Chicago Bears and the Cavaliers of Rosemont - Illinois, have joined forces to create the Bears Drum Corps this fall at all Chicago Bears home games.

After 13 months at the helm of Drum Corps Planet and all its sister sites, site director Mike New has announced his retirement from his role as leader of the popular drum corps discussion site. As of Friday, August 19, George Dixon has been reinstated as the site's owner and director.

Presale of tickets for the Drum Corps Europe show in Dordrecht on September 3rd will end this Saturday. If you want to be sure to have a seat ticket for the Dordrecht show, please visit the DCE webshop and order your tickets now!

Drum Corps United Kingdom is seeking people who are interested in working for DCUK at this year's British Championships. Volunteers will be working directly with the corps and with the ardent supporters of the drum corps activity.

After a summer break of two months, the DCE competition will continue in Dordrecht - The Netherlands on September 3rd. With 15 corps from The United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium and France will enter the contest. Northern Star from Leeds will represent the UK. A time table has been added to the DCE website.

A legal battle that killed a midstate drum & bugle corps contest in Hershey - Pennsylvania has also cost the area its chance to attract a much larger and more lucrative drum corps event for Labor Day weekend of 2006.

The Showband USA from Hellemmes - Lille, a French group affiliated to Drum Corps France, have revealed their new website. Webmasters Isabelle Eggermont and Jérôme Capoen hava also built an English version of the site.

High Brass have announced that their new album entitled 'Time for a Change' is launched officially this week. Pre-sales of the album have been staggering and all people who have ordered the album already should receive theirs this week.

Rochester's Empire Statesmen surfed to another first place finish in the Ocean State Classic contest in Pierce Field in East Providence RI on Sunday, on the strength of top visual and effect scores. The Statesmen's brass section also topped the field, helping roll up a total score of 89.875.

Strängnäs Drum & Bugle Corps from Sweden has succesfully competed in the DCI competition. The current DCE A-Class co-champion entered the Division III Prelims, reaching the 13th position, out of 20 corps.

The Staffordshire Knights Drum & Bugle Corps, a recent addition to the Pro-Mark family of endorsers, have been branching out into areas of percussion that the typical drum corps normally does not get to see or experience. Two of the drum line instructors, Rob Thys and Jon Howell, play a regular gig in a local night spot in Staffordshire - United Kingdom, as backup percussionists to the music played by a DJ.

The Cadets were crowned DCI World Champions tonight in Foxboro, capping a wild year of ups and downs within the Division I rankings. The Cadets scored a 99.150, topping the Cavaliers (97.625) and the Phantom Regiment (96.825) while sweeping every caption.

The Marching and Show Band Jong Beatrix from Hilversum - The Netherlands will take part in the DCE Championships on Saturday September 24th 2005 in Rotterdam. Due to the withdrawal of Fidele Vogelsanger from Gevelsberg, who have had to drop out of the event as a result of circumstances, a place has become available. Jong Beatrix have accepted the invitation.

Although tonight will be the last night of the season, and most corps will spend their time polishing off existing performances, the Semi Finals' first- and second-place winners both might add something new to tonight's shows.

Northern Star Drum & Bugle Corps from Leeds, England will be taking part in the DCE contest in Dordrecht on Saturday September 3rd. This brings the total number of participants in Dordrecht to fifteen.

The free DCE Newsletter sent to clubs and societies has undergone a makeover. As well as increasing in size with better quality paper and an improved layout, it also has a new name: 'Drum Corps News'. This newsletter appears quarterly.

Southern Aurora is pleased to announce that they have taken delivery of their new front line percussion equipment, this completes the transition to Dynasty instruments as Southern Aurora already march both Dynasty battery percussion and brass.

This week the Drum Corps International competition will be concluded by the World Championships in Foxboro - Massachusetts and Brockton - Massachusetts. The Cadets are leading Division I with 96.850, followed by The Cavaliers with 96.050 points.

Have you e-mailed someone from Drum Corps Europe between last Thursday and Saturday, or used the contact form on drumcorps.org.uk? Then most likely your e-mail never reached us. Due to a bad configuration of the mail server, e-mails were not forwarded correctly in the above mentioned period.

The sale of tickets for the 2005 British Drum Corps Championships has started. The championships will take place at the Mansfield Town Football Club, Field Mill Ground in Mansfield on Saturday, October 1st.

The Drum Corps Europe website has been moved to a new server in The United Kingdom. With the new UK server, the pages of the DCE website are loaded slightly faster than before.

Many drum corps fans have volunteered to take part in the DCUK Task Force, to be held on November 4th-6th, and and/or have so far contributed ideas for discussion.

The Blue Devils learned today that they were named the corps class champions of the World Music Contest, a four-weekend series of European contests the corps competed in during the first weekend of their European tour.

As of 2006, measurements for the Drum Corps Europe contest field will be changed. This will entail new distances for the hash marks and a widening of the staging area with respect to the present situation.

The major DCI contest in Indianapolis - Indiana on Saturday was full of surprises for the top three. The Cavaliers were beaten by the Cadets, with Phantom Regiment defeating the Blue Devils.

The Raiders Drum & Bugle Corps from Wayne - New Jersey have announced to the members of their corps and their families and fans that they will finish the remainder of their 2005 DCI tour, which includes DCI finals week, without a Drum Major.

Concord alumnus James Salt will have a very special reason for remembering Drum Corps International 2005. He'?s getting married during the DCI Finals week in Boston - Massachusetts.

The centre section of the stand in the Sparta Stadium has been sold out for the DCE 2005 European Championships. In other sections of the main stand there are still plenty of seats available.

The online voting poll developed for the fans to determine the order of appearance at the upcoming contest in Murfreesboro - Tennessee, has been cancelled. Attentive members of the interactive team of DCI detected the use of an automated 'voting bot' which has severely skewed and compromised the voting results, forcing DCI to cancel the contest and negate the results.

With still almost two months to go before the DCE European Championships in Rotterdam, tickets for the centre section of the stand are almost sold out already. Spectators wanting to be considered for seats near to the centre line will have to order quickly.

The Senators Drum & Bugle Corps from Eastleigh have been undefeated in the first half of the DCUK season. The last contest took place in Leicester, and became another win for the Senators. The Kidsgrove Scouts came in second.

Saturday evening, in San Antonio - Texas, saw a confrontation between all the 'big shots' at the Drum Corps International competition. Now in the lead are the Cavaliers, followed by The Cadets, Blue Devils and Madison Scouts.

The Colts Drum & Bugle Corps were involved in a minor accident after departing from the show in Dallas - Texas. One of the Colts bus was merging into the right lane and a car tried to sneak in from the right to try to pass the bus.

The new album of the brass ensemble High Brass, 'Time For A Change', is now in the final stages of production. The album has been mastered and the artwork is being fine-tuned.

Once again, next week fans will have the opportunity to choose the line-up of an actual Drum Corps International show! The performance order of the DCI Masters in Murfreesboro - Tennessee, on July 29th, will again be chosen completely by fans in an online poll, conducted next week (prior to the Murfreesboro show).

Another hot weekend saw the Senators travel to East Molesey for the DCUK London show and take first place with a score of 76.0 amid difficult conditions and less than ideal preparation.

Northern Star Drum & Bugle Corps from Leeds and Distant Thunder Show Corps from Bedford marched to another victory in the BYBA Academy Magic Show in Barnsley on Saturday July 16th, 2005.

The National Championships of the Field Band Foundation in South Africa have been announced. The event will take place at the Sisa Dukashe Stadium in Mdantsane on October 1st.

The finale visual - woven Cavaliers and Madison Scout brass lines â?? was a testosterone sea of green. A beautiful ending to a rainy-thenrainbowed contest in Kalamazoo. The winning corps - the Cavaliers with an 88.425 - may not have had full advantage of ideal conditions at rehearsal because of a strong rain, but they were able to get to the stadium early, 'And that made it lucky', said Jeff Fiedler.

The Blue Devils, performing their first show on US soil this season, came away victorious in Kalamazoo last night, scoring an 86.575. The Bluecoats came in second.

Would you like to show others that you were there too, at that great drum corps event in Kortrijk? Quite right too! The best proof is, of course, the official patch from the DCE contest in Kortrijk. Now available for sale in our online shop!

The new Dutch organisation Drum Corps Netherlands (DCN) has revealed the dates for the 2006 season, including the DCN Championships. Venues haven't been announced yet.

Drummers of the German show band DrumCraft-Crew had the time of their lifes when they had the opportunity to do a jam session with the Blue Devils. A video of the jam session has been posted on the DrumCraft-Crew website.

On 9th of July, the Senators performed with the Band & Bugles of the Light Division to hundreds of spectators in Winchester, Hampshire. The Band and Bugles of the Light Division are one of the top Army Bands in the United Kingdom.

Drum Corps United Kingdom are pleased to confirm that the 2005 British Drum Corps Championships will be held on Saturday, 1st October at Mansfield Town Football Club.