Drumcorps.org.uk: Year in review 2013

Jubal won the DCE European Championships, The Company became DCUK Champions and Heartliner went to the USA to compete in DCA. Carolina Crown gained their first ever DCI title. These, and many other headlines, appeared on the DCE news page drumcorps.org.uk. DCE will take you back to the highlights of 2013.

JANUARY

Glassmen Drum & Bugle Corps from Toledo will not be in the DCI competition this year. Due to financial problems, a corps can't be fielded in 2013. It was already known that the Glassmen were in financial difficulties.

Nicola Esposito, Drill Designer and Visual Caption Head of the Italian drum & bugle corps Mosson will be part of the Visual Staff of the Colt Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps this summer. The Colt Cadets are the Open Class corps of the Colts Drum & Bugle Corps organisation.

Shayne O'Brien will be representing Ireland in DCI this year as a member of The Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps. Shayne is a member of Banna Chluain Meala, of which the 11-time Irish champions Clonmel Bluehawks are the marching division.

The popularity of Drum Corps Europe on social media is still growing considerably. More than 2,500 fans now follow DCE news updates on Twitter.

Show & Marching Band DAP, which is celebrating its 80 year anniversary, will be participating in the competition of Drum Corps Netherlands in its anniversary year. That means a comeback to the drum corps competition after years of absence.

FEBRUARY

Starriders Drum & Bugle Corps from Bad Münder are celebrating their 30 year anniversary this year. In June, the successful German corps will celebrate with a big party in Bad Münder.

The Dagenham Crusaders Alumni will perform at the CGN Championships in Almere. The former members of the famous UK drum & bugle corps will be traveling to the Netherlands especially for this event.

The Tallaght Youth Band were asked to help promote a single by taking part in a video futuring well knows Irish artists. The video clip can be watched online and the song is available on iTunes.

No less than three European percussionists will be joining DCI top corps The Cavaliers this summer. Bernd Coene and Dennis Clausing will be marching members and Thomas Claesen will take the role of instructor.

The 2013 Irish Winter Guard and Indoor Percussion Championship, now in its third year, was succesfully held at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght. The show was run in association with WGUK and IPE and featured eight Irish units and one UK unit.

Cadence Drum & Bugle Corps has announced the 2013 summer programme 'Through the Mirror'. The corps will return to the Drum Corps United Kingdom competition after 8-year absence.

MARCH

The 'Harlem Shake' video that Drum Corps International uploaded onto YouTube has turned out to be an absolute hit. The video has received over a million views.

DCE and CGN present a new media platform: The Video Vault. A media team will provide multimedia productions of the CGN Championships and the DCE European Championships, including a live webcast, an online video platform in HD and DVD productions.

Drummers of The Company performed during Dancing on Ice Final on ITV 1. The drummers added action to the snare part for Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's Bolero. They performed for millions of viewers.

Once again, Millennium Drum and Bugle Corps from Verdello is preparing for a world tour. Next summer, the Italian drum corps will be participating at a contest in Japan.

Drum Corps International has announced that the Open Class corps Velvet Knights will not participate in the 2013 DCI Tour. The Velvet Knights re-entered the competition in 2007 after eleven years of absence.

Showband Rastede will continue under a different name. The name called out on the contest fields from now on will be 'Spirit of 52'. The name change is part of a larger transformation of the association.

APRIL

Mayflower is the first World Class Champion of Winter Guard United Kingdom. The guard had a substantial lead over its rival Northern Academy.

Indoor Percussion Europe crowned the European Champions in Tournai. In the International Marching Class, DrumSpirit took the title, after the drumline finished second in the Prelims. The Senators Juniors won the Junior Class title.

A phenomenon called 'mini corps' has started in the United Kingdom. Some groups have already been established and there is talk of starting a competition. 'Mini corps' are groups with a drum corps style, but in a small format.

Drum Corps Europe has launched new Facebook Pages in four additional languages. This allows drum corps fans to keep up to date with the news in their own language via Facebook.

The sixteen-year-old Jordan Murray from The Company has become Percussion World Champion with Rhythm X. Rhythm X won the title in the Independent World Class of the Winter Guard International.

Starriders Drum & Bugle Corps from Bad Münder has had a lot of membership applications recently. Although the corps is pleased with the influx, the new members can no longer be written into the current show. That’s why the corps is starting a 'Prep Season'.

MAY

The ticket sale for the DCE European Championships has been postponed to later this month. At the start of the ticket sale, the website received too much traffic which caused the server to go down.

Unik Star Percussion Ensemble from Hellemes - France has founded a new indoor percussion unit: Unik Star Concert. The intention is that this group will participate in indoor percussion competitions next year.

Ticket sales for the DCE European Championships once again started very quickly. Within 90 minutes the tickets for sections A and B were sold out.

Jubal Drum & Bugle Corps from Dordrecht secured itself a solid lead in the first Dutch contest of the season in Roosendaal, in front of hundreds of drum corps fans. With the DCN show, the European Music Games 2013 have officially started.

The FC Dordrecht stadium, which has been the venue for the DCN Finals for years, will make way for a new demountable stadium. If the project continues, the DCN Finals will move along to the new location.

Drum Corps International brings fans a one week pre-season free preview of its Fan Network subscription service. During this period fans also have access to DCI’s complete video archive all the way back to 1974.

JUNE

Maarten Descamps from the Belgian town of Veldegem will be marching with the Kidsgrove Scouts for the fourth consecutive year this summer. The thirteen hours travel time per rehearsal do not stop him from joining the European top corps again this year.

Drum Corps United Kingdom will move their Championships to another stadium this year. The DCUK Championships 2013 will be held in the Select Security Stadium in Widnes. For the past few years Mansfield Town FC have been the venue for the event.

The Company has won the first DCUK contest in Bradford. The reigning European champions are the first European corps to exceed the 70 point mark this season.

The Blue Devils have taken the lead in the first week of this year's DCI competition. The corps from Concord have won all contests so far. Carolina Crown however has the most recent high score.

Maarten Deschacht from Ostend - Belgium is part of the percussion staff at the Madison Scouts this year. Maarten is an alumnus of the group, he was part of the corps’ front ensemble from 2008 to 2010.

JULY

Fourteen-year-old Juliette from Kadoudal Drum & Bugle Corps (France) will be marching with the guard of World Class Corps Jersey Surf. It is the second time that a DCI corps welcomes a French member.

From this season Kevin Morgan, Master of Ceremonies at IMBA events will be covering IMBA events for the DCE Facebook page. He will post text, photo and video updates on competition days.

Brian Yothers leaves Drum Corps Europe. He has been the Adjudication Manager for DCE in the last two years. Brian will return to the United States because of his work. Douglas Caldwell will be the ad interim Adjudication Manager until the end of the season.

Drum Corps United Kingdom has made all the 2012 Finals performances available free to view for a few weeks. This service is being used to test how effective any web streaming of corps performances is.

AUGUST

The now familiar DCE Document Manager will cease to exist. It will be replaced by the DCE Dashboard which, in addition to the management of jury files, will have several extra features and will serve as a central place for corps, judges and the organisation.

Carolina Crown are the World Class World Champion for the first time in drum corps history Saturday. Not since 1996 has DCI named a first-time World Champion, and never before has it had a Champion that started as an Open Class/Division II corps.

Drum Corps International had some problems with the DCI Finals live webcast. The organisation offers a $20 rebate to subscribers of the webscast.

The fifth year of DCI Finals at Lucas Oil Stadium elevate the venue into the second most visited Finals location in DCI World Championship history, passing the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando (1996-1998, 2003) and just two years away from matching Madison, Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium which has hosted seven times.

Winter Guard International has announced the addition of two international regional championship events to its 2014 event schedule in partnership with Color Guard Netherlands and Winter Guard United Kingdom.

SEPTEMBER

Heartliner from Ludwigshafen - Germany has attained sixth place in the A-Class Prelims of Drum Corps Associates in Annapolis. The White Sabers became the A-Class Champions, and the Buccanneers were the Open Class Champions.

The Starriders and Heartliner have challenged at the German Open. In a thrilling battle in the Premier Class, Starriders came out as champions. Heartliner were only 0.15 points behind.

Drum Corps Europe has launched an app for smartphones: DCE Mobile. Drum corps fans can now keep up to date with news, scores, corps information and contest details on their mobile phone.

Jubal has won the Dutch drum corps title. In their hometown of Dordrecht, the programme 'The Deadly Game' was indeed deadly for the competition. Thanks to their junior corps Jong Jubal, it became a double victory for the Jubal organisation.

Tallaght Youth Band Marching Vikings and Ravens Drum & Bugle Corps are the 2013 Irish Champions. The IMBA Championships trophies were presented by special guest John DeNovi, Director of Business Development at Drum Corps International.

Marching and Performing Arts UK has launched the UK Fan Network. The video platform features videos from Drum Corps United Kingdom (DCUK) and Winter Guard United Kingdom (WGUK) Championships.

The DCE European Championships will be held in the Parkstad Limburg Stadium until 2017. Drum Corps Europe and Roda JC have signed a five-year contract. The event moved from Rotterdam (where Sparta was its host) to the Parkstad Limburg Stadium in 2008.

The Company is the DCUK Open Class champion 2013. The corps from Nottingham took all captions tonight in Widnes. The A Class was topped by Revolution. The Kidsgrove Scouts Juniors won the Junior Class, with a 1.35 point margin ahead of Concord AllStars.

Jubal Drum & Bugle Corps from Dordrecht captured the DCE European Championships title Saturday. The 2012 champions The Company from Nottingham missed the title by only 0.05 points. Jong Jubal topped the Junior Class.

OCTOBER

A record has been set by the Kidsgrove Scouts. By reaching the 2nd position in the Open Class (Premier Class) at the DCUK Championships this year, the Kidsgrove Scouts achieved their consecutive 10th medal position.

For 2014, the Kidsgrove Scouts are coming back to Open Class competition of Winter Guard United Kingdom. The guard won the High Auxiliary award at the DCE European Championships.

The DCE Video Vault has officially been launched. Drum corps fans can now watch all performances of the DCE European Championships 2013 in HD quality. Performances from previous years can also be viewed.

The VIP Membership of Drum Corps Europe is now available. For a fixed annual amount, drum corps fans will get free access to the video platform The Video Vault, as well as the opportunity to order tickets for the DCE Championships before the ticket sale officially starts!

Drum Corps Europe has hosted a judges clinic in Indonesia for the second time this year. DCE judges Marco Harder and Wil Bijl were in the Asian country to lead the five-day clinic. A large number of aspects of judging drum corps and marching bands were discussed.

The live webcast of the DCE European Championships has again drawn more viewers than in the previous year. In total, the broadcast was viewed some 14,500 times, that’s 1,500 more views than in 2012.

The first indoor percussion groups have signed up for the upcoming season of Indoor Percussion Europe. Indoor Percussion Europe now has participants from four countries for the 2014 season: France, Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy.

NOVEMBER

Next year, Juliana Drum & Bugle Corps may appear at the DCUK Championships. If everything goes according to plan, this will be the first time in seventeen years that the corps from Middelburg perform on British soil.

No lack of ambition at Ravens Drum & Bugle Corps from Athlone. The Irish corps announced that it wants to take part in the DCI Championships in 2015. The Ravens have existed since 2008, and were originally founded as a marching band.

After five succesful years, the Marching Music France organisation has ended its activities. Due to a lack of participating corps, the MMF board has not been able to continue the yearly DCE certified competition in France.

Indoor Percussion Europe will add Drum Battles to the IPE European Championships. The Drum Battles will give drum ensembles from across Europe with 10 to 20 percussionists the opportunity to compete against eachother in ‘battleground’ environment.

The Video Vault, the joint online video platform of Drum Corps Europe and Color Guard Netherlands, is getting a lot of attention. More than 20,000 videos have now been viewed.

Glassmen Drum & Bugle Corps doesn’t return to the DCI competition in 2014. The corps from Toledo has put a statement on Facebook. It was already known that the Glassmen are in financial difficulties.

Gerrt Baker, Brendan Hoye and Maria Fennessy have led a succesful DCE education session in Ireland. Many topics about DCE competition were covered, including in depth explanations of the captions and how the judging system works.

DECEMBER

Mark Bassett has been appointed as the new DCE Adjudication Manager. He succeeds Douglas Caldwell who was the ad interim Adjudication Manager for a few months after Brian Yothers left the organisation because of his new job in the United States.

Drum Corps United Kingdom has announced that the 2014 British Drum Corps Championships will be returning to the Select Security Stadium in Widnes. Corps gave the venue a huge ‘thumbs up’ and praised the quality of the performance arena.

Loud sound from a drum & bugle corps can be damaging to hearing health of the musicians, according to researchers Debra O'Connell and Sandra Teglas. They measured sound levels at Carolina Gold, and Drum Corps World published an article on it.

Drum Corps Europe has published the list of participants for next year. Six European countries will be represented at the DCE European Championships 2014.

Joining Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and all the gang, the 2013 Drum Corps International World Champion Carolina Crown are on national television next Wednesday as part of the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade.