From: bfhalls@vela.acs.oakland.edu (HALLS BRADLEY F)
Subject: Re: A Comment About Zingali & "Two-Seven" in 1980
Organization: Oakland University, Rochester MI.
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 04:55:38 GMT

In article <DRAPEAU.92Sep11003305@oglala.Stanford.EDU> drapeau@sioux.stanford.edu writes:

[snip...]

>Okay okay, now to the earlier comment of Bob Berry's about SCV playing
>Caravan on the State-of-the-Art album.  I guess that pretty much
>everybody knows that SCV made some *major* show changes pretty much in
>mid-season.  I'm pretty sure that the story I'll tell here (folklore,
>really) is well-known to thet readers of this group, but I'll tell it
>anyway on the chance that it's not.  I apologize in advance for
>wasting bandwidth.

>So what I heard (from Vanguard alumni) about 1980 was that the season
>was a huge war.  On one side was the instructional staff, who wanted
>much greater creative control of the show.  On the other hand was Gail
>Royer (the director).  Gail wanted Caravan; the instructors did not.
>Gail finally caved in to the instructors, who then made major show
>changes.  But Gail didn't really give up.  During shows, Gail would
>approach the judges and point out little mistakes the corps was
>making.  You know, like "Yeah, the show is nice, but we've been having
>some trouble in rehearsal lately doing so-and-so..."  The judges thus
>had a very easy time finding errors in the show, thus the seventh
>place.

>As the story continues, Gail did this to wrest control of the corps
>back from the instructional staff.  If he had not pointed out these
>errors, Santa Clara would likely have placed much better than seventh,
>and the staff would have an excellent case for retaining so much
>control.  But the corps' (relatively) poor finish allowed Gail to tell
>the staff basically "I told you so; it didn't work your way, so from
>now on we do it mine."

>Pretty nasty story, huh?  I don't know where it originated, and I have
>absolutely no way of telling how true it is.  It would be interesting
>to see the scoring sheets for Finals of the top 12 corps, to see where
>Santa Clara got dumped (is it possible to get scoring sheets?).  I'm
>sure they could not have gotten dumped in percussion; that line was
>scary, clean, and *powerful* (man, listen to the Kobold tapes; Stone
>Ground Seven was amazing, just amazing).

>Does anybody have anything to add to this story?  I'd love to hear
>other theories (I know they exist, but it's been so long since I've
>heard anything that I don't really remember anymore).

>I feel a little bad about posting this story because I like and
>respect Gail so much, and it's very hard for me to believe that he
>would do this.  The story sounds so much like a sour grapes tale.  So
>please take that into account when you think about it.  I thought that
>I would post the story because it might be of some interest.

I'm afraid that everything that I have heard pretty much backs up your
story (and I have heard similar versions from many well respected
sources, including Fred Sanford, to some extent...he was understandably
reluctant to go into much detail about it). I, too have alot of respect
for Gail Royer, and it's hard for me to believe that all of this actually
happened. I think a large portion of the staff after that year was fired,
and that Gail actually campained for the corps to be dumped, to make the
house cleaning seem justified. The only conclusion that I can make is 
that Gail is *very* sensative about maintaining creative control of the
corps. (Shades of Ralph Hardimon, Gordon Henderson, Tim Salzman...the
list goes on.)

As for the 1980 Vanguard percussion placement, I'm almost certain that
they got seventh. What a crime. As you say, Stone Ground Seven was one
of the all time great drum solo's, and was *unbelievably* clean. To think
that they were beaten by so many other lines that year (in particular,
Phantom...AAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGGGHHHHH!) is almost to much to bear, but then
for Fred to have been fired is simply beyond belief.

BTW, I was in Dev's snare line in '85...we must have met a few times,
but I never got to know the pit guys as well as the battery guys...
remember the Giants game and the SCV/BD cruise?

--Brad



-- 
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Brad Halls                                "Still looking for witty quote."
Computer Science Grad Student              -me         
Oakland University
Rochester, Michigan
bfhalls@vela.acs.oakland.edu

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