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Re: Rose Bowl Parade

Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 1:39 pm
by David Richoux
I am watching the KTLA coverage on my Tivo - so far Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards have managed to talk over every band... (edit) well, they did let the USMC band get through a chorus.

When will they ever just do coverage with NO commentary? Arg!

Re: Rose Bowl Parade

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 12:05 am
by van
I was fortunate enough to be at the parade (my brother lives less that a block from the parade route) and was most impressed with three bands - Salvation Army, Marine band and the Royal British Legion Youth Band. Note that two of the three had upright tubas and the third, the Marines, had well-controlled sousaphones (as opposed to the typical sousaphone blatt from many of the other bands). Some of the tuba players in the British band looked a little old to be considered "youth" but they certainly had a terrific sound.

Re: Rose Bowl Parade

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 1:39 am
by Nick Pierce
van wrote:Some of the tuba players in the British band looked a little old to be considered "youth" but they certainly had a terrific sound.
Huh? I counted two tuba's in that band. All the more praise to them though, regardless.

Re: Rose Bowl Parade

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:07 am
by David Richoux
BigDale wrote:Really nice to see so many strapped on upright basses!
As others have noted - just the Salvation Army and the British Youth bands had uprights - and no band had shoulder-carry horns that I could see - just Sousaphones.

Whoever was doing technical sound for KTLA should resign - I could hear him shouting directions as to which mics to turn on and off - and the sound of the bands was still horrible! I know it can be tricky with such large bands these days, but this is not their first time at the rodeo!

Royal British Legion's tune?

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:21 am
by tokuno
What's the name of the march that the Royal British Legion Youth Band is playing?
http://www.ktla.com/roseparade_landing/ ... eedID=2050

Re: Royal British Legion's tune?

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:28 am
by David Richoux
tokuno wrote:What's the name of the march that the Royal British Legion Youth Band is playing?
http://www.ktla.com/roseparade_landing/ ... eedID=2050
"Our Director" by Frederick Ellsworth Bigelow (but it is also the fight/theme song for several colleges and also turns up in some bawdy songs ;-)

and see what I mean about the messy sound engineering? pure junk!

Re: Royal British Legion's tune?

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:11 am
by tokuno
Thank You!
I played that in 7th grade, some 30+ years ago, and it touched the fringes of my (fading) memory.
David Richoux wrote:
tokuno wrote:What's the name of the march that the Royal British Legion Youth Band is playing?
http://www.ktla.com/roseparade_landing/ ... eedID=2050
"Our Director" by Frederick Ellsworth Bigelow (but it is also the fight/theme song for several colleges and also turns up in some bawdy songs ;-)

and see what I mean about the messy sound engineering? pure junk!

Re: Rose Bowl Parade

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:21 am
by Tuba-G Bass
Hey Big Dale,
Thanks for the kind words about the Bethlehem, PA band,
they are right in my back yard,
their name is the Liberty High Grenadiers, modeled after the
Cold Stream Guard, and have performed with them and other
British Regimental bands here and in Great Britain.
By the way, the Liberty Hurricanes won the
Pennsylvania 4A Football championship, I think having a
hugh impressive band march into the stadium helped the team in post-season,
and at the away games they put all the sousas in the Front Row! Damn! :tuba:

Hmm, all upright Tubas? Normally they perform marching with
Brass Sousaphones [Kings] I did see them perform with
old King 1241's at the last Cold Stream Guard/ Blackwatch performance we had.
At the Bethlehem Halloween parade they went around twice to practice
for the Rose Bowl parade.

Bethlehem has two High Schools, Liberty and Freedom,
Freedom High is the Patriots, with a Colonial uniform and Fife corp.
They are equally big and excellent performers, Bethlehem is a very
musical town, thanks partially to being founded by the Moravians, I myself play
Contrabass trombone in their Trombone Choir [est. 1754].

Re: Rose Bowl Parade

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 6:15 am
by Tuba-G Bass
BigDale wrote:
Tuba-G Bass wrote: Hmm, all upright Tubas? Normally they perform marching with
Brass Sousaphones [Kings] I did see them perform with
old King 1241's at the last Cold Stream Guard/ Blackwatch performance we had.
Ah, could be wrong. I was just so excited to see the Guards unis and pipe corps. Perhaps they did have sousaphones.

:oops:
That's cool Big Dale, these things happen, :P I just read the article in
the local paper about the Rose Bowl trip, it cost $500k for the band's
219 members to do the trip, virtually all paid by fundraising activities. :!:

Re: Rose Bowl Parade

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 11:24 am
by David Richoux
BigDale wrote:
David Richoux wrote:
BigDale wrote:Really nice to see so many strapped on upright basses!
As others have noted - just the Salvation Army and the British Youth bands had uprights - and no band had shoulder-carry horns that I could see - just Sousaphones.
The Bethlehem, PA band had all British military horns, including large upright tubas.

True, not a single contra/ shoulder bell front came through this year. :roll:
Maybe they have uprights sometimes, but I did not see them in the parade this year:http://www.ktla.com/roseparade_landing/ ... eedID=2050

Re: Royal British Legion's tune?

Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2009 12:22 am
by imperialbari
David Richoux wrote:
tokuno wrote:What's the name of the march that the Royal British Legion Youth Band is playing?
http://www.ktla.com/roseparade_landing/ ... eedID=2050
"Our Director" by Frederick Ellsworth Bigelow (but it is also the fight/theme song for several colleges and also turns up in some bawdy songs ;-)

and see what I mean about the messy sound engineering? pure junk!
Yes, the recording of this band is rather bad.

I have played that march many times around 45 years ago, Oddly enough from an edition by Dutch Molenaars.

This band appears to use baritones or alto horns in stead of French horns, which wonders me a bit, as French horns are the standard in all British military bands but for the cavalry bands when playing mounted.

The band also appears to use trumpets instead of cornets. I have seen that in one British regimental band. I asked a player and he said the bandmaster requested so.

I don’t know how many youth band the British Legion has. I only saw one before this one. That was at a military display show in Cheltenham - Glouchestershire in the summer of 1964. Something like drums, 30 trumpets, 6 valve trombones, and 2 sousaphones. The weather changed from rain to shine, and these small boys couldn’t take the sun. Some of them fainted. Some in the public protested that the boys were exposed to the heat like that.

Klaus

Re: Rose Bowl Parade

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 2:52 pm
by Dave Hayami
Happy New Year,
For those who want to see the Bands,
http://www.ktla.com/roseparade_landing/ ... -Band=1&bl" target="_blank" target="_blank
ockID=172768&feedID=2050
I don't know how long this site will be up.
Dave Hayami