And they're off! We're taking off rather quickly this season. For now, the only info for this thread is that:

• Our show is RENT . . . yes, the musical. And no, it won't be cheesy.
• We ditched the mixed-key hornline. We're going with all G Bugles.
• We will beat The Engineers.
• We aren't sure we like our name.

Check back frequently and check the website for more information.

John Martin
Director, The Dreadnoughts

http://f6.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/YHg9RKnCU99...%20Terrible.mp3

Recorded at last weekend's camp, here's the battery playing their signature cadence with a little help from the pit (covering the cymbal parts).

Here's the breakdown of the corps for this season:

Sopranos: 18
Altos: 6
Mellophones: 16
Baritones: 12
Euphoniums: 12
Contras: 16
Snares: 8
Tenors: 5
Basses: 5
Front Ensemble: 12
Colorguard: 25

We'll be mixing Baritones and Euphoniums within each baritone section while our soprano section will be divided with Leads, 1sts, & 2nds on Sopranos and 3rds on Altos. The more traditional size of the battery reflects the members who aged-out. The battery is entirely made up of returning members. The Front Ensemble has also been increased from it's meager 8. We may post a recording of the brass and pit playing through the opener from last week's camp if we get the time.

John Martin
Director, The Dreadnoughts

Last year's uniforms are making a return this year:



Oh, and we've decided to be nice. Here's a recording of the opener (pit and brassline only):

Movement I: Rent

Well, due to some slight ignorance on our part, we're going to have to alter our music hosting somewhat . . . you know what, we're too cheap. If you want to hear all the recordings, go here and sign up:

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/jacksonflares/

**** Press Release ****

There comes a point in the life of every corps where they must look to the future. This manifests itself in different ways for different ensembles. For VK Star, they're debating a change in venue for the future. For the Dreadnoughts, we've decided to change our atmosphere, and possibly our label somewhat. The first of a few changes have been finalized, and we are both proud and sad to announce our split from the GM Organization. Over the past two seasons, we've worked closely with the other GM corps, and we've loved the family that it provided. However, we feel that our success has brought us to a point where we should concentrate more on our own corps, the music programs in the Jackson County area, and a little less on other corps who are doing well enough on their own financially.

Will this split be permanent? Probably. We will continue to offer our support to the GM Organization; however, we will not be contributing nearly as much monitarily as we were in the past. So, to everyone in the GM Organization, farewell; it's been great. To the rest of FDC, have a great season.

We're off on our own now . . . let's see how we do.

John Martin
Director, The Dreadnoughts

Move-ins are coming up on us fairly soon. There's only one more camp in early May; then a couple weeks later the whole corps comes up until the season starts. We can't wait to get on the road.

John Martin
Director, The Dreadnoughts

The Dreadnoughts Fantasy Corps Page

We'd like to thank the Cook Group for sponsoring the corps' transportation needs to all required competitions. The dates to these competitions were set after our initial schedule set-up, so the Cook Group has offered to fly the entire corps: members, equipment, staff, and everything else to the competitions which are out of the way.

John Martin
Director, The Dreadnoughts

Stay tuned to this thread as well as the Change thread in Announcements for a press release.

**** Press Release ****

So yeah, we changed our name. "Jackson Flares" was okay for a beginnings, but we needed something a little less . . . Division XIII sounding. We are proud to take the field at our first competition as The Dreadnoughts Drum & Bugle Corps. A real drum and bugle corps.

All members, please make sure to call us or send an email to the corps office if you will be late to the camp this weekend. We will be running through the show music Friday night from 7:00pm - 1:00am, so you won't miss any drill-time, but you will be missing valuable ensemble rehearsal. Last camp we had some problems with tardiness. Let's try to fix that this time around. Travel safely, and we'll see everyone tomorrow night at the new Marianna High School facilities (that means you, guard. You guys will be at the new campus with us this time instead of the old campus).

John Martin
Director, The Dreadnoughts

LOL, I responded on my thread, I guess I should have just responded on yours... the point behind my having a "captions selections committee" was so that there's shared responsibility if our scores go down the tubes!

Good luck this season!

The Dreadnoughts are glad to welcome our sister corps, the Pearl Panthers, to the Fantasy Drum Corps stage. Check out their thread as they await division placement. We're cheering you guys on, Panthers. Don't get too caught up boxing that you forget to work on your show though

John Martin
Director, The Dreadnoughts

With a change in name comes a change in tradition for the brass. We've ditched the old corps song for something more meaningful to the direction the corps has taken the past year and where we want to go with our "family" in the future. Stay tuned for the announcement and possibly a recording.

All-days have begun. Stay tuned for more updates to come relatively quickly.

Okay, so "relatively quickly" has once again turned into "whenever Mr. Martin gets the feeling to do it." Don't worry though; it'll be soon. Just kick me to wake me up if I fall asleep before I get around to it.

John Martin
Director, The Dreadnoughts

We've managed to get Movements I, III, and V on the field while drill for Movement II is being re-written. Movement IV is still not decided upon (we know it's late, but we want it to be performed well and written well). There's no point in playing something perfectly that sounds like crap. And yes, we know it's probably not the best idea to go ahead and write Movement V's drill before knowing what Mvt. IV will be, but we planned too much on our music and didn't think enough about deadlines. The corps is doing magnificently musically and visually despite the staff's mucking up of things however.

The past few days with all the kids here has been a great joy, and though it's very hard on them both physically and emotionally, we all know how rewarding it will be in the end. Thank you to every single member of the corps, to the staff, and to the volunteers who help run the organization. Seeing everyone working together is more reward for me than you can imagine.

And now I leave you with the same words of parting that our Brass Caption Head, Amber Mattatal, gave to the corps last night before they were dismissed for bed:

"You've given your all today, and you'll do it again tomorrow. But be proud of the pain; it's a means to an end! Because of it, when you look back on Finals night 2006, you will be able to think fondly, 'We kicked the Engineers' culos . . . with a door!'"

John Martin
Director, The Dreadnoughts

Dude your show sounds amazing! I'm a huge RENT fan!

The Rochester Lightning wishes you the best of luck this season!

I'm currently taking the weekend off from the corps (other than posting this message) in order to spend time with a certain special lady. I'll be back to the corps and in the middle of things on Monday. Until then, I hope the battery caption head doesn't try to get the snares high again.

John Martin
Director, The Dreadnoughts

I see you're using Kanstul horns. Good stuff man.

I looked on the site, and I saw that the Alto horn and the Mellophone looked pretty much the same. Can you explain the difference? Thanks.

There's a difference in tone color.

Gotcha, man. Thanks, and best of luck this season!

Alrighty, ladies and gents, we've now had our first show of the season. The music of RENT was a big hit with the crowd in Fort Myers, and the corps' name-change didn't seem to throw too many people in the stands. We had some problems in the Visual Ensemble area, but we're fairly certain that after a week of bonding on the road that we'll be able to work these issues out a bit better.

We're exetremely proud of the kids for their second-place finish at the home of THE Drum and Bugle Corps, and this has put us (currently) in third place in Division I. It's still early in the season though, so rankings aren't a big concern of ours. We're going to keep on plugging away at our show, and keep trying to give you the best product on the field that we possibly can.

Be sure to catch us tonight in Orlando as we get in one more show before our home show on Sunday night in good old Jacksonville. Once again, our apologies go out to everyone in Jackson County . . . we wanted to hold our home show in Marianna where the corps is based, but the new stadium facilities aren't yet finished, and it would have been hell trying to find housing for all the corps this year. We'll do our best to get further west in the panhandle for next season.

We'd also like to congratulate on breaking the 70.00 point mark on their premiere appearance. This is the first time in the corps' existence that we've achieved this. Keep up the good work guys!

John Martin
Proud Director, The Dreadnoughts

The Scandals would like to know how it feels to get beaten at your own show.

Thank you,

Those guys who beat you.

As of this moment, The Dreadnoughts are still in 1st place in Division I. Three gold medals, two silvers, and one bronze (alas, the bronze was our own home show), and we're still on a roll. We did change a few sets of drill for the Columbia show, so hopefully the scores won't change too drastically.

More to come later from the road.

John Martin
Director, The Dreadnoughts

We're still here . . . some of our design changes haven't gone quite as planned, but we've still got a quality product on the field. Hopefully we'll have the kinks worked out by Finals night.

John Martin
Director, The Dreadnoughts

Judging error or amazing improvement? We'll wait for the next few competitions to pan out to decide, but for now:

We jumped 4.6 points in one night at the Royal Regiment Home Show to take not only first in the competition, but first in Division I by quite a few tenths of a point. The kids, staff, and I all hope that this isn't a fluke, and that the scores will continue to kick tail all the way to Finals.

John Martin
Director, The Dreadnoughts

Nice job buddy. dont count out the big boys just yet though. The season is STILL early.

Yes, the season is still VERY early.

It's a month to Finals . . . it's very early still?

Its early until about a week before finals (aka the end of the month).

So then it becomes late in the season? Forgive for wondering where the hell the middle went . . . .

This just in! According to the scores released by DLOFDC, the Dreadnoughts have placed 12th. We missed Finals, but we placed 12th. This couldn't happen in DCI due to certain judging policies they have *cough*slotting*cough*, but perhaps it's possible here. We'll have to wait on the final verdict from the higher-ups though.

No, you didn't place twelfth. You placed 17th at Quarterfinals, which is not high enough to proceed to the Semifinals and Finals.

The ranking board is listed only by numeric score. It was not designed to lock in placements after the Championship week cuts.

P.S. - If you were to look only at Quarterfinals scores, I would have won this season's Championship. So if you could convince Josh of your theory of 12th place, I'd be much obliged.