Note: This is part 1, a 35-year look back – reprinted from the June 17, 1988, DCW, Volume 17, Number 5

[Author’s note: I have interjected some additional memories of setting up the logistics for the Scouts’ tour of Europe and my experiences that will provide additional context.]

For an organization or a business to reach such a significant milestone as a 50th anniversary is quite an achievement today! Being a drum and bugle corps and celebrating five decades in existence is certainly rare. The Madison Scouts are about to do just that, most unusually.

A traveling group of over 200 will depart Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on Monday, June 20, for what promises to be an exciting and educational 16-day tour of three European countries and performances before nearly 50 different drum and bugle corps, plus an estimated 15,000 new fans throughout four Madison-organized events.

The entire 128-member corps and a group of 32 staff and instructors make up most of the contingent. In addition, nearly three dozen Scouts fans from around the country and the 19-member Pride of Cincinnati Foundation board of directors will share the experience.

[Author’s note: The foundation provided a grant of $90,000 to make the trip possible, and their board participation was a reward for all the hard work they put into funding the Pride of Cincinnati Corps and winter guard. The funding basically covered the plane fares for the 128 members to keep their cost to only $100.00 extra for the full summer.]

This comes at the end of a year and a half of planning and fundraising by the Madison Scouts and the Pride of Cincinnati Board. The original idea for the trip came from discussions with the foundation board. The Madison Scouts were offered the opportunity after an article in DCW solicited interest from the drum corps activity.

[Author’s note: the key people from the Pride Board of Directors were Ron and Sue Poole.]

Approximately half of the $185,000 budget for the tour is being underwritten by the foundation. Their funds are derived from a successful bingo operation in Cincinnati that not only supports the European expenses but for the winter guard that has consistently made finals at WGI in Dayton, OH, each year.

The Madison Scouts’ portion of the trip cost has been raised through various sources. First, the Scouts now lease their new buses to the Star of Indiana during the off-season. This one source covered over one-third of the corps’ share.

In addition, several 50th-anniversary projects were undertaken to generate income for the tour, including the double album/cassette released in 1987, a special historical retrospective on the organization’s 50 years in the drum and bugle corps activity, which will be available in mid-June and solicitation of Madison and Wisconsin corporations and foundations. The members also were assessed an additional $100.00 on top of their regular four fees for the summer.

[Author’s note: the fans and Pride board members rode luxury coaches and stayed in hotels each night along the tour. We also arranged special seating at the four performance venues since these two groups played a major part in helping fund the trip.]

Most of the preparation for the trip was done by Madison Scouts Executive Director Scott Stewart and Scouts board member Steve Vickers. They worked through Educational Tour Consultants of Winchester, VA, for all the air and ground transportation.

A quick 6-day trip to all three countries on the itinerary was made during the first week in April this spring to check out housing, arrangements, and facilities to work out sightseeing and rehearsal schedules. As a result of the trip, several additional performances were incorporated, and several more stops for sightseeing opportunities were worked into the tour.

[Author’s note: I wanted to add that a funny thing happened when Scott and I flew into Frankfurt, Germany, and were greeted by Starriders Director Ortrid Scheibler and the corps drum major, Ingo. They were in a tight VW beetle for the one-hour trip to Bad Munder. I thought we would be staying at Ortrud’s house, but she dropped us off at a bed and breakfast near the corps’ headquarters, telling us she and Ingo would be back for a meeting and to go ahead and have dinner. Surprisingly, no one in the restaurant spoke a word of English. I ordered weiner schnitzel because I knew what that was. Scott ordered something else, not knowing what to expect. Scott’s meal included six or eight bowls of vegetables when our dinners were served. I counted myself lucky on my choice.]

The drum corps activity in Europe is expanding rapidly. This trip begins in June and is intended to give the corps an educational experience of seeing one of North America’s top drum and bugle corps through field performances and comprehensive instructional and management clinics at each stop.

The Madison Scouts have set up four competitions in three countries, and every drum corps in Europe has the chance to participate or observe. There are currently units active in Scotland, England, Holland, Germany, and Belgium, and there are half a dozen drum corps functioning now, including Drum Corps United Kingdom, the British Drum Corps Federation, British Youth Band Association, Drum Corps Holland, Drum Corps Deutschland, and Drum Corps Belgium.

Among these circuits, there are approximately 75 active field groups. The four shows are in Germany, Holland, and England (2).

Here is a brief sketch of the corps’ itinerary for the tour: The Scouts will leave on tour Saturday, June 18, as they compete in two DCM shows at Rockford that night and Normal, IL, on June 19. Departure for Europe is on Monday morning, June 20.

The group will land in Frankfurt, Germany, on Tuesday morning, and after clearing customs and loading three buses and two box equipment trucks, they will travel to St. Goarshausen on the Rhine River for a two-and-a-half-hour cruise to Rudesheim. There they will eat dinner and sightseeing before heading to Bad Munder and their housing site for three days.

[Author’s note: the housing site was a sports hall near the Starriders’ corps hall where the cook crew set up. This is where I arranged for Yamaha to deliver the necessary pit equipment to avoid the costly shipping of timpani, keyboards, and other pit equipment. It was there when we arrived, but there were no covers or ways to protect it in a box truck. After several overseas calls to the company headquarters in Buena Park, CA, I wanted to ensure they understood that it would be difficult to protect the truck's equipment properly. The truck and bus drivers went to a local lumber yard, picked up some used lumber, and built a raised floor for the pit equipment to be stored under. Fortunately, there was no damage, and we could leave everything at our last stop in Luton, England, for European representatives of Yamaha to retrieve.]

While in Bad Munder, the corps will rehearse for eight hours the first day and spend the evening in Hamlin. The second day will be another eight hours of rehearsal and a party with the host corps, the Starriders. Friday is a contest day, with a four-hour rehearsal at the Hamlin Stadium in the morning, followed by a clinic in the afternoon and a contest that night with all seven Germany corps.

[Author’s note: the stadium in Hamelin – remember the Pied Piper of Hameln? – had seating on only one side and rather weak front side-only lighting, plus the bleachers were under an angled roof which amplified the powerful sound of all the corps. The stadium was packed that night, but they disappeared into the darkness whenever part of each corps’ drills moved toward the back of the field. The staff arranged versions of the German, Dutch, and British National Anthems, played by the Scouts at the end of each performance. At all four shows, the crowds enthusiastically appreciated the corps’ efforts to connect with the local audiences through their country’s anthems.]

Following the Hamlin show, the entourage will travel all night to The Hague, The Netherlands. The Don Bosco Corps will provide brunch on Saturday. Drum Corps Holland will stage a prelim contest for 13 corps, including one from England, two from Belgium, two from Germany, and eight from Holland. The Scouts will perform a uniformed exhibition after the afternoon content. A finals contest with the top six corps will take place that evening, and again the Scouts will perform

[Author’s note: one of my pet peeves in this country used to be how long it took after the last performance for the retreat to have all the corps in place (remember?). I am proud of having gotten all six of the evening corps lined up just outside the stadium (after all the members watched the Scouts’ exhibition) and onto the field in less than 15 minutes . . . all while I was communicating in English and generally most of the corps leaders and members spoke only Dutch). It worked out great, thankfully.]

On Sunday, the corps will rehearse and provide a clinic for Drum Corps Holland at a stadium in Hilversum, the hometown of Beatrix. The corps members will be housed with host families from the corps on Saturday and Sunday nights. During the stay in Holland, there will also be several sightseeing expeditions and some free time in Amsterdam. The highlight of the corps’ time in Holland will be a gondola tour through the city's canals.

On Tuesday evening, the group will travel from the Hook of Holland to Harwich, England, on an overnight ferry [buses and trucks included]. Our host in England will meet the corps there and guide the vehicles to Coventry, where they will be housed for five days.

Coventry is where the corps will have the opportunity to perform and sightsee the most during the tour. On the first day, Wednesday, following an eight-hour rehearsal, the 200 members, staff, fans, and the Pride board will visit the ruins of Coventry Cathedral [nearly destroyed during World War II] and the new cathedral next to it. This will precede a reception hosted by the Lord Mayor of Coventry in St. Mary’s Guildhall. The Guildhall dates back to the 13th Century. The evening's festivities will include a performance by the corps’ brass ensemble and a dinner buffet.

On Thursday, June 30, the Scouts will rehearse in the morning and then travel to nearby Warwick Castle for a mid-afternoon standstill [in uniform] inside the walls and then a tour. The evening will be free to sightsee in Stratford-upon-Avon, home of William Shakespeare.

Friday’s schedule includes seven hours of rehearsal and a special field performance for the city of Coventry at a local stadium. This will be a “thank-you” show from the Madison Scouts for the complimentary housing and assistance that the city leaders provided during the corps’ five-day stay in the Coventry.

The first of two shows in Great Britain is set for Saturday, July 2. It will be held at West Bromwich Hawthornes Football Grounds in the suburb of Birmingham. Sixteen corps will participate in the afternoon show that beings at 12:30 PM. Following a massive finale with all of the corps on the field to play You’ll Never Walk Alone, the Scouts’ staff will present a two-and-a-half-hour clinic/demonstration for all British corps members, management, staff, and instructors.

The same schedule will be on tap for the Sunday show, which will occur within Lutontown Football Stadium in Luton, England [just outside of London]. A different set of 16 corps will take part in this competition.

The staff of the Madison Scouts is judging the two shows in England, and all of the corps will have an opportunity to talk with the instructors and management of the Scouts during the weekend. Both stadiums are major soccer venues, and crowds are expected to be between 3,000 and 5,000 at each event.

While Americans celebrate the Fourth of July, the Madison Scouts will spend that day in London. The morning will start at the Tower of London (below) to view the crown jewels. Members of the group will have three hours free to wander around that part of London before an afternoon two-hour sightseeing tour of the city’s major landmarks. From 3:00 PM until 1:00 AM, everyone will be free to sightsee, show and attend a theater presentation. Many in the group see “Starlight Express” or “Phantom of the Opera.”

The Madison contingent will return from Europe on Tuesday, July 5, to Chicago mid-evening at O’Hare Airport, after a day to recuperate from jet lag, rehearsals again on Thursday and Friday before appearing in the Cavaliers’ competition in Wheaton, IL, on July 9 with the Cavaliers and Phantom Regiment.

Several individuals in Europe have been working with tour directors Scott Stewart and Steve Vickers since the beginning of the project. Ortrud Schiebler, director of the Starriders in Bad Munder, Germany, has coordinated all the housing, rehearsal, and contest site details and has done a magnificent job.

Her counterpart in the Netherlands, Ron Von Koningshoven, has also done a fine job locating the excellent contest facility in The Hague and arranging, through Beatrix, housing during the corps’ stay in his country.

The coordinators of the two shows in England, Glen and Valorie Carter, have had the biggest job, organizing both events involving over two dozen groups at sites two hours apart and quite a distance from their home in Crawley.

Glen is the “father” of drum corps in Europe, having been the first to add a color guard to his drum and trumpet band and then converting the group to American G-F bugles in the early 1970s. From his humble beginning, there are now six drum corps circuits and nearly six dozen drum and bugle corps in Europe.

[Author’s note: Glen subscribed to Drum Corps World at the same time I bought the then-tabloid newspaper in early July 1974 and began plans to change the focus of the Basildon Drum and Trumpet Corps (below right) to the Basildon Blue Eagles Drum & Bugle corps.]

Finally, Ady Rayner in Coventry has been most helpful in working out housing arrangements for the longest stay on tour. He is on the staff of the Coventry Corps of Drums, which many will recall marching in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade several years ago.

All-in-all, the European tour for the Madison Scouts, their fans, and the Pride of Cincinnati Foundation Board of Directors will be an experience everyone connected with it will remember for the rest of their lives. And the visit to Europe by one of America’s finest organizations will help the drum corps movement on that side of the Atlantic to process and hopefully spread to other countries. All this came from a seed of an idea by the Pride of Cincinnati Foundation in the fall of 1986!