2010 Review - 100 Years Young by Rob Swindells

January
The organisation has two Winterguard units competing in 2010. At the first show at Cannock the Juniors finish fourth with their show Believe in Your Choice, the Seniors finish third with their show Colourblind.

Junior and Senior Winterguards 2010

The Junior Drum Corps announce their 2010 show, Kidsgrove’s Got Talent with the Senior Corps announcing their show, Heist of the Century.
More details for the USA tour are released with the price set at a fantastic £725 per person, under 12’s going free.

February
Both Winterguard units continue to develop their shows while they compete on the WGUK circuit. The Senior Corps performed for the first time in 2010 at the Stoke Winterguard show to a packed audience.

Maarten Descamps and Sem Vanhessche confirm their places with the 2010 Senior Corps and become the First Belgian’s to march in a British Corps. (With rehearsals, shows and the USA tour, they will travel thousands of miles throughout the year).

Maarten and Sem

March
Premier Percussion continue their partnership with the Kidsgrove Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps; the endorsement started in 2008 and will continue for the foreseeable future with both parties extremely happy with the agreement. As part of the 100 years anniversary Premier has provides a full set of custom Revolution Series marching drums to the corps in a specially commissioned, unique lacquer finish called ‘Century Sparkle Fade’. James Moore, percussion caption head, visits the Premier headquarters to accept the delivery.

Sven Paris (Premier) and James Moore (Kidsgrove's Percussion Caption Head)

The USA tour schedule is confirmed and the brass numbers are set at 45.  The senior corps start to learn the visual program at an indoor venue in Shropshire while the Junior Corps make great progress with the music for their production.

April
Producing fantastic final performances at the WGUK Finals in Brentwood, the Senior Winterguard finished fifth and the Junior Winterguard finished fourth, both units are extremely pleased with successful seasons.

The Senior Corps has a very successful visual camp outdoors in Coventry, while the Juniors receive new junior style drums from Premier Percussion.
At the Kidsgrove Scout Group AGM, all parts of the organisation come together to celebrate many, many achievements, this is followed on the Sunday with the Senior and Junior Corps leading the Centenary St Georges Parade, which is hosted by the Kidsgrove Scout Group.

Junior and Senior Corps on group St George's Day Parade

May
Steve Vickers and Tom Peashey continue to provide amazing support and help from the USA as the tour logistics are pieced together. As the exchange rate for the dollar to the pound lowers an extra £20,000 needs to be raised to support the USA budget.  The amount of fundraising increases dramatically as people pull together as the corps commits to the tour price set in January.

Larry Hershman (DCA Vice President) Rob Swindells and Tom Peashey (DCA PR and Marketing) at DCA World Championships

The Senior Corps continues to rehearse hard with another camp in May and the Junior Corps goes outside for the first time to learn their visual program.

June
The Senior Corps wins their first shows of 2010 at a BYBA show in Barnsley, at the same show the Juniors finish second in their class. Tez Smith, Brass Caption Head and Musical Director confirms the American staff line up for the USA tour; they are Clay Wachholz, Corey Smith, Barry Oosterwaal and Mike Mayer.

 Clay Wachholz, Corey Smith, Barry Oosterwaal and Mike Mayer

Clay Wachholz, Rob Swindells, James Moore and Tez Smith at rehearsals in America

July
The Kidsgrove organisation hosts the first DCUK show of the season on the 4 July, where both the Senior and Junior corps take victory.  At this show the colourguard uniforms are first used, they are designed and made by Pete Lippiat (Colourguard Caption Head).  Both the Juniors and Seniors compete in another two BYBA shows and DCUK Warrington show in July.  The Seniors Corps finishes second at Warrington, wining brass, percussion, colourguard and field visual, but coming second in general effect and ensemble captions.  The Juniors Corps also win at Warrington.

August
The design staff make some alterations to the show, all spots are filled and changes learned at rehearsals. The corps has a final full weekend camp at Coventry in the UK in mid-August.  The Junior Corps learns an extra piece to go on the end of their show.

USA Tour
On the 24 August the Senior Corps departs for their centenary USA tour. Arriving in NYC the corps rehearses very hard at fantastic facilities before competing at the Bridgeport show on Saturday 28 August. The reception can only be described as unbelievable, with multi standing ovations in the show and one for ten minutes as the corps leaves the field. The corps finishes fourth and is seeded in ninth place going into World Championship Prelims. The Hurricanes Drum and Bugle Corps hosted and won the show, they made the corps feel so welcome and really helped make the first performance on USA soil a very special one. Having WIFI in both Hotels and on the coaches’ people manage to stay in touch, everyone is deeply touched with all the huge messages of support on Drum Corps Planet and other websites.

On Sunday 29 August the 150+ tour party move out of NYC to Rochester, on the Monday they visit Niagara Falls and get back to rehearsals on the Tuesday. The heat increases even more in Rochester and the corps consumes around 80 gallons of water and Gatorade every day. On Thursday 2 September the Corps rehearses from 8am in the morning through until 10pm at night in amazing humid temperatures. The corps holds an open performance that night and again are taken aback at how many people come to watch the rehearsal performance.

Friday sees the corps rehearse in the morning and in the afternoon do a “show and tell” with the Empire Statesmen, many more new friendships are made with such a fantastic organisation. That evening sees Individuals and Ensembles competitions take place, Chris Billington, Matt Williams and Richard Gubby win Gold medals and the corps is very proud with all members who represent the Kidsgrove Scouts, especially the Brass Ensemble who produce a thrilling performance. The drumline set up for a bit of a “fun jam” with The Kilties and The Govenaires after the Individuals and Ensembles, great time is had by all, including singing competition after.

 Kidsgrove Scouts' drumline with drumlines from The Kilties and The Govenaires

Championship Prelims takes place on 4 September and the corps prepares by rehearsing in the morning and then performing in early evening. Again the audience greatly appreciate the show.  Scores are read out as they are received,  Kidsgrove receive a score of 89.238, after all scores are read out this will eventually place them in sixth position, less than 2 tenths ahead of the next placed corps. At the DCA World Championship Finals on Saturday the 5 September, the Corps produces a great performance to finish in sixth place with a score of 90.413. The corps is crowned International Champions and receive a fantastic reception from the crowd when the results are given out.

An amazing tour with many wonderful experiences. View the video of our DCA Finals performance.

Kidsgrove performing in at a DCA competition and Rob Swindells, Steve Vickers (Drum Corps World Publisher), Harry (Drum Corps World Photographer) Tom Peashey and John Swindells (Kidsgrove's Corps Director) at rehearsal in America

Kidsgrove at DCA Prelims

September
On the 12 September the Juniors Corps competes in a local marching band competition in which they win, they perform their whole show for the first time and now feel ready for DCUK Finals.

The Seniors returns from a fantastic USA tour where they have finished in sixth place in the World Championships, they are crowned International Champions.
On the 19 September the Junior Corps are crowned DCUK Champions for the second time, the Seniors Corps are crowned Open Class Champions for the third time (2007, 2009 and 2010).

The following week the corps are crowned DCE European Champions in Kerkrade, Holland. John Swindells places the Kidsgrove Scouts Centenary flag on the podium during the corps warm up,  the corps then performs Heist of the Century for the final time in their encore performance. View the video of our DCE Finals performance.

October
Both Winterguard units start rehearsals for their 2011 season, the Junior Winterguard will perform a show entitled Robots, the Senior Winterguard will perform a show called India. The senior Winterguard hires Anurekha, a professional Indian dancer, to teach and write for the open class show. The Junior Winterguard more than doubles in numbers for the 2011 season at their first rehearsal.

November
The first drumline rehearsal for 2011 sees too many members for spots available; the line is set at 9 snares, 4 tenors and 5 basses. On the 27 November the organisation holds the celebration Banquet and a number of members from the Junior and Senior Corps' received awards. The corps gives a special presentation and thanks to Rob Swindells, for once he is lost for words, but not for long as he announces that corps will return to the USA in 2012. Take a look at the announcement video.

December
First rehearsals for 2011 indicate that the senior corps will be stronger than in 2010, with numbers in all sections increasing. The Junior Corps has also increased in size and stability following their successful 2010 season.  Both Corps announce their 2011 summer shows, the seniors will perform a show called The Summit and the Juniors will perform a show entitled, Crest of a Wave.

And Finally
The 2010 season was a fantastic experience and achievement for everyone involved in the Kidsgrove organisation, there was an acknowledgement that every performance was a tribute to every member who had performed with the Kidsgrove Scouts. The successes are measured in a wide variety of ways, but none more than looking towards the future and the next 100 years.