neonvincent

Merry Christmas! Before I write about today's halftime show, I wish to add something about the one I posted yesterday. I wasn't on the field, but my little sister was. I couldn't tell you exactly where she was, other than on the front half of the left side as viewed from the press box, but she was there. She didn't march in 1980.

Part of the UCLA Band's continuing transition to corps style involved the flag uniforms. Up to 1979, they were very much high school cheer/drill team styled. My little sister thought they were cute and that she looked good in them. Starting in 1980, they were more formal looking. My little sister wouldn't be caught dead in them, so she quit. I wasn't to blame for them. Instead, two sisters in the flag line convinced the director to change uniforms. I thought the uniforms needed to change, but not to these. I'd have preferred shorter skirts and boots, but I wasn't the one who took the initiative; they did, so their idea won. That wasn't the only thing the sisters won, but that's a story for tomorrow.

As I wrote yesterday, today's show is memorable for both good reasons and bad. The good reasons involve the band's performance. I thought it was one of the better ones during the four years I was involved with the UCLA Band. The band believed in this show, which was show about Punk Rock and New Wave music (only half of the music was really either). Also, aside from a bit of a rough start, the flags did very well and I'm quite proud of them. They didn't have a strong side and a weak side; both were equally good.

The bad reason is that the band's director, F. Kelly James, had a stroke right before pregame. I didn't know until I was up in the stands. I had just seen him yelling at the band before I went up. I guess his blood pressure got too high. I never saw him again. I went to his funeral the next year, but it was closed casket. As for the band, it performed well, but it just wasn't the same and I was less and less welcome with the new leadership. I'll save that story for next time.

Without any further ado, here is the UCLA vs. Cal Halftime from October 1980, the last video in which I'm the flag instructor.

Watch on YouTube

Before I go, I'm pointing out another part of the transition to corps style, the drill. The band is still organized into squads of four, but only in the last song is the band really moving using them. Instead, there is a lot of scatter drill and follow the leader that uses larger units than squads. That's because the band changed drill writers to someone more familiar with corps style than squads of four.

Stay tuned for the last show I marched with the UCLA Band tomorrow, in which the transition to corps style is even more pronounced.