My performances in the UCLA Band #11: Fiesta Bowl pregame

[neonvincent]

Now for the pregame of the only true post-season game I ever performed in (The Mirage Bowl doesn't count; despite the Bowl appellation, it was really just a regular season game played overseas), the Fiesta Bowl, held on Christmas Day 1978.

Watch on YouTube

The "batwing" or wedge rotation was replaced with a transition to a blog that looks almost as impressive because it was easier to execute.  That wasn't even the first change.  The file of flags in the middle of the wedge that was supposed to act as a guide for the rotation (it never worked; the flags followed the band instead of vice versa) became a rank of flags along  the back of the wedge.  In addition, the double script UCLA became a single one and the West Side Story production disappeared, replaced with a concert formation and a drill finale of "Battlestar Galactica" and "Sons of Westwood," complete with a moving block UCLA.  The result was much less of the nonstop drill spectacular than the original pregame show.  It still worked.

The use of the 1978 "Battlestar Galactica" theme reminds me that the UCLA Band played the theme from the 1978 animated "Lord of the Rings" at the USC show that year.  If that becomes available, I'll post it.  Otherwise, the Fiesta Bowl halftime comes next.