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Juliana Drum & Bugle Corps has started to use a new drum line of the brand Tama. It is the first time that a European Corps will be playing on instruments of this Japanese manufacturer.

Tama was founded in 1974 by Hoshino Gakki under the name Star Drums. Tama was once a brand for the low end market, but more and more professional musicians have started to use the drums because of the good value for money. Over the years, the quality has greatly improved and the Asian brand is now used by many professionals. 

“We are very pleased with this Tama drum line”, said percussion caption head Bob van der Hoek from Juliana. “It is very innovative and it feels very solid. I'm sure the members willbe very happy with it.” Due to the good relationship, the process of starting the cooperation went very well and the drum line can be put to use this year. 

Juliana’s first performance with the Tama drum line be during the DCN Championships on Saturday 13th September in Dordrecht.

The third contest of the Irish Marching Bands Association on Sunday in Clonmel, was once again won by The Vikings. The corps from Tallaght therefore remains unbeaten this season. Many visitors travelled to the contest in Clonmel, and the corps performed to a packed stand.

The Clonmel Bluehawks are still closely following The Vikings in the Premier Class, but The Vikings slightly increased their lead to exactly one point (scores were 63.20 and 62.20 respectively). The Bluehawks did manage to win the Effect captions.

The Celtic Crusaders came third with 52.50 points and the Inbhear Mör Marchers finished fourth with 50.88 points. For the Clondalkin Youth Band, the contest in Clonmel was the first of the season, and the corps scored 49.40 points.

In the Junior Class, only the Tallaght Youth Band Cadets entered. The youth corps gained nearly three points compared to the previous contest three weeks ago, scoring 48.40 points.

Scores and recaps are posted on the score page. The current position in the ranking of European Music Games can be found at www.drumcorpseurope.org/ranking. Next weekend there will be a weekend of rest in the European competition, followed by the traditionally busy month of September with competitions every weekend.

Tickets for the DCN Championships, on Saturday 13th September in Dordrecht, are selling faster than ever. Tickets for the center blocks have almost sold out.

Many Dutch drum corps fans seem to be choosing to secure their seats in the centre blocks of the FC Dordrecht stadium early this year. Drum Corps Netherlands has already sold far more tickets than they had at this point last year, and the number of seats available in the centre blocks is rapidly decreasing.

Those who have ordered their tickets early are entered into a draw for a prize that DCN makes available every year. Out of the people who have ordered tickets, a winner will be drawn who will receive two Super Seats and a hotel stay for two people near the stadium on Saturday night.

Tickets are available from 9 euros each through www.drumcorpsnederland.nl.

Drum Corps International has uploaded a video in which non-Americans are interviewed about why they are marching in a DCI corps. Among them are a couple of Dutch interviewees.

In the video 'Drum Corps Stories: International Edition' eight international drum corps members talk about how they came into contact with drum corps, and why they decided to make the long trip to the United States. Among them are Jan Bakker (Carolina Crown) and Andrea Boot (The Cadets) from the Netherlands, and Davide Villa (Bluecoats horn line) from Italy. Members from Japan and Canada also make an appearance, and the corps director of Patria Drum & Bugle Corps from Guatemala talks about his experiences in DCI.

You can view the video below.

This year's Championships of the Irish Marching Bands Association will take place at a new venue. The new location will be Dalymount Park - Dublin.

After a meeting at the IMBA the new venue could be confirmed. The stand has 3,000 seats. Tina O'Toole from the Tallaght Festival Band helped the IMBA securing the new venue. The IMBA Irish Championships 2014 will be held on 13th September and are part of the European Music Games.

This Sunday the last regular contest of the season will take place in Clonmel. Participating corps are Clonmel Bluehawks, Inbhear Mór Marchers, Clondalkin Youth Band, Vikings Drum Corps, the Celtic Crusaders and Tallaght Youth Band Cadets.

This weekend, the Buccaneers got within 0.05 points of frontrunner Caballeros in the Drum Corps Associates competition. It was an exciting time for the Open Class in Scranton on Saturday.

The Caballeros scored 92.60 points, while the Buccaneers collected 92.55 points. After the first contest this season which was won by the Buccaneers, the Caballeros have been undefeated. But the Buccaneers are not giving up, and are hot on the heels of the Caballeros.

The question is whether the Caballeros will finally win the DCA title again. The last time that they managed to do this was in 2003. There are two contests to go before the DCA Championships, which will be held in Rochester from 29th to 31st August.

Is drum corps a music/dance hobby, or is it a top sport? DCI has uploaded a series of pictures, with photos taken before and after the DCI competition. The differences are clear as day.

Dozens of drum corps members took ​​a selfie before and after the strenuous drum corps season in which they ran accross the fields for months on end. They are unanimous: drum corps is great, but also takes a huge effort. Each of them lost many pounds.

Emily from the Crossmen lost 35 pounds in just a few months and is excited about the result. Cory from Carolina Crown also lost a lot of weight and he thanked the choreographer of his corps for the 'crazy drill' that he had to march. Kevin from the Blue Stars lost almost 10 pounds. "Drum corps really changes your life", reads the caption for his 'before and after' pictures.

View the entire list compiled by DCI here. And the hashtag #bodydrumcorps on Twitter shows even more slender bodies.

For a little while, it looked like a disaster scene was happening for the snare drummer Ryan Hall of Carolina Crown when his instrument broke off and fell to the ground during the DCI Finals. Percussion judge Allan Kristensen saved the day for the drummer.

Shortly after a drum feature in the show, the snare player saw his instrument break off. A quad player barely missed the fallen instrument and the snare ended up in front of percussion judge Allan Kristensen. He did not hesitate, as he picked up the drum and took a detour, running around the quad line to the snare line that had now moved to the rear of the field. The snare drummer could then continue his show with his instrument.

A video of the event is attracting a lot of attention on YouTube. The judge is getting a lot of praise in the comments below the video(s). A clip can be viewed below.

Yesterday, the Blue Devils scored a record-breaking 99.650 at the DCI World Class Finals in Indianapolis, shattering the previous high score (99.150, 2002 Cavaliers and 2005 Cadets) by half of a point.

In addition to their record breaking high score and newly claimed World Championship title, the corps from Concord also earned caption awards in visual performance, general effect, brass and color guard. This is the corps’ 16th title since 1976, also a record for the World Class corps.

After finishing third in Friday night’s Semi Finals competition, the Bluecoats made a last minute surge that gave them the edge to finish in second place over the Cadets with a score of 97.175. That marks the highest placement and highest score the Bluecoats have ever received.

The Cadets fell in the standings overnight from second to third (96.875). According to corps administrator Bruno Zuccala, the staff is still incredibly impressed with what the corps members have accomplished this season. Although Santa Clara Vanguard finished fourth overall (96.075), the California corps took home the Fred Sanford high percussion award with a score of 19.75 in the caption.

Last year’s World Class Champion Carolina Crown secured fifth place with a score of 95.675. The Cavaliers ended their season in sixth with a score of 93.675, one placement higher than they finished in 2013. In the Finals competition, Phantom Regiment (7th, 91.425) jumped ahead of the Blue Knights (8th, 91.150).

Blue Stars finished ninth with a score of 89.600, jumping three placements from last year’s 12th-place finish. Boston Crusaders earned 10th place with a score of 88.950. The Madison Scouts took home 11th place with a score of 87.575. Crossmen (12th, 86.225) members relished their opportunity to perform as a finalist corps for the first time since 2012.

Scores and recaps can be found at www.dci.org/scores.

Blue Devils lit up Lucas Oil Stadium on Friday and continued to impress the judges with their 2014 program 'Fellniesque', capturing yet another first-place finish with a score of 98.950 and sweeping the overall captions.

The record high score at the World Championship Finals was set at 99.150 by the Cavaliers in 2002 and was tied in 2005 by the Cadets. Many are already speculating if we may just be looking at a new record holder if the Devils can find it in them to jump two tenths of a point overnight.

The Cadets are going into the Finals in second place (96.700) while the Bluecoats (3rd, 96.550) are sitting just fifteen hundredths of a point behind the Allentown corps. This marks the closest the race has been between the two competitors all season. The Bluecoats were second in overall general effect and tied the Cadets for second place in overall music.

Santa Clara Vanguard (4th, 95.650) once again had the top percussion score of the evening with a 19.5, and although the Bluecoats are nipping at their heels, Vanguard’s percussion arranger and caption head Paul Rennick has faith in the members to pull off one more high score tomorrow. Carolina Crown took home fifth place with a score of 95.300, the Cavaliers received sixth with a score of 93.275, and the Blue Knights followed in seventh with a 91.825.

Phantom Regiment members (8th, 91.550) came into tonight’s competition feeling comfortable and confident after their Prelims performance and delivered their best performance of the season according to brass caption head Christian Carichner. Even though the gap in score decreased, Blue Stars (9th, 89.225) kept hold of their lead on Boston Crusaders (10th, 89.050), and the Madison Scouts took 11th with a score of 87.650.

The Crossmen (12th, 85.450) from San Antonio snuck into the top 12 after missing out last year with a 14th-place finish. This is only the second time in the last 10 years that the corps has advanced through the Semi Finals.

Scores and recaps can be found at www.dci.org/scores.

The DCE Video Vault continues to be filled with more videos. Recently, the year 2009 was added, and footage from the first outdoor Finals of Drum Corps Europe is now also available. 

The year 2003 was the first year that Drum Corps Europe went “outside”. The DCE Championships were held in the Zuiderpark Stadium in The Hague. Jubal became the European champions, with the Kidsgrove Scouts just a tenth of a point behind. Northern Star came third.

All Finals performances are available to subscribers of the DCE Video Vault. Not a subscriber yet? Watch free previews here or subscribe for just € 19.95 a year for unlimited access to all available videos.

Blue Devils B held their Monday night lead and took home the organisation’s fourth championship title at the 2014 DCI Open Class World Championship Finals on Tuesday.

In addition to the corps’ overall score of 82.650, the Blue Devils B also took home caption awards for best brass, visual, percussion and general effect. Last year’s Open Class champions, the Vanguard Cadets (2nd, 81.650) were unable to pull ahead for a repeat.

Genesis, who finished fourth in the World Championship Prelims competition on Monday, surged into third place Tuesday with a score of 77.900. The corps’ 2014 programme, 'The Art of Darkness', was not the original production chosen and developed for this summer. Even after scrapping the previous show concept at the beginning of June, the corps members’ dedication and strong work ethic brought them success.

The Spartans repeated their same placement from 2013 with a fourth-place finish and a score of 77.025. The New Hampshire corps won the caption award for best color guard. 7th Regiment landed a fifth-place finish with a score of 75.600. Gold took home sixth place, earning a score of 74.125 with its performance of 'The Journey'.

Following Gold, Legends finished their season in seventh place with a score of 73.700. Music City found themselves in 8th place, scoring a 72.975. The Raiders followed the Nashville corps in ninth place with a score of 69.100. Colts Cadets finished in 10th place with an even score of 66.000. In their very first competitive season, Coastal Surge placed 11th with a score of 65.025.

Les Stentors took home 12th place with score of 61.275. The corps from Quebec finished out the season with a strong performance, happy to make the Finals competition for the second season in a row. Patria, the Blue Saints and the Racine Scouts, who were honored with the award for most improved Open Class corps of 2014, performed at the start of Tuesday’s event in exhibition.

Scores and recaps can be found at www.dci.org/scores.

This weekend, all 22 of Drum Corps International’s World Class corps came to the same stadium for the third time this season, competing at the DCI Eastern Classic in Allentown - Pennsylvania. The Blue Devils ended in first place with a record score.

The Blue Devils remain undefeated with a record score of 96.825 (the highest score ever recorded at Allentown), increasing their spread over the second-place Cadets to 1.675 up from 1.40 in Atlanta one week earlier. The top 21 placements all had higher scores than the identical placements at the 2013 DCI Eastern Classic. Only the 22nd placement (Pioneer) was lower than in 2013, by 2.20.

There were some switches in placements from the DCI Southeastern Championship in Atlanta a week prior. Santa Clara Vanguard passed up Carolina Crown and Phantom Regiment passed up Blue Knights, those four corps re-establishing the order of finish from two weeks earlier in San Antonio. Madison Scouts passed up Blue Stars, after placing under their cross-state rival in both San Antonio and Atlanta.

Scores and recaps can be found at www.dci.org/scores.

The DCE Video Vault is growing. All of the shows of the DCE European Championships 2009 have been added to the online video platform of Drum Corps Europe. 

The year 2009 was a great drum corps year, with Jubal, Kidsgrove Scouts and Senators in the top three of the former Open Class. Jong Jubal won the Cadet Class. The year 2009 was the last year that the terms Open Class and Cadet Class were used, one year later the Premier Class and Junior Class were introduced.

All 20 Finals shows from 2009 are now available on the Video Vault. Performances include those of 6th Hove Scouts, Beatrix, Besana, Black Knights, Commodores, Confetti, Dagenham Crusaders, Federatieband, Heartliner, Johan Friso, Jong Avalance, Jong Beatrix, Jong Jubal, Jubal, Juliana, Kidsgrove Scouts, Millennium, Northern Star, Senators and Starriders.

Have you marched in a corps during the DCE Championships? Check out the free preview of your show or take out an annual subscription for only € 19.95 for unlimited access to all videos: http://dce.videovault.eu.

Now that we are in the middle of the DCI season, the DCE Cinema is full of videos of rehearsals, warm-ups and other clips. There's no need to search, you can watch all of the videos in succession with one click of the button.

This is the convenience that DCE Cinema offers to the committed drum corps fan who wants to listen to every beat and take in every note. The rehearsal of the Madison Scouts, The Cadets in the parking lot, a full percussion ensemble of Santa Clara Vanguard, the front ensemble of the Bluecoats in action? These are just a few examples of the multitude of videos that are added to DCE Cinema on a daily basis.

DCE does not place links to recordings for which permission has not been granted by the copyright holders. For complete shows, fans can visit the DCI Fan Network. But DCE Cinema brings you so much of the DCI atmosphere that you can almost smell the grass, see the sweat and feel the scorching heat of the sun through your screen.

DCE Cinema can de found on the index page of the DCE website.

The DCE European Championships once again has its own logo this year. Artist Peter Franken has created another unique logo for the European drum corps event of the year. As always, the logo adorns the champions’ flags, and of course patches can also be ordered. 

The basic idea has been the same for several years, but Peter 'Peer' Franken has once again succeeded in giving the emblem of the DCE European Championships a fresh look.

You can now check the result below. The logo is not just reserved for the winners of the Premier Class and the Junior Class. Every visitor can purchase a patch, giving them a nice tangible reminder of the music event of the year. The patches are available from the DCE stand on the day itself, and afterwards in the webshop (while stocks last).

You can still get tickets for the European Championships in the Ticket Store. The DCE European Championships will be held in the Parkstad Limburg Stadium on Saturday the 27th of September.

After a head-to-head throw down in San Antonio last week, all 22 of Drum Corps International’s World Class ensembles met in Atlanta to do it all over again at the DCI Southeastern Championship last Saturday. The event drew 16,695 people to the Georgia Dome, setting a new record attendance.

On the football field, Blue Devils proved they couldn’t be stopped, once again taking home first place (95.100). The Concord corps has been working hard to keep hold of what’s now a 21-event undefeated streak.

The Cadets took home second place (93.750), Bluecoats grabbed third (92.950) and Carolina Crown pushed into fourth (92.650) passing Santa Clara Vanguard (5th, 91.825) and leaving the Cavaliers to claim sixth (89.650).

Blue Knights (7th, 88.600) passed Phantom Regiment (8th, 87.625) for the first time in more than a decade, after last doing so at the 2000 DCI World Championship Finals in College Park, Maryland. The Boston Crusaders (9th, 86.650) continued to intrigue audiences with their 2014 program, 'Animal Farm'.

The Blue Stars (10th, 86.150) and Madison Scouts (11th, 84.950) have been back and forth in the placements, but tonight the Blue Stars took a 1.2 point lead over the Band of Brothers, the largest they’ve held all season. With strong performances tonight, Crossmen (12th, 83.050), Troopers (13th, 81.675) and Colts (14th, 80.925) are all vying for a spot among the top 12 corps that advance to the DCI World Championship Finals in August.

Following the recent WGUK Board Meeting, Winter Guard United Kingdom has announced some preliminary plans for the 2015 season. The 2015 season will include a new class and a WGI Regional.

Following a number of proposals and suggestions put forward to the board as to how to try and encourage new member units into the circuit it has been agreed to introduce, for the 2015 season, an Exhibition Class. More details on this new and exciting development will be sent out soon however the basic of this class will be any new or emerging group (regardless of age) that wishes to 'dip their toe' into the world of winter guard without the pressure of competition.

Winter Guard International has agreed to fund the cost of transporting judges across to the UK for a second WGI UK Regional and also, as last season, incorporate training into this weekend. The event will take on Saturday 21st February and the venue will be announced shortly.

The continued offer of support and performance opportunities will be made to any indoor percussion or mini corps unit plus, with the recent addition to WGI of their 'Winds Class', WGUK would like to hear from any UK units that feel this might be of interest to them.

This Saturday, the DCI Fan Network will webcast live from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. If you can't make it to the stadium for the DCI Southeastern Championship, watch as all 22 of DCI's World Class drum corps compete head-to-head for the final time this summer before the DCI World Championships in Indianapolis.

The webcast starts at 2.30 pm local time, which is 7.30 pm UK/Ireland time and 8.30 pm Europe mainland time. All 22 World Class corps will enter the field of the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, plus Carolina Gold and the Atlanta CorpsVets. The scores will be announced at 10.38 pm local time which is well after midnight in Europe.

Two ways to view these webcasts are available. A $24.95 pay-per-view option will give you one-time access to watch all of the performing corps from Atlanta. Choose the $69 Live subscription option, or Live+DVD or Live+Blu to gain complete access to all of this summer's live webcasts, and on-demand replays of select DCI Tour events.

You can subscribe to the DCI Fan Network here.

The Blue Devils emerged victorious in San Antonio this weekend, taking home first place with a score 91.650. The Cadets followed in second place with a score of 90.975 and the Bluecoats’ 'tilted' performance earned them third place with a score of 89.850.

Santa Clara Vanguard took home first in percussion (18.2) and fourth place overall (89.000) narrowly edging Carolina Crown (5th, 88.700) for the first time since July of 2009. The Cavaliers (6th, 86.925), Phantom Regiment (7th, 84.725), Blue Knights (8th, 84.100), and Boston Crusaders (9th, 82.425) rounded out the last of the single-digit placements. Two of Wisconsin’s corps finished back to back, with less than half a point separating them. Blue Stars scored 81.725 and received 10th place while the Madison Scouts took home 11th with a score of 81.425. This was the first time in 2014 that Blue Stars have outscored the Scouts. Crossmen scored a 80.250 putting them in 12th place.

Troopers (13th, 77.900), Spirit of Atlanta (14th, 76.550), Colts (15th, 76.100), Oregon Crusaders (16th, 74.800) all had strong performances in San Antonio, looking for an edge that will help vault them into the top 12 corps that earn spots at the DCI World Championship Finals this August.

The Academy found themselves in 17th place with a score of 74.775. Pacific Crest ended in 18th place and a score of 73.050. Mandarins (19th, 72.375), Jersey Surf (20th, 69.650), Cascades (21st, 67.200) and Pioneer (22nd, 64.125) rounded out the World Class competition for the night. In the Open Class division, Genesis from Austin - Texas came in first place with a score of 65.500. The Guardians, another Open Class ensemble from the Lone Star State, took second with a score of 61.275.

All scores and recaps can be found at www.dci.org/scores.