Regiment
Mititaire
1974
The Formation of the Regiment Militaries
One year and out
I interviewed Rick Sheppergril on the way that Regiment Militaries was formed
and this is what he recalled from a drummers prospectus. In 1974 the Bleu Raeders
lost some members and they just didn’t sound good. So Tank Thawson (M&M
and horn instructor), from the Stardusters, and Larry Coste, (M&M Instructor) for
the Bleu Raeders talked about a merger of the two Corps. to strengthen the horn
line . It happened, and the Regiment Militare was formed.
Larry Coste and Bob Crossin were acting Corps Directors.
The uniforms were Blue Jackets, white pants, yellow cumber
bun and white hats, basically the Bleu Raeders uniforms
drums and horns and flags. On the starting line the GO-GO
Bleu Raeders didn’t sit well with the old Stardusters
members.
They brought in Dave Glover
as Drum Instructor. They also brought in Mike Couma from
the Royal Crusaders ( a Drum Instructor) to write the
drum parts to "ONE EYED SAILOR". Marty Hurley wrote the
drum part to "MARCH MILITARE" and Carl Thibodaux helped
with execution , the first and second drum solo’s
were written by the Corps Members themselves. They had
six snare drums, four timtoms, four timpani’s,
with four tuned bass drums and six symbols. At the end of the show these six
guys would flip these symbols high up into the air twirling till the came down
and they caught them. Quite an unusual ending.
The corps had forty eight horns and they all played
there hearts out. Mr. Yokem was the music instructor
Jay Haydel helped with the horns and Tank was m&m
and horns.
The repertoire was open with
"March Militaries" then "One Eyed Sailor" then for concert,
"Make Me Smile", (the version the Stardusters used),
and "The Way We Were".
Many of the members from Metairie and midtown New Orleans
didn’t drive
and had no transportation to get to Chalmette, so the corps. Provided three
busses to go around to different stops to pick up members,
bring them to rehearsal and back. They also had drill
camp held in Salmon High School in Slidel ,to practice
for the road trip. Some of the Sunday rehearsals were held in Clearview Shopping
Center parking lot.
There was three road trips ,the first trip was three
days threw Illinois .The second trip was five days threw
Indiana, Ohio where in one of the contests there was
a bad argument with another corps and it was published
in the paper and there after the regiment was not liked
much any more . The third trip was twenty eight days
up the east coast ending in Ithaca New York for DCI finals.
The corps. made finals in all of there stops accept in Ithaca ware they placed
17th. The color guard was awarded best color guard honors,
eight rifles and many flags, they were great.
After returning from DCI not too many members showed
up for rehearsals and there was no spirit left, the
members from Chalmette didn’t approve of rehearsing
in clearview parking lot, it’s like it just fell apart. From Ricks prospectus
it turned out to be a bad merger.
Joe Becker tried to start up the Bleu Raeders in 1975
and called Rick and Ronnie to play and give inspiration
but they turned it down after a few rehearsals with
a lot of no shows.
The corps split, the Raeders went to Metairie and the
Stardusters went back to Chalmette and they tried again.
There’s always next year.
Submitted by Elroy Ingersoll
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