By John Stark, Corps Director

Reporting from the Comeback Trail of the Pembroke Imperials.By John Stark, Corps Director
Almost two years ago, DCW reported on efforts to revive the Pembroke Imperials ("Imperials Make a Comeback, by Kelly Bitter). At that time we were just getting re-established. The Imperials Board of Directors was in place; that was about it. We had some initial ideas then of acquiring equipment, establishing a parade corps with the hopes to someday becoming a competition corps.
I am happy to report today that or efforts have brought forth some fruit. We are now well on a course that pretty much follows the plan -announced back then- to become a competitive DCA corps.
After a year of fund-raising and an open house last December, we began rehearsing over the winter, hoping to be ready for some parades when the warm weather returned. We just completed our first parade and it was a success. We came out humble in size but well rehearsed, professional looking and people from spectators to bands and other corps in the parade seemed to notice our presence.
We have also been allowed through to work with the Pembroke schools to form a private/public partnership to offer a marching music program for local music students were none presently exists in the town. We actually had an audience with the School Committee and Superintendent and it was very productive! In addition to them having validated us as a worthy program for the extra curricular activity of their students, we also have been granted use of the music room, in the Pembroke Middle School, this coming winter. The town was also supportive in letting us use the Pembroke Community Center for rehearsing last winter and we got permission to park our truck at the Pembroke Police Station. The support from Pembroke is proving to be huge, both in restarting the corps and growing it for 2005!
Right now, we are feeling good about our progress. These happy developments have evolved from a number of factors and also, ostensibly from some present day conditions, which I am eager to talk about to DCW readers.
First off… Why are we trying to resurrect a drum corps and why DCA for us? To explain this please allow me to rewind a bit…
In June 2002, we held a reunion on Cape Cod and it was an amazing experience. Over 200 people showed up and most of the corps alumni –which were so close to each other twenty five years ago- hadn’t seen each other since the corps folded. Even though an unbelievable 25 years had passed, getting together again was like putting on an old school jacket pulled from the attic and being with your old honey again. After the broad smiles, the tears and the awkward moments of physically identifying each other (we did look different), it was as if all those years never had passed, in terms of how we got along. As the day went on and people filled each other in on the last two decades of their lives, the way we were all feeling made our talk invariably migrate to how much we missed our corps and how proud and passionate we still were about it.
Yes, we were wallowing in nostalgia but people still spoke with regret about the passing of local drum corps and talked that fine day about how a new drum corps was still needed in the South Shore region of Eastern Mass. Happily, for us, it turned out that it wasn’t just talk. We conducted an on-line poll a week after the reunion and were excited to find that the Imperials Alumni still felt the same way in the cold light of day, after the nostalgia and merriment of the reunion had passed.
For me personally, I had always dreamed of one of the corps I had marched in –all of which had folded, Imperials, Spectra, North Star- to return to form some day. I had brought these notions up to some of my North Star friends at the their last reunion but an alumni friend of mine pointed out to me that North Star was "more of a corps that shone in the night sky very brightly for awhile and then suddenly disappeared". He felt it was best left that way; to have those great memories fixed forever. I guess he was right. North Star and Spectra were merger corps, so maybe the roots didn’t go down as deep. Two years later I came to realize -after the Imperials reunion- that the cranberry colored roots of that corps ran deeply and they were still alive under the ground though the tree was long gone!
Looking at the last 2 years of our efforts, I’m thinking, maybe what we’ve experienced is in some way connected to the natural evolution of our activity. For example: in the last 25 years of the activity there seems to be more and more disconnect between the touring DCI Super Corps, Division II & III, and community based grass roots drum corps and the DCA all age groups.
Although the DCI top corps of today are awesome, my feeling is that the business model required for DCI is one that is extremely daunting to implement, then maintain. We felt as a new board that attempting to produce a DCI corps would be highly draining on the lives of the people involved in creating it. We agreed the rigors and challenges of DCI, was a world that was unrealistic for what our vision was for ourselves and are better left to the established DCI corps. Let me add that I had ten great years with the Boston Crusaders organization in the 80’s and 90’s as a visual instructor and supporter and if that situation still fit with my lifestyle I’d still be there in some capacity. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to be married, raise small children and still be involved at a DCI level.
My experience with being involved with the Crusaders when they were picking themselves up off the mat in the mid eighties has helped me incredibly in this Imperials effort and has taught me not to get discouraged with obstacles, but to just find another way. I’d like to thank my good friend, Michael Woodall, of BAC fame, for helping me to understand the meaning of perseverance. He embodied it and he is the main reason why the BAC are still here and thriving. I take inspiration from him. That’s the truth!
What we are really trying to recapture in the Imperials is family and community in a drum corps setting. We are trying to transcend generations and be a locally based alternative to people who don’t have another non DCI outlet in Eastern Mass to play a horn, drum or be in a guard. We want to maximize fun and enjoyment and minimize headaches. So of course, the place we arrived at which best fits our business model is obviously DCA.
Even though, DCA is fast becoming a place to see a contemporary drum corps product, I still love how the DCA corps blend modern concepts with respect for tradition and showmanship. I love how a DCA corps can still play an unadulterated piece of fine music, the way the composer intended and not get hammered for improper drum corps pacing.
Although we are interested in being current –for the sake of attracting younger people, DCA seems to be the bridge that also feels right for our members who are Imperials alumni. On top of that, it costs a fraction of what a DCI corps costs to operate and so many challenges that DCI corps face each year (housing, food trucks, long tours, etc.) are not factors in DCA.
What we and other corps and former corps are attempting has gotten me thinking… Are we at a stage in the evolution of drum corps where the longing and nostalgia some people share for locally based drum corps is finally merging with what makes the best sense, when starting any new drum corps ventures? Is the time nigh for the re-emergence of locally based community drum corps again? I feel that it very well might be so.
My hunch seems to be supported by the results of the path we have taken thus far. We didn’t necessarily choose this path over another by preference only. More so, we found it was the best path for us to take for a chance at success. Another potential factor is that we feel this is a niche –both geographically and philosophically speaking- and we want to fill it. We are not there yet but at least we haven’t been stymied so far.
As for retaining the Imperials concept (name, colors, musical styles) we agreed that there was much equity in all that. It was good to begin with and we chose it over an entirely new concept. It has been proven out by the incredible financial support we have received from the alumni and also the many kind words we get all the time about how the Imperials were fondly remembered as a unique and special drum corps. Lots of people in the drum corps world who remember us seem genuinely excited about our efforts and very supportive. Something tells me that the financial support would not be there if we went with an entirely new name and concept. But, by the same token, we are definitely not wallowing in the past regarding how we sell the concept to new members who were never original Imperials. Heck, most weren’t even born then! We generally talk only of the here and now and our future plans.
That’s about it from the comeback trail and my sincere wish is to be able to report more successes in the near future!
For more information on the Imperials please visit their website at www.pathwayproductions.org/imperials.htm
The Imperials are proudly sponsored by Pathway Productions, Drill Products for the Marching Arts! Pathwayproductions.org