Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps

History

Sources:

The corps was founded in 1956 by members of the Col. Thomas G. Lawler VFW Post 342 who wanted a local competitive drum corps. Under the direction of Alex Haddad, the corps was provisionally named the Rockford Rangers with all-boy drums and bugles sections and an all-girl color guard to be named the Rangerettes. However, when many of the charter members were impressed by the recording of the Syracuse Brigadiers performing the Leroy Anderson composition The Phantom Regiment, the corps' name was changed before the unit made its debut, with the color guard renamed the Phantomettes.

In the corps' early years, the Phantomettes and a corps-sponsored all-boy color guard called the Raiders were competitively successful. The drum and bugle corps, however, struggled for its first few years.. In 1962, the corps bought a set of high quality bugles that had belonged to the Commonwealth Edison Knights of Light Drum and Bugle Corps which had folded two years earlier. With the new instruments and a new brass arranger, the corps began to improve. The old set of bugles went to the newly formed Phantom Regiment Cadets.

Despite the Phantomettes having placed second at the 1962 color guard national championships, in 1963, Phantom Regiment fielded an all-male corps, including the color guard. When scores fell behind those of the previous season, the Phantomettes returned to the corps for 1964. With the girls back in the corps, successful recruitment, and new uniforms, the corps had its best season until that time, including a finish of 15th among 45 corps at the VFW National Championship preliminaries in Cleveland. The Phantomettes were honored in the graphic on the City of Rockford's 1964 vehicle registration stickers. But on August 21, 1964, Regimental Hall, the corps' home was badly damaged by a fire. The organization was forced to sell its instruments and uniforms to pay off its debts.

Financially unable to field a corps in 1965 through 1967, alumni and former staff members reorganized and officially incorporated on September 11, 1967. At the first meeting of the newly restructured corps in January, there were 28 members. The Regiment's 1968 drum and horn lines dressed in black pants and a red windbreaker with a black and white vertical stripe on the left side; the guard wore the same windbreaker, black Bermuda shorts and an "Aussie" style hat. The season consisted mostly of parades, with few field contests. The corps owned one vehicle; a red step van to carry the equipment. In that first year of the corps' return, perhaps the corps' greatest asset was their new musical arranger, Phantom Regiment alumnus and future DCI Hall of Fame member, Jim Wren, who would go on to arrange the unit's brass music for the next 28 years.

By 1970, Phantom was able to outfit the corps in new uniforms; a cadet-style jacket with a red diagonal sash dividing the black white side from the white left side, black pants with a white stripe, white buck shoes, and a shako with a 12-inch plume. The corps had grown to 89 members with 40 horns, 14 drums, 24 flags, 12 rifles, and a drum major.

In 1971, Wren started adding the classical music pieces that would become Phantom's trademark along with the usual pop music that most corps were playing. On a Friday the 13th in that year, all of the corps' buses ran out of fuel; the equipment truck caught fire, not just once, but twice; yet the corps went out and won that night's contest.

Prior to the founding of DCI in 1972, the Phantom Regiment, like most corps of the time, was strictly a local organization. The members and the staff came from Rockford and its surrounding suburbs. Travel to contests was limited to perhaps a few hours of driving. The only "National" competition the corps had ever entered had been the 1964 VFW championships in Cleveland. The corps attended the first DCI competition, in Whitewater, Wisconsin, placing 23rd of 39 corps in prelims. In 1973, The corps returned to Whitewater and moved up to 14th place among 48 corps.

In 1974, Phantom presented its first full program of all-classical musical selections. The corps had grown to DCI's maximum of 128 members, and it took its first extended tour, travelling to Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts en route to the DCI Championships in Ithaca, New York. The corps was beating many of the activity's traditional powers and earning a reputation as a power in its own right. At DCI, the Regiment earned its first Top Twelve Finalist placement, beginning a string that has held through 2016. In prelims, the corps shocked many by placing 8th, although they fell back to 11th at Finals.

A new uniform was conceived for the 1975 corps; long white jackets with a black sash, a two-colored cape with red on the inside and black on the outside, black pants, and the one element that remains today: the pith helmet. Once the corps moved up to become a DCI Finalist, it also became become a consistent contender, placing 10th in 1975, 4th in 1976, and having a frustrating run of second-place finishes in 1977, 1978 and 1979 with the corps scoring within tenths of a point from the title.

A fall to a 10th-place finish in 1986 led the corps to take a new approach. Among other moves, the corps made a dramatic uniform change, inspired by designer Michael Cesario, adopting new, all-white uniforms more closely resembling costumes than traditional uniforms. Three years of improvement, culminated in 1989 with another second-place finish, with Phantom's score of 98.400 tying the previous DCI highest score ever. That 1989 corps joined the Kansas City Symphony on stage in a performance of "Elsa's Procession to the Cathedral" that led a newspaper reviewer to write that it was so powerful that he might never recover.

From 1975, Phantom Regiment's field shows had been designed by future DCI Hall of Fame member John Brazale to maximize the musical impact while often amazing the audience. Returning home after the 1992 DCI Championships, Brazale had complained of having severe headaches during the last few weeks, and was soon diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and died within months.

Phantom continued to turn out programs that pleased both audiences and fans, and the corps continued to be a DCI Finalist. In 1995, the corps changed from all-white uniforms to all-black with the same style.

In 1996, playing a program entitled "The Defiant Heart," consisting entirely of music by Dmitri Shostakovich, the Phantom Regiment finally reached the top, tying the Blue Devils of Concord, California for its first DCI World Championship. Jim Wren arranged for the corps from 1992 through the 1999 season, and then retired as the corps' musical arranger. Michael Klesch took over arranging duties in 2000 and 2001, and was then followed by alumnus J.D. Shaw, who arranged the corps' music from the 2002 season through the 2010 season.

Since winning their first DCI World Championship in 1996, Phantom Regiment has made additional uniform changes, but has mostly held to its classical music programming.

In 2008, with their performance of "Spartacus", Phantom Regiment defeated the Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps by a margin of 98.100 to 98.125 to win their second (and first undisputed) DCI World Championship.

Through 2016, Phantom Regiment has continued to be a DCI Finalist, with the streak extending through 42 consecutive Top Twelve finishes.

Sponsorship

The Phantom Regiment is a 501 (c)(3) musical organization incorporated in the State of Illinois. As such, it has a Board of Directors, directors, and staff assigned to carry out the organization's mission. The corps' Executive Director is Rick Valenzuela, and the Corps Director is Dan Farrell. The organization holds several educational camps throughout the summer. The organization also sponsors, in conjunction with Northern Illinois University's School of Music, the Red & Black Fall Classic Marching Band Festival and the NIU Concert Band Festival.

Show summary (1972–2016)

Sources:

Gold background indicates DCI Championship; pale blue background indicates DCI Class Finalist; pale green background indicates DCI semifinalist.