Velvet Knights


Other Names:merger Anaheim Scouts and Explorer Scout Post #72

Anaheim, CA United States
Founded: 1963

Inactive Junior
Division I
YearPositionScoreTheme/Songs
1964 Around The World In Eighty Days * Showtime on Broadway * Lullaby of Birdland * Perfidia * National Emblem March * California Here I Come * Begin the Beguine * Oklahoma (from Oklahoma!)  
1965 Sky Sound * Alabama Jubilee * God Bless America (from This Is the Army) * Begin the Beguine * Call to the Bulls * National Emblem March * Speak Low  
1966 California Here I Come * This is My Country * God Bless America (from This Is the Army) * When Your Lover Has Gone * If You Knew Susie * I Want a Girl * Bill Bailey * Tiger Rag * Under The Double Eagle * Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye  
1967 California Here I Come * God Bless America (from This Is the Army) * That's Entertainment * If You Knew Susie * I Want a Girl * Bill Bailey * Tiger Rag * Love is a Many-Splendored Thing * Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye  
1968 Strike Up the Band (from Strike Up the Band) * Angels of Mercy * Wabash Cannonball * Malaguena * Tiger Rag * The Party's Over (from Bells Are Ringing)  
1969 El Conquistador * From the Ramparts * Battle Hymn of the Republic * You've Made me So Very Happy * Wabash Cannonball * MacArthur Park  
1970 Hooray for Hollywood * Another Opening, Another Show (from Kiss Me, Kate) * Prayer of Our Lord * Under The Double Eagle * Stars and Stripes Forever * Down By the Riverside * You've Made me So Very Happy * Come Saturday Morning (from The Sterile Cuckoo) * In A Gadda Da Vida * Captain from Castile * It Ain't Necessarily So (from Porgy and Bess) * A Time for Us (Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet)  
1971 Captain from Castile * Prayer of Our Lord * Under The Double Eagle * Blues in the Night * A Time for Us (Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet)  
1972 Dialogue in Dissonance * Patriotic Songs * Cincinnati Kid * Blues in the Night * South Rampart Street Parade * The Long and Winding Road  
1973 29 62.350 El Conquistador * Patriotic Songs * Frankenstein (drum solo) * Captain from Castile * Firebird Suite * Gift Horse * Malaguena * A Time for Us (Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet)  
1974 España Cañí * Battle Hymn of the Republic * Les Preludes * Eleanor Rigby  
1975 Mondo Cane * El Capitan * From the Ramparts * Tribute to the Duke * The Farewell  
1976 Pontieo * Brass Eel * Sneakin' Up Behind You * Caravan Medley * Kachasa * El Gato Triste  
1977 25 74.250 Left Bank Express * Groovin' Hard * Chelsea Bridge * Critic's Choice * Star Wars  
1978 25 70.450 Left Bank Express * Groovin' Hard * Fantasy * I'll Write a Song For You  
1979 33 65.350 Danse With Me George * The Story In Your Eyes * Fantasy * Trepak (from the Nutcracker) * Squonk * I'll Write a Song For You  
1980 First Suite in E-Flat * Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah * Bandstand Boogie * They Can't Take That Away from Me * Stella by Starlight  
1981 33 57.950 Excelsior Fanfare * Temptation * Council Grove Groove * Armando's Rhumba * Echano * Let Me Try Again  
1982 21 70.200 Fanfare * Hooray for Hollywood * Left Bank Express * Concerto in F * Temptation * Catching the Sun  
1983 17 71.450 Fanfare * Hooray for Hollywood * Seaside Samba * Shangri-La * Centurian Starfire * Beautiful Things * Ending  
1984 12 83.200 NBC Chimes Festival * Centurian Starfire * Seaside Samba * All Night Long (All Night) * Ending  
1985 11 85.300 Peter Gunn * NBC Chimes Festival * Beyond the Storm * Final Analysis * Catching the Sun * Ending  
1986 12 82.600 James Bond - James Bond Theme * From Russia With Love * Goldfinger * Live and Let Die * For Your Eyes Only * Ending  
1987 7 90.000 Magical Mystery Tour - Part I - Magical Mystery Tour * Chinatown * Brazil * African Drum Solo * Surfer Girl * California Girls  
1988 8 90.600 Magical Mystery Tour - Part II - Magical Mystery Tour * Zorba The Greek * Malaguena * African Drum Solo * There's No Place Like Home * America The Beautiful * Yankee Doodle Dandy * You're a Grand Old Flag  
1989 11 87.000 World Tour - Yo Mambo * Velvet Knights in Tunisia * Sing Sing Sing * 'Round Midnight * Kansas City  
1990 10 87.300 Universal Studios / Hollywood Tour - Summertime (from Porgy and Bess) * School's Out for Summer * 20th Century Fox Fanfare * Hooray for Hollywood * Singin' in the Rain (from Singing In The Rain) * Wizard of Oz * The Sea Hawk * Bottle Dance (from Fiddler on the Roof) * Keystone Cops * Slow Burn * The Summer of '42 * Born to be Wild  
1991 14 83.300 A Knight at the Apollo - I Can't Turn You Loose * Respect * I Feel Good * Unchained Melody * My Girl * Ending  
1992 10 86.600 Magical Mystery Tour - Part III - Magical Mystery Tour * Brazil * Kodo Thunder * Carol of the Russian Children (from Russian Christmas Music) * The Party's Over (from Bells Are Ringing) * Trepak (from the Nutcracker) * Hungarian Rhapsody No 2  
1993 13 83.100 Kartoon Klassics - The Storm (from William Tell) * The Marriage of Figaro * William Tell Overture * Hungarian Rhapsody No 2  
1994 15 80.200 A Midsummer Knights Dream - What's This? (from Nightmare Before Christmas) * Making Christmas (from Nightmare Before Christmas) * Theme from Beetlejuice * Love on Ice (from Edward Scissorhands) * Hot, Hot, Hot * Oyelo  
1995 15 74.700 Harlequin Carnival - Lau Flora * Afrika * Starfish  
1996 16 74.800 Magical Mystery Tour in Space - Magical Mystery Tour * Also Sprach Zarathustra (from 2001: A Space Odyssey) * The Jetsons theme * Walking in Space (from Interstellar Suite) * Hostility (from Interstellar Suite) * Ilia's Theme (from Star Trek: The Motion Picture) * Journey Home  
Position 200+ indicates Division II, Position 300+ indicates Division III, Position 400+ indicates Mini Corps.
The Velvet Knights were born in 1963 as the result of a split within the Anaheim Scouts. After the California State Championships in 1963, some Scout staff members wanted to modernize the corps by replacing the existing uniforms with traditional ones, and by jazzing up the musical repertoire. When that did not appear possible, Zig Kanstul and some parents left the Scouts to pursue their vision, forming the Velvet Knights (“VK“). The remaining Anaheim Scouts soon reorganized as the Anaheim Kingsmen.

Velvet Knights success was rapid. Less than two years after its formation the corps won the California state crown, which at the time was the holy grail on the West Coast.

Throughout the remainder of the 1960 the Velvet Knights were a West Coast powerhouse, sharing California domination with their erstwhile brothers, the Kingsmen, and trading the coveted California State Championships back and forth. The two corps also traded membership; their corps halls were right across the street from each other in Orange County.

VK first toured nationally in the late 1960s, competing well on the national stage. The corps placed in the CYO and American Legion Finals in 1970. Notably, the corps did not lose a single parade that they entered, beating out even the fabled Troopers.

The corps is credited with being the first corps to perform with G-F bugles, at a 1968 appearance in Chicago's Civic Opera House. They also pioneered electronics on the field as early as 1968 when they fielded an electronic bugle that could sound like a cello, bari sax, or oboe.

The corps had the distinction of appearing in the move "Americathon" in 1979.

VK in the early 1970s couldn't attract the numbers of members needed to keep up with the competitive sizes of the Kingsmen or the Santa Clara Vanguard, which had appeared in 1967. The Knights, however, did seem to attract incredible talent to compensate for their smaller numbers. Regardless, the corps struggled through most of the 1970s, placing in the DCI top 25 twice, but slipping to 33rd in 1979.

During the 1978 season, the California Surf professional soccer team hired members of the VK percussion section to create the sound of pounding surf with specially micced tympani at Surf games.

They took a year off in 1980 to reorganize the staff and plot a new course. This organizational period gave management and staff time to come up with a five-year plan to reach DCI Finals. Demonstrating the mettle that had kept the VK alive since 1963, the corps performed in parades and rebuilt for the 1981 season. The parade and performance activities of the summer of 1980 proved to be a catalyst to membership in the following year. Performances and other activities created a solid nucleus of members to build on.

Many changes occurred in the early 1980s as the staff began thinking more creatively. From 1982 to 1984, the VK made enormous changes to their style and staff personnel, leaving the military discipline behind and adapting a laid-back Southern California appearance in 1982. Hawaiian print shirts, red Vans sneakers, and straw hats replaced the white silks and cadets jackets of the early years.

The VK immediately became recognized as a West Coast version of the East Coast Bayonne Bridgemen, who at the time were known as DCI's entertaining/funny corps. Due to the enormous popularity of the new VK, only a handful of members (fewer than ten in five years) left the VK to march other corps. Members of corps from northern California, Arizona, and Colorado were traveling to sunny Southern California to march with the VK.

DCI placements advanced from 33rd in 1981, to 21st in 1982, 17th in 1983, and the corps' first Finals appearance in 1984. Perseverance was the corps' virtue, and a four-year promise was being kept to corps members and alumni. In 1985 the VK placed 11th, 12th in 1986.

1987 would be a major boost to the VK. Even though the Finals dream was realized in 1984, there were still ten other places in Finals the VK hadn't reached. Former Bridgemen director Bobby Hoffman joined the staff in 1987, and with his fertile mind for the absurd, the VK ascended to a seventh-place tie with the two-year-old Star of Indiana.

Velvet Knights had carved out a place on the drum corps stage as the "Clown Princes of Drum Corps" and "The Harlem Globe Trotters of DCI,“ entertaining audiences all over the United States and Canada and in countries abroad. VK remained a DCI finalist through 1990 before falling short in 1991, but returned to the top 12 for their last Finals appearance in 1992. 1993 through 1996 saw VK remain in DCI’s top 25, but they would not grace DCI Finals again.

Errors by corps management led to an IRS audit before the 1997 season. Subsequent penalty fees, back taxes, and interest brought about the financial demise of the corps.

VK lives on in the memories of corps fans. Many VK alumni came together to found Impulse, Southern California's heir apparent to VK, in 1998, a corps that could carry on VK’s tradition of audience-friendly, entertainment-focused shows.

[http://members.tripod.com/DrumCorpsHistory/VelvetKnights.htm; VKGARRY73 (vkgarry73@aol.com), rec.arts.marching.drumcorps, 11/24/98; DCW, 6/8/90, p. 16; DCW, 4/03, p.3; DCW, 1/04, p.3; DCW, 3/04, p.3; DCW, 8/6/04, p.3]

Members (94)

Member Name Section Years Involved
Allen, Tyler Soprano 1995
Arnot (Roebuck), Ann(Happi) flag 1984
Baer, Lex Drum Major 1969 to 1970
Ball, Darla Colorguard 1976; 1980 to 1982
Barber, Jeff Bass Drum 1995
Biondo, Steve Tenor 1974 to 1975
Boots, Larry Drumline 1979
Brimson, Snapple Baritone 1996 to 1997
Briseno, James hornline/mellophone 1989
Burns, Don Contra 1991
Carnegie, Ron Soprano 1978 to 1979
Castle, Jim Soprano Bugle 1977 to 1979
Claar, James Euphonium 1987 to 1988
Conley III, Everett Contra line 1989
Cross, John Mellophone 1981 to 1982
Cunningham, Sean percussion 1988 to 1989
Damewood, Kevin Soprano 1971 to 1973
Douglas, Earl Snare Drun 1963 to 1965
Eaton, Matt Upper Euphonium 1986 to 1987
Egland, Todd Pit 1992
Egland, Todd Pit 1992
Emmond, David Mellophone 1992; 1994
Emmons, Troy ALTOS 1991 to 1993
Findler, Nona Colorguard 1983 to 1985; 1988
Gaba, Mel Baritone 1983
Geiges, Jamie Alto 1994
Gilman, Greg Marching Instructor 1982 to 1983
Gray, Joe mellophone 1995 to 1996
Groh, Charlie hornline/m&m staff 1963 to 1993
Hall, Lynne Color Guard 1965 to 1968
Hargett, Charles Soprano 1983 to 1986
Harris, Catherine French Horn 1974; 1977
Harris, Catherine French Horn 1974; 1977
Hathaway, Steve Baritone 1984 to 1985
Henderson, Lozell drumline(Quads) 1986
Hendricks, Francine Soprano 1994
Herring, Kevin Soprano 1988 to 1989
Holgate, Nancy colorguard 1977 to 1982
Hubbard, Scott Drumline - Tenors 1991
Johnson, Jeff soprano 1985
Kendall, Karen Color Guard 1980 to 1982
Keys, Corkie Color Guard 1975 to 1978
Kuramoto, Eiichi Baritone,UpperLead 1989
Lima, Gary Middle Horn 1982 to 1986
MARTINEZ, BILL Soprano / Mellophone 1974
MOORE, LESTER CONTRA 1973
Magee, Gregory Soprano (UpperLead) 1986 to 1987
McCoy, John soprano 1977 to 1984
McLaren, Steven Contra 1984
McMillen, Eric Contra Bass 1986 to 1989
Meade, Dave Baritone 1982 to 1987
Michael, Steve Mellophone 1985
Mitchell, Jeff Pit 1992 to 1994
Mitchell, Marcus Colorguard 1980
Moreno, Scott Tenors '76, snare '77-'79 1976 to 1979
Neilson, Brad Alto / Soprano 1989 to 1992
Nelson, Kim Color Guard 1988 to 1990
Neugroschl, Scott Soprano 1978
Norris, Dale Baritone Horn 1968 to 1969
Oneyear, Kari Winter Color Guard 1985
Palmer, Randy Soprano, French Horn 1969 to 1970
Parker, Garry tenors 1971 to 1973
Price, Bill Drum Major 1989 to 1990
Riebesehl, Dale contra 1984 to 1985
Roberts, Patti Color Guard 1994 to 1996
Roland, AnnaMarie Snare 1979
Rosebrock, Eric Horn Line 1976 to 1978
Salvatore, Joe Drum Line - Cymbals 1984 to 1985
Sarbeck, James Contra 1980 to 1982
Sierra, Martin "Muff" Contra 1995 to 1996
Silbaugh, Melinda (Mindy) Colorguard 1978 to 1982
Simpkins, Bill Drum Major 1964 to 1965
Smith, Steve Snare Drum 1969 to 1970
Thompson , David Euphonium, Baritone, Visual Staff 1992 to 1994
Tillery, Scott Euphonium 1994
Turner, Bill soprano 1973 to 1975
Turner, Bill alto 1977
Turner, Bill mello, instructor 1978
Turner, Bill mello, arranger, instructor 1979
Turner, Ryan H. Baritone, Drum Major 1984 to 1987
Turner, Ryan H. Baritone, Drum Major 1984 to 1987
Warrick, Randy Soprano/Mellophone 1975 to 1976
Watson, Thom Contra 1984 to 1985
Watt, Phil drumline 1987 to 1991
Welke, Chris Upper Lead Baritone 1996
White, David Mellophone 1975
White, David Mellophone 1975
Wilson, Greg Snare 1977
Wilson, Greg Drum Staff 1978 to 1979
Zeilinger, Dan Soprano 1972 to 1974
Zeilinger, Ron Baritone (Lead) 1980 to 1985
heckman, robert sopranos, lower lead 1989 to 1990
mcguire, kristie color guard 1974 to 1975
mercure, oniel percussion 1979 to 1980

CORPS 37 items

Velvet Knights

VK 1 from the Bill Ives Collection
Velvet Knights

VelvetKnights from the Bill Ives Collection
Velvet Knights

VelvetKnights Anaheim CA-1994 from the Bill Ives Collection
Velvet Knights

VelvetKnights-I Luv VK from the Bill Ives Collection
Velvet Knights

Velvet Knights Youth Arts Org from the Bill Ives Collection
Velvet Knights

Velvet Knights Anaheim CA LP1-PalmTreesBlue from the Richard Elmquist Collection Contributed by Richard Elmquist
Velvet Knights

Velvet Knights Anaheim CA LP1-PalmTreesBlue from the Richard Elmquist Collection Contributed by Richard Elmquist
Velvet Knights

VelvetKnights,Anaheim,CA,LP1-PalmTreesBlue(RE-1.0x0.75)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection Contributed by Richard Elmquist
Velvet Knights

VelvetKnights,Anaheim,CA,LP2-1994(DST-1.5x0.75)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection Contributed by Donn Stroh
Velvet Knights

VelvetKnights,Anaheim,CA,LP3-PalmTreesWhite(RE-1.0x0.875)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection Contributed by Richard Elmquist
Velvet Knights

VelvetKnights,Anaheim,CA,LP4-ILoveVK(BIV-0.75x1.0)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection Contributed by Bill Ives
Velvet Knights

VelvetKnights,Anaheim,CA,Patch1-PalmTreesBlue(RE-3.75x2.75)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection
Velvet Knights

VelvetKnights,Anaheim,CA,Patch2-PalmTreesBlack(Site)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection
Velvet Knights

VelvetKnights,Anaheim,CA,Patch3-PalmTreesWhite(Site)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection
Velvet Knights

VelvetKnights,Anaheim,CA,Pin1-VKPalmTrees(RE-3.0)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection
Velvet Knights

VelvetKnights,Anaheim,CA,Pin2-VKAllTheWay(RE-2.25)J_U_S from the Richard Elmquist Collection
Velvet Knights

1965 Velvet Knights Drum & Bugle Corps- American Legion State Parade from the Roy Perez Collection
Velvet Knights

1969 Velvet Knights Drum & Bugle Corps " El Conquistador" Keith Markey Arrangement from the Roy Perez Collection
Velvet Knights

1965 Velvet Knights Drum and Bugle Corps - 1965 Ca. American Legion I & E Competitions from the Roy Perez Collection
Velvet Knights
PDF Document

420-421, Velvet Knights from the Steve Vickers Collection

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