Placing fourth in 1975 was the 27th Lancers of Revere, Massachusetts. In an indirect way, an incident that took place at the 1966 VFW National Finals set the stage for the 1975 corps. Before there was a 27th Lancers, there was the Immaculate Conception Reveries, more commonly known as the I.C. Reveries. In '66, the Reveries had placed 14th at the VFW Nationals prelims; however, due to political nonsense that was more commonplace pre-DCI, the 13th place-Racine Scouts were allowed to compete in the finals (while the Madison Scouts, who placed tenth in the prelims, didn't march in the finals) and the Reveries were left out in the cold. However, through a bit of trickery, the Reveries were able to get onto the field and then sat down on the starting line until their grievances were heard. In the end, the corps was allowed to perform their show, but were not judged in the competition.
Between this incident and several other reasons, the Immaculate Conception Church that was sponsoring the corps at the time decided to withdraw its support at the end of the 1967 season. Some of the corps' management and staff decided to reorganize the corps as an independent unit, and renamed itself the 27th Lancers, supposedly after one of the units in the Charge of the Light Brigade. (The only "Lancer" unit in the charge was the 17th Lancers; there has been a 27th Lancers in the British military, but they were formed in 1941 and disbanded in 1945.)
By the time of 1974, the 27th Lancers had become very successful, but most if not all of the charter members had aged out. As a result, 1974 was a rebuilding year for the corps and they placed 20th at DCI, the lowest the 27th Lancers would ever place in the corps' history. However, 27th rebounded very strongly in 1975, rising up to fifth in the prelims with a score of 85.85, and fourth place in the finals with a score of 88.05.
Incidentally, when the church cut off support for the I.C. Reveries senior corps, another group carried on the Reveries name, but as a junior corps. The junior Reveries continued on through the 1974 season, when half the corps defected to join the 1975 27th Lancers, the group in these videos. The other half of the Reveries first merged with the Blue Angels of Danvers, Massachusetts in 1975, and then with the Beverly Cardinals in 1976 to form North Star. So, out of one corps were the seeds of two great drum corps of the '70s and '80s.
The Repertoire: Crown Imperial * Chameleon * Celebrate * Spectrum Novum * Danny Boy
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