The 27th Lancers are an inactive Junior Drum Corps from Revere, Massachusetts.
27th Lancers circa 1968
History[]
The 27th Lancers were formed in the fall of 1967 after the I.C. Reveries (senior corps)were disbanded by the church. The Lancers entered competition in 1968 and qualified as a finalist at the VFW national championships and the World Open championships.
The 27th Lancers were one of the original founding corps of Drum Corps International in 1972 and qualified as an open class finalist for 16 of the corps 19 year history. The Lancers highest placement at the DCI championships was 2nd behind the Blue Devils in 1980. The corps received international exposure that same year by performing in the opening and closing ceremonies at the Lake Placid Winter Olympic games.
The 27th Lancers, formed in 1968, was a junior marching and maneuvering corps based in Revere, Massachusetts. The Lancers were born out of the demise of the Immaculate Conception (IC) Reveries, led by George Bonfiglio. The name derived from an old Errol Flynn movie, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," in which Flynn reports to his commanding officer that, "The 27th Lancers are here and ready for duty!" The new corps began its public life with a bang by making finals at the 1968 VFW National Championship in their first year out. After that, the Lancers would become one of the great GE corps, giving the activity some of its most innovative and exciting drill and guard work. They were one of the first corps to perform asymmetrical drill.
The corps performed on television several times, including the Mike Douglas Show and a WGBH PBS special on the corps. They also performed at the opening and closing of the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Olympics. Their performances presented drum corps to perhaps 180,000,000 viewers worldwide, almost certainly the record for drum corps audiences. They were one of the major traveling corps, making it to the West Coast in 1975 and 1976.
1971 was the Lancers' best pre-DCI year when they won World Open and the Danny Thomas Invitational and placed fourth at VFW, taking high GE. In DCI competition, the corps placed in the top ten in 11 of its 15 years of competition (in 1974 the corps dropped to 20th, before rebounding in 1975 to fourth). The Lancers' second-place finish in 1980, performing a repertoire of "English Folk Song Suite" and "Danny Boy," was their highest.
The 27th's uniforms were distinctive, featuring khakis, Aussie hats, and many other British regimental-type uniforms that varied over the life of the corps. The uniform alone gave 27th a unique identity.
The corps disbanded after the 1986 season but came back in a big way at the 1994 DCI Championships in Boston when the alumni corps of almost 300 members put on a special exhibition.
- The corps became inactive after the 1986 competitive season.
- The 27th Lancers alumni reunited in 1994 to perform at the DCI championships in Foxboro, Massachusetts.