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Indoor Percussion Europe crowned the European champions in Tournai - Belgium last Sunday. In the International Marching Class, DrumSpirit took the title, after the drumline finished second in the Prelims. The Senators Juniors won the Junior Class title.

The winner of the Prelims in the International Marching Class was Unik Star from Hellemmes - France (75.83), with DrumSpirit from Dadizele - Belgium in second place (73.33). GOT Motion from Gothenburg - Sweden, came third (72.00). DrumSpirit had to catch up to Unik Star by two and a half points in Finals.

The Belgians were able to turn a lag into a victory with a significant increase in points: 79.83. GOT Motion also moved up by one place and came second with a difference of 0.33 points (78.83). The winner of the Prelims, Unik Star, had to make do with third place in the Finals (78.50).

Like last year, the Beverly Drumband was the champion in the European Marching Class. The group did this with a sharp increase in points compared to last year, going up by nearly eight points (82.33). The Concert Class was won by Evolution, and The Senators Juniors won the Junior Class.

All scores can be found at www.indoorpercussioneurope.org.

Mayflower is the first World Class Champion of Winter Guard United Kingdom. The guard had a substantial lead over its rival Northern Academy.

Apart from the first contest, Mayflower was the strongest guard in the World Class throughout the season. In the Finals in Stoke on Trent on Saturday, the guard scored 81.65 points. That was more than four and a half points ahead of Northern Academy, which was awarded 76.90. Winter Guard United Kingdom introduced the World Class into the competition this year.

Oracle won the Open Class. In the A-Class, Mayflower and Northern Academy were in the top two as well, and once again Mayflower drew the longest straw (respective scores 80.92 and 79.90). In the Junior Class, Spice won the title. The Southern Knights topped the Cadet Class.

Scores and recaps are available on www.wguk.org.uk.

The Kidsgrove Scouts have announced their new programme. The production of the reigning British drum corps champions is called 'Mind Games'.

"We don't have got one hundredth of understanding what lies inside our own heads. The exploration into the mind reveals some terribly disturbing things about how we are actually structured." This has been the inspiration for the design team of The Kidsgrove Scouts when they created the concept for the new show. Emotion, thinking, ideas, thought: they are all interesting parts of the mind.

The Kidsgrove Scouts have placed a video on YouTube about the show announcement. "Let the Mind Games begin!"

Con Spirito from Joure will be present at the DCE European Championships this year. The corps replaces the Wölper Löwen who previously stated that they would not be able to compete this year.

Initially, Con Spirito had just missed out on a place for the European Championships, and the corps was first on the waiting list. When a place became available because the Wölper Löwen were unable to participate, Drum Corps Europe invited Con Spirito. The corps from Joure - The Netherlands accepted the invitation, and will be the fourth Dutch corps to enter the Premier Class during the DCE European Championships.

This means that the proportion of Dutch corps attending in Kerkrade on Saturday the 28th of September has grown, not only in terms of the number of corps, but also when it comes to show contents, because Con Spirito's show, entitled 'MENS' contains music pieces from the Dutch pop band Bløf - including 'Mens', 'Blauwe Ruis', 'Omarm' and 'Niets Dan Dit'.

The design team includes Justin Coughlin from the Blue Stars (brass and front ensemble), Justin Lewis from the Blue Coats (percussion) and Martijn de Jong (drill).

European percussion groups from Sweden, the UK, France and Belgium are gearing up for the IPE European Championships. On Sunday, the European percussion champions of 2013 will be crowned in Doornik. IPE has published the programme.

The championships will start at 10:30am with the Prelims of the International Marching Class, where “hot shots” DrumSpirit from Belgium, GOT Motion from Sweden and Unik Star from France will be the first to compete on the day. The Individuals & Ensembles will follow, with 14 soloists and ensembles showing their skills.

The Finals programme will start at 1pm with the Concert Class, in which New Spirit and Evolution will compete against one another. This is followed by the Junior Class with Unik Star Juniors Juniors and The Senators Juniors, the European Marching Class with Liberty Drum Corps, Showband Music Black Show and The Beverly Drumband, and finally the International Marching Class.

Tickets are available at the box office for 12 euros each. Groups of ten or more are eligible for a discount and will pay 10 euros per person. Information on the European Championships for percussion can be found at www.indoorpercussioneurope.org.

Wolper Löwen Drum & Bugle Corps from Neustadt am Rübenberge will not participate in competitions this year. This was announced by corps on its website.

Due to 'structural changes', Wolper Löwen have had to make the decision not to put a corps on the contest fields. Corps director Thomas Littmann emphasises that this does not spell the end of the Wolper Löwen. "It is important to note that we are not closing our doors", says Littman.

Last year, after an absence of several years, the Wolper Löwen made their comeback in the German, Dutch and European competitions.

Marching Band of Suranaree Wittaya School from Nakhon Ratchasima may withdraw from defending its championship at the 17th World Music Contest in the Netherlands in July due to lack of funding. The Bangkok Post reports about this.

Adul Pluengsanthea, the trainer of the marching band, said around twelve million baht will be needed to take 140 team and staff members to the Netherlands for seven days. At the moment, the band currently has around two million baht (about 53,000 euros) so needs another ten million (about 260,000 euros). Abdul Pluengsanthea is not certain that he can get sufficient funding in less than four months.

Though the prospect of competing at the event is at risk, the 120 band members and staff are practicing their routines to ensure the best performance. There are only ten members from the 2009 championship tour, with all others from a new generation of the band.

In 2009, the school's all female band became champion in the World Division Corps Style Class at the 16th World Music Contest, with a score of 1,330.50. (Source: Bangkok Post)

Marching Music's Major League returns to the Big Screen, when the 2013 Drum Corps International Tour comes to cinemas nationwide for two exciting events. DCI is again set to partner with National Cinemedia's Fathom Events to bring the early-summer DCI Tour Premiere and the season-ending DCI World Championship Prelims to movie theaters from coast to coast.

Now in its third year, the DCI Tour Premiere will feature an early season look at the Bluecoats, Boston Crusaders, Cadets, Cavaliers, Phantom Regiment and Spirit of Atlanta as their 2013 competitive performances are brought to the silver screen in stunning high definition video and surround sound. The event will be tape-delayed, recorded live on Saturday, 22nd June at the Innovations in Brass DCI Tour event in Akron - Ohio and rebroadcast in movie theaters on Monday, 24th June.

Drum Corps International's Big, Loud & Live will once again feature performances from the DCI World Championship Prelims. The event will be broadcast via satellite from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to cinemas nationwide.

The Celtic Crusaders, the marching unit of Mullingar Town Band, have announce their 2013 production, 'The Gathering'. Founded in 1879, Mullingar Town Band have enjoyed success for over a century at home and abroad.

The show coincides with the event of the same name taking place this year in Ireland to gather Irish diaspora from around the world to celebrate their heritage and culture. As well as traditional Irish music, the show also features more contemporary pieces from the popular and movie genres, all with Irish connections.

The Celtic Crusaders will this year work with the design team of Eoin O'Keeffe, Remco Groenewegen, and Jon Bilby. As well as competing in the domestic circuit run by the IMBA, Celtic Crusaders also travel to Kerkrade, Netherlands in July to take part in the World Music Contest.

Showband Rastede will continue under a different name. The name called out on the contest fields from now on will be 'Spirit of 52'. The name change is part of a larger transformation of the association.

The new name refers to the founding year, 1952. The drumline of the show band has been performing under the name Drumline52 for years, and last year's show ('Club 52') also refers to the year in which the club was founded.

"We are very proud to start this new chapter in our history", says Mark Gjaltema from the show band. "We want to connect more with the founders of Showband Rastede, the 'class of 1952'. Those people built this beautiful club and we are proud of that. Each member feels '52' and it shows. We would like to show how we feel through the name of our corps."

The association name will remain Showband Rastede, and consists of five components: Rasteder Spielmannszug, Showband Rastede Minis, Showband Rastede Youngstars, Showband Spirit of 52 Rastede and a one-off project called Showband Rastede Alumni.

As well as a new name, the show band also has a new logo and a new website. Spirit of 52 is one of the participants in the upcoming DCE European Championships in Kerkrade.

Heartliner Drum & Bugle Corps from Ludwigshafen has informed Drum Corps Associates that the corps wants to take part in the DCA Championships. This was confirmed by DCA on their website.

Over a year ago, Heartliner announced its plans to participate in the all-age circuit of DCA. Last month, the corps organised a major fundraising event to raise the amount required for the trip (about 100,000 euros).

Heartliner wants to enter the A Class and will be the first ever German participant in an American drum corps competition. Earlier, the DCA welcomed Kidgsrove Scouts to the competition, in 2010 and 2012.

Juliana Drum & Bugle Corps from Middelburg has a new drum major. The Belgian Youri Debaere will be leading the Dutch champions in the upcoming season.

Recently it became clear that last year’s drum major, Karel van den Elshout, will not be available this year, and the corps was looking for a replacement. Juliana received a number of applications for the job and chose Youri Debaere.

Debaere is no stranger to the drum corps world. He spent several years working for Beatrix Drum & Bugle Corps from Hilversum, Showband Calypso from Zwevegem and marched with DCI World Class Corps The Glassmen in 2006.

"We are extremely pleased that Youri is prepared to take on this task in 2013", the corps announced. The new DM was introduced to the members yesterday, during the third show rehearsal. The first performance with Debaere as the new DM will be the annual presentation evening on Saturday 27th April.

Drum Corps International has announced that the Open Class corps Velvet Knights will not participate in the 2013 DCI Tour. The Velvet Knights re-entered the competition in 2007 after eleven years of absence.

"We‘re anticipating that the Velvet Knights organization will take this opportunity to review its situation and regroup and reorganize for a future petition to return to DCI’s Open Class", DCI Executive Director Dan Acheson said.

Drum Corps International will continue to work with the board of directors of the Pasadena, Calif.-based Velvet Knights Youth Arts Organization to assist them with restructuring for potential participation in future DCI Tour events.

Debuting as an Open Class corps in 2007, the Velvet Knights last competed at the DCI World Championships in 2010. The corps participated in a limited number of DCI Tour events in California during the 2011 and 2012 summer seasons.

All marching bands in Ireland are in high demand on St. Patrick’s day. Thousands of spectators flock to the streets of every town in Ireland to watch the colorful St. Patrick’s day parades filled with community groups, arts-groups, commercial displays and of course marching bands.

This year the Clondalkin Youth Band featured in a RTE TV documentary on St Patrick and the parades ‘There’s something about Patrick’. They will also be the only Irish band in the Dublin parade which also has many visiting international bands. Both of these programs are available to view on the internet at www.rte.ie/player.

Some participants in local parades today include Tallaght Youth Band, Athlone Town Youth Marching Band, Ravens, MTB Celtic Crusaders, and Clonmel Bluehawks. The Mullingar parade will be streamed live on the internet at 3.00pm via mullingar.ie/watch-mullingars-st-patricks-day-parade-live/

When all the local parades are over, the main marching band competition of the weekend takes place on the Holiday Monday 18th March in Limerick city, where over 20 bands from the US, Canada and of course Ireland compete in the annual international band parade.

Once again, Millennium Drum and Bugle Corps from Verdello is preparing for a world tour. Next summer, the Italian drum corps will be participating at a contest in Japan.

With their new programme Voodoo, Millennium will participate in the WAMSB Marching Band Competition in Tokyo. The event will take place from 6 to 14 August, and Millennium is the only European competitor. Voodoo will debut in front of the home town audience in Verdello on 1st June.

This is the second consecutive year that Millennium is flying East. Last year, the Italian corps was a guest in Beijing and did various performances at a big festival.

If you managed to watch last Sunday's Dancing on Ice Final on ITV 1, there was more than just skating on offer. The Company drummers stepped onto the ice to add a little more action to the snare part for Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean's Bolero.

In the 3.5 minute routine, expertly choreographed by Kim Gavin (the man behind both spectacular Closing Ceremonies at the 2012 London Games) the drummers were on the ice in spiked running shoes, The Company uniforms customised to the Bolero purple colour scheme, surrounding figure skating Legends Torvill and Dean, only to reveal the 1984 Winter Olympic Gold Medallists after a modernised intro section.

In the weeks leading up to the Final Show weekend, the drummers had been replaced by cones, so that the ice dancers could perfect their performances, whilst the corps had sent Andy Cartwright plus a few extra bodies to learn the basics of the routine &andmusic at the George Lucas Stage - London's Elstree Studios.

This in turn lead to their own rehearsal to get the bare bones of the routine down the previous weekend, before meeting up with Torvill and Dean on the set early Friday morning to chunk the piece together. Three days were spent down at the studios sorting out our drums, drill and music.

The Performance saw Torvill and Dean, 12 drummers, 6 male pro dancers from the show, fire, lifts, illuminated drums, flying sections and 'the head banger' all being performed for millions. You can watch the routine below.

Drum Corps Europe and Color Guard Netherlands present a new media platform: The Video Vault. A media team will provide multimedia productions of the CGN Championships and the DCE European Championships, including a live webcast, an online video platform in HD and DVD productions.

The joint initiative is an ambitious step forward for the media productions of both DCE and CGN. The championships of both organisations will be broadcast live on the internet through a multi-camera recording. In September last year, the organisation ran a pilot during the DCE European Championships that was very well received.

In addition, videos of all performances will be available online in High Definition quality for a small fee. Videos will be available in The Video Vault soon after the event, so that fans can watch back the performances of their favourite groups in high definition. And the DVDs of the events will probably be available sooner than in previous years. Everything is taken care of by the organisations' media team, consisting of CGN and DCE volunteers.

A new platform requires a professional logo. Artist Peter Franken was asked to create a recognisable logo for The Video Vault. Franken designed a relevant logo where the name The Video Vault is symbolically processed. CGN and DCE are very grateful for the beautiful logo which will be featured on all communication of The Video Vault.

Task group member Niels Merkx of CGN is very satisfied with the cooperation. "By DCE and CGN joining forces, we hope to be able to elevate our media productions to a higher level", said Merkx. "We hope to use each other's expertise to continue to grow into a professional platform, which will be great for fans of drum corps, winter guard and indoor percussion."

DCE board member Dennis Naaktgeboren is excited too. "The partnership will enable our two organisations to use our own equipment and own enthusiastic volunteers to create great things", adds Naaktgeboren. "It is an exciting and wonderful adventure in which we will undoubtedly face many challenges. But we are all very much looking forward to making it into something beautiful."

This year, the Heartliner from Ludwigshafen want to participate in the competition of Drum Corps Associates. Recently, the Corps started a campaign to raise money it needed. They need approximately 100,000 euros.

Over a year ago, the Heartliner already announced that they had plans to travel to America in 2013. To make this trip financially feasible, they need 100,000 euros, and therefore the corps started a campaign via the website lugowm.de. On this website, generous fan can make a donation via PayPal or by calling a special telephone number.

Not DCI but DCA is the competition in which Heartliner aims to participate. Details of the trip are not yet known. If Heartliner manage to make the journey, they will be the first German Corps to participate in an American drum corps competition.

Once again, the DCE European Championships will be held in the Parkstad Limburg Stadium in Kerkrade. It will be the sixth time that the stadium is the scene of Europe's largest drum corps event.

After five years, Drum Corps Europe is still very pleased with the venue. "We are receiving a lot of positive feedback on this stadium", says DCE chairman Marcel Matthijsse. "The atmosphere and facilities of the stadium are great, and the good cooperation of football club Roda JC is also fantastic. We are delighted that we are welcome for the 6th time in Kerkrade this year."

The date of the DCE European Championships 2013 is Saturday 28th September. As always, the ticket sale will be starting on the first of May.

The contest of Indoor Percussion Europe in Sweden las weekend has drawn large audiences. A packed stand watched the performances of eight participants from Sweden and Denmark.

The contest was held in the Lisebergshallen in Gothenburg, home of GOT Motion/Göteborg Drum Corps. GOT Motion was the only group participating in the International Marching Percussion Class. The performance of Got Motion was awarded a score of 63.50 by DCE/IPE judges Erwin van Gemert, Mathieu Meulenaere and Marco Harder.

'Marching' is still relatively new in Sweden, but the Concert Percussion Class, on the other hand, was well populated with no less than six participants. Göteborg Drum Corps won this class with 66.50 points. Helsingborg Marimba Band also did well. After a fourth place in the Prelims, it beat competitors Gislaved and the Danish unit Hinnerup Garden to finish in second place (61.50).

Indoor Percussion Europe says they are looking back on a great day. "Scandinavia is booming," said the organisation. According to IPE, Sweden will once again be part of the European indoor percussion competition circuit next year.