( drums )
( more drums added to beat )
( cheers and applause )
* *
>> Announcer: Sit back.
Get ready.
You're gonna catch it tonight.
Thirty years of music, mayhem
and Mike with the University
of Wisconsin Varsity Band.
* *
( cheers and applause )
>> Welcome!
You're wired for this evening.
I can tell.
( cheers )
This is the University
of Wisconsin Varsity Band.
It's the marching band
sitting down.
>> Give me a one--
Wipeout, one, two...
one, two, three, four!
* *
>> The concert did not
ever start as anything
that we thought was important.
It started as a get together.
Have a little concert,
have a party.
It was just that casual.
There was one time
we had a pizza delivered
in the middle of a number
and some of the band kids--
I mean it was a lot more fun and
games, I think, in those days.
* *
There was no pretense about it,
we presented it in such a way
we were half making fun
of ourselves
and half having a good time.
From the very beginning,
I think that's been one
of the hallmarks of the concert.
My first year was 1969.
The football team was terrible.
We'd lost like 24 games
in a row.
The Varsity Band wasn't even
organized when I came.
In fact, that was one of
the charges that I had
with the job was to put together
an organization that would play,
in those days,
primarily basketball,
men's basketball.
>> Like for basketball games
we had striped coats.
They were like candy cane coats
and we had a great time.
>> That first year I think we
had something like 27, 28 people
because it was
a new thing and nobody knew
the direction it was going.
Some of us came up
with the idea that--
members of the band--
at the end of the season
we had to have a party.
Just have a band party
just to get everybody together
for one last time.
>> We were also in that
first Varsity Band concert
at Mills Concert Hall.
>> They weren't even sure it was
going to happen, you know,
Leckrone just wanted
to have it in Mills and thought,
"We'll see what happens
and if we get enough people."
>> The band people said,
"Nobody's going to come.
Nobody's going to come just
to hear a pep band concert."
And I said,
"Well, we'll try it."
We got in one of the rehearsal
rooms downstairs and I took
a piece of chalk and I wrote
on the board what we were going
to play that night and it was--
there was no preplanning,
no production,
we just kind of did it
and it was a huge success.
>> They liked it.
They went wild even then.
>>It took off from there.
>> So the next year we said,
"Well, we'll just do it again
and let's charge admission."
I got the same reaction
from the band,
"Nobody's going
to pay, let alone--."
And we filled Mills Hall,
in fact it was overflowing.
We had people
standing in the aisles.
That was really the beginning.
Then we decided we better
move into a larger venue.
* *
( audience clapping to beat )
>> When you say Wisconsin,
you've said it all!
( cheers and applause )
>> When Mike first came,
he expected people to work
a little harder than people did
before that and some people
didn't like that.
Some people
actually quit the band.
>> One, two, beginning,
two, ready, and!
Dig, dig, dig, dig!
How bad do you want it?
>> The band, in a lot,
is like a family unit.
In a sense I'm kind of
the head of that family unit.
I think we work very hard
at the band to get
that sense of togetherness.
>> I want more desire than that.
>> If the band does
have another strength,
it would be the fact that
we work really hard together
to realize that
it's not a person out there,
it's the whole package.
We're all part of it together
and we kind of
live or die together.
( cheers )
>> He's so intense about taking
such pride in what you do.
He just--
he makes you work
incredibly hard and then
you feel so committed to do
a great job that you don't
want to let him down.
>> As you know,
all this band performs
during the football season,
we're very proud of that fact
and very proud of the kind
of fans we have here...
>> The spirit of the band,
that comes from Mike.
He's very intense,
demands a lot of the kids,
but they respond.
* *
( cheers and applause )
>> The third year we moved
to the Field House.
The band kids were very
skeptical, you know,
the Field House.
"Why are we--
there's going to
be nobody coming."
We had about 2,000 people
show up, which was amazing.
>> The word just went around
campus and everybody just said,
"Hey, this is something
we've gotta go and see."
It was a good show.
>> Here we go!
( clapping )
* *
>> Neil Diamond's
"Brother Love's
Travelin' Salvation Show"
was a great song
because Mike would occasionally
give the French horns little
bits that they could play and
we had good bits in that song.
* *
( band playing "Brother Love's
Travelin' Salvation Show" )
>> After about the first four
or five years,
your natural instinct is to say,
"Well, let's dress this up
a little bit."
And then I started hearing on
a regular basis, "What are you
going to do next year?"
Which I translated to mean,
"We liked this.
We thought this was good.
We'll come back
with higher expectations
next year."
* *
( cheers and applause )
>> I've tried to break down
the audience and say, you know,
"You're not just here to sit
and listen and clap."
( cheers )
( clapping )
* *
(cheers and applause)
>> Thank you!
>> We want you to have fun.
I would go in the audience
and tease them.
Back seat of a '39 Chevrolet?
( Audience gasps )
>> Sometimes sing songs
and sit on ladies' laps.
Any sort of thing
I could do to break down
that wall that sometimes gets
there and we've always done that
and I think the audience comes
with the idea that they're going
to have fun with the band.
>> That ain't the hand jive.
It goes like this.
( drum keeping beat )
Let's get with them.
Got that?
You're not getting this lady!
How about up there?
Come on, you can do it too
over here.
Come on!
Yeah, you can do it!
Loosen up a little bit.
Come on, you too, everybody!
Nobody relaxes here!
Come on lady!
Up there in the cheap seats!
( cheering )
One...
two...
One, two, three, four!
* *
( band playing "Willie
and the Hand Jive" )
( cheers and applause )
Sing along, dance along.
Have a good time.
You'll recognize this tune.
One, two...
One, two, three, four...
* *
( cheers and applause )
>> It had to be around '83
or someplace, somebody said,
"We could lower you from the
third balcony of the Field House
off of a rope."
And I said, "Well, that sounds
like an interesting idea."
I felt real good about it until
I got up on the third balcony
and had to put my foot
in the loop of that rope
and step off.
You know, it was startling.
People didn't expect it.
That was the start of it.
There again,
we hit the syndrome, "What
are you going to do next year?"
So we started,
each year, having to come up
with some idea that would be an
entrance that would maybe make
people have fun with it too.
* *
( cheers and applause )
The first concert I came dressed
in a very conservative
red blazer, coat and a tie.
At the end of the first half
I was sweating.
I took the tie off
and I had a very--
I had a very flowery,
bright red and blue--
red white and blue shirt
that I was going to wear
after the concert.
I just put it on and went out
and did the second half
because it was just
dripping wet.
And it got kind of, oh yeah,
whistles from the band.
So the wheels started spinning.
* * Mister Cellophane
* Should've been my name
Mister Cellophane * *
In the early days,
I just bought them off the rack.
I would buy really wild shirts.
And then you got
to the point where
you can't top yourself anymore
off the rack
so I found theatrical
people in town who would
sew me up something.
And the first ones were, again,
pretty simple.
White jackets and they
sewed a lot of sequins on it.
There was a girl in the band
who said, "My mother,
a woman named Lois Levenhagen,
works as a professional
seamstress.
She'd love to make some clothes
for you."
* * Cellophane
* Mister Cellophane
* Should've been my name
* Mister Cellophane
* 'Cuz you can look right
through me
* Walk right by me
And never know I'm there ** *
>> I've probably gotten
a little less--
if you can believe it--
less flamboyant in the costumes
in the last few years
because as I get older I feel
that there has to be a certain
degree of conservatism,
if you can call rhinestones
and sequins--
but some of them were really--
some of the early costumes
were absolutely bizarre.
I came on once
with a Mozartian look,
with the short pants
and the long white stockings
and the long frock coat
and a frilly collar.
I look at that costume
and how I ever had the guts
to put that on--
* *
It's the fun of doing it.
Not only is it the expectations
of the audience,
it's the expectations
of the band.
* *
It became a labor of love
because it gave me a chance
to be a producer,
to be a creator, and to say,
"What can we do next year
that will make it
a little bit better?"
* *
( band playing "There's No
Business Like Show Business" )
It's like planning
a Broadway production,
you want a big opening,
an opening that gets everybody
involved and loosened up
and relaxed.
You have to have the tension
and release during the show.
You have to have--
We often refer to it
as a quiet moment.
>> A lot of you may not know
that I do all the arranging
for the Wisconsin Band.
As a matter of fact,
I'm the only arranger.
I'm the only arranger
the Wisconsin Band has.
You might say
I'm the Lone Arranger.
( laughter and boos )
>> We've got to have a few spots
where there is a quiet moment
within the show that people can
kind of breathe and just enjoy
the fun of it.
Then a first act,
like any Broadway show,
you want to have a big finish.
* *
( cheers and applause )
( clapping )
Today we're in our second day
of having the freshmen show up.
We're trying to, of course,
teach the mechanical part
of what we do and then we're
trying to make some evaluations
of who does it well so that
they can fit in to the band.
( whistle )
>> Band: And go!
And go!
>> They have to learn
to work together to create
the bonding that goes with
being part of the band.
We have a very nice
freshman class.
We've got about
160 total.
>> Band: Two!
Four!
Six!
>> We probably will only
be able to keep about half
of that number.
Second day, there's some
automatic elimination,
some people discovered that
they didn't want to work as hard
as I wanted them to work.
( drums keeping beat )
In four or five days we'll put
the half-time and pre-game show
together with the people that
we've selected.
( drums keeping beat )
The whole idea would be,
if everybody could
do it perfectly
by the end of the week,
but that doesn't happen
in the real world.
>> Band: Two!
Four!
Six!
Prepare, turn!
Two!
Four!
Six!
Eight!
One, two, three, four,
five, six!
Prepare, turn!
>> Now you're not staying
in step.
They're playing the cadence.
Cadence is very obvious
where left is.
Same thing.
We'll start together now
and we're going to be together
from now until about the middle
of April when we do our
annual concert.
( drums keeping beat )
No Excuses!
Same thing!
( blows whistle )
( drums keep beat )
>> He's the best motivator
I have ever seen, ever.
He's more like a coach
than just a band teacher
because he can get people
to do stuff that
they really don't want to do
and he can make them think
that they want to do it.
>> Trumpets, let's start
with the trumpets alone.
One, two, three, four, one!
* *
What happened to our
articulation, trumpets?
In the whole piece,
everything just runs together.
You're not paying attention
to slurs.
You're not spacing.
>> The band is in on it
from the very beginning.
The first time we play
through a tune,
maybe even in September,
and then we turn around
and play it in concert,
they've seen how it evolves.
It changes dramatically.
>> Look at measure 200.
We have yet to do it right.
I'm going to probably
change it slightly.
It'll be, measure 200,
da da da da da...
two, three...
ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba...
right into "Hey Baby."
* *
Eighty-seven, measure 87.
Hey!
Don't be distracted!
Focus, focus!
If I can, you can!
One thing I tell them
about the show,
is when something goes wrong,
probably the only people who are
really going to know it are us.
* *
I want the band
to experience something
in this entertainment field that
no other students get.
I mean, my kids come
out of the marching band
sometimes with a greater sense
of theater and huge concert
performance than music majors
simply because
they've experienced,
they've seen the process
of growing it from nothing.
They get a real education.
I'm not sure they always know
they're getting an education,
but they're experiencing
something that is really
quite unique.
* *
One thing a lot of people
don't know is we try it out
on the road.
We'll take the band out
and a few communities will have
us come and do sort of a
mini-version of what we do.
And there again,
you're sort of testing--
is this a good tune?
Is this too long?
Is this too short?
>> Band: * * Hey...
* Hey baby
* I wanna know
if you'll be my girl * *
( cheers and applause )
>> I remember being
in high school and having
the band come to one
of the towns close to ours
and every year my mom
would take me to the concert.
I thought that the band
was so cool that I decided
that's why I was
going to go to UW-Madison.
I applied and I got in
and my mom was so scared
because I come
from a really small town.
She was so scared,
she thought that I would just
get lost in such a huge group,
but that's why I wanted
to come to Madison was
because I wanted to be a part
of the band.
* *
>> Hey!
Hey!
>> I think I went to four
of the concerts
before I even came to campus.
Just to go, it was just
an awesome show to watch
and being a high-school kid,
it was pretty overwhelming,
the production they put on.
* *
>> Hey!
Hey!
* *
Hey!
( cheers and applause )
>> Probably the "Fanfare for
the Common Man" is our favorite.
>> It had an incredible start
with the drum beats
and the brass.
* *
>> Students were
our first soloists
and that was just a matter of,
"Come on, sing a song
or play a song, and leave."
* *
I think that
it was good for them.
Sometimes it's good to get up
in front of 10,000 people
and know what you've got to do
or know what you didn't do
to make it work.
* *
( applause )
* *
( applause )
* *
( applause )
>> Roxie Vrooman, Roxie Vrooman!
>> All through it,
we've always had people
from the band perform.
We've tried to look
through Madison and find people
that have great talent that are
right here in our midst that
maybe the average person
wouldn't hear.
* *
( cheers and applause )
It's fun for me to see how
professional performers react
to this venue because it's
unlike anything they've ever
been involved with.
The combination of the audience,
the size and the big
back-up band behind them.
* *
Anyone who catches
the audience's imagination,
they start asking for.
"Will you bring so and so
back again?"
People, you know,
"You ought to have
'West Side' Andy come back."
He's a great blues
harmonica player.
Tom Wopat, the Dukes of Hazard
star, Broadway star.
Tom's come back, I think,
two or three times.
* * Just two good ol' boys
* We wouldn't change if we could
* No sir
* Still be fighting the system
like two modern-day Robin Hoods
Yee ha * *
( cheers and applause )
>> They'll almost always come
back because of popular request.
>> Ladies and Gentlemen
this is Liam Teague.
* *
>> We had a magnificent
steel pan player who's played
with us three times.
He's a friend of my son
and he's come back
anytime I ask him.
He's just a magnificent player.
* *
Kitt Foss from here in Madison
who sung with
the Metropolitan Opera,
toured the world performing,
has done operatic arias
with the band.
* * Mi struggo e mi tormento!
O Dio, vorrei morir! * *
* *
Vartan Manoogian, our
virtuoso violin teacher here
has done the Mendelssohn Violin
Concerto with the band.
* *
Here's a great internationally
known virtuoso playing
the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto
at a pep band concert.
I remember seeing it
on public television.
One of the great memories I have
is Vartan plays this thing
and he gets a standing ovation.
* *
( cheers and applause )
That's a memory I really have
that's very strong.
That feeling that we got to them
with Mendelssohn
and those same people
in another ten minutes are going
to be doing the chicken dance.
You survey the crowd and there
are these guys with big bellies,
cowboy hats, clapping feverishly
for the Mendelssohn Violin
Concerto and I thought
that's really what music
is supposed to do.
It's fun for us
and I think the performers
get a big kick out of it.
The one concert that I felt
as emotional about as anything
was the Farewell
to the Field House concert.
That was a very emotional time.
* *
>> This is the University
of Wisconsin Band.
( cheersand applause )
It's what I like to think of as
the UCLA Band's worst nightmare.
( laughterand applause )
>> The year we won
the Rose Bowl, that was very
special because first of all
we never thought we'd make it
and that was the first year that
we had to go to the three nights
because we had added
the second night, but after
the Rose Bowl there was such
a pro-Wisconsin feeling that
the demand for our
tickets was so high, we thought
we'd add the third night.
It's become a good thing for us.
>> When I was an undergrad here
the football team was not
very good and the big cry
among the student section
at that time was,
"We came to see the band."
The student section didn't start
to fill up until the end
of the third quarter.
Students would buy
their student section tickets
just to go to the fifth quarter.
* *
>> Tequila!
>> But folks, folks this
is the fifth quarter.
You don't sit
during the fifth quarter.
>> The fifth quarter really
didn't get started until 1978.
The concert is older
than the fifth quarter.
>> Now there's two parts
to this.
You've got to get your hands
in the air like this.
Now everybody, no slackers here.
And then the hard part
is da da da da da da da.
( audience tries
to mimic Leckrone )
I want to see you do that part.
Now we're going to do it again.
One, two, one, two, three, four.
* *
( band playing "Tequila" )
>> Tequila!
>> That's more like it!
>> We've added a lot of things
that I call perennials.
Things that are there
every year, but the audience
just won't let us not do.
We couldn't do a show
without doing the chicken dance.
* *
( cheers and applause )
>> Are you warmed up yet?
All right,
let's go a little faster now.
* *
( cheers and applause )
* *
>> It started about 1972
at a hockey game,
some fans behind us
where the band sits
kept hollering for a polka.
We didn't have a polka
in the book at all.
We didn't have a thing
that even resembled a polka
and we did happen to have this
jingle which is called
"You've Said it All."
I told the band to play it
as close to a polka as they can.
* *
>> When you say Wisconsin,
you've said it all!
>> It really caught on the most
at the hockey tournament
in Boston in 1973 and that was
a mad mad time when Wisconsin
won the National Championship
and from that point
anything we did was a tradition.
* *
>> When you say Wisconsin,
you've said it all!
( cheers and applause )
>> We have several students
who are offspring of kids
that I had in the first few
bands that I had.
* *
>> I think it was the last
concert in the Field House,
I got to perform in that.
A few of us old Alumni
band members that Mike had
dress up in old band uniforms
from eras gone back.
We actually marched across the
stage playing "On Wisconsin."
* *
( band playing "On Wisconsin" )
>> In '94 I had the opportunity
to go with my parents
to the Rose Bowl
and got to see the band
do the Rose Bowl Parade.
When I was in the stands I said,
"That would be a dream come true
to be able to march
in the Rose Bowl Parade."
That really clinched my decision
as far as what college
I wanted to go to
and I decided to come here
and try out for the band.
Sure enough,
my last year in band
I got to march
in the Rose Bowl Parade.
It was great.
It was a dream come true.
* *
>> Happy New Year!
>> Well, I was just glad
that Mike and the band decided
to take women in back in '74
or '75 so that my daughter
could have the opportunity
to be in the band.
* *
>> The other thing that's been
really interesting over
the years is to see the number
of marriages that actually
have been begun in the band.
We have probably 50 or 60
couples that I can think of
that met in the band
and subsequently got married.
* *
>> I was a freshman
Mike's first year.
>> Bill was actually
a field assistant
when I was still marching
and then we ended up dating.
>> We're a drummer-saxophone
couple and my best friend
Tracy married a drummer
and then another saxophone,
Emily, married a drummer.
>> She was a section leader in
the tubas and she was my boss.
We were both tuba players.
>> Yep, people tease us about
being the first tuba marriage.
>> Which was because
she was the first tuba player
who was female.
>> I would say in the 18 years
I've been with the Band,
a lot of the moments
of happiness in my life
have come from the friends
that I've made through band
and the people that
I've gotten to know and I've had
some really good experiences
that I would never have had.
I wouldn't have gotten married.
At least not to Michael.
>> Never, anyone.
>> A lot of experiences
that I've had in band were--
I just wouldn't have had
that opportunity
with a different group
or somewhere else.
>> The first time we did
Phantom of the Opera,
that was pretty exciting because
it was a bigger production,
a little more musical
and it was very long.
>> Mike had a vision for
what he wanted.
* *
>> I started paying a lot more
attention to production things,
going to concerts,
Broadway shows with
the production aspect in mind.
What did they do
to get this effect.
* *
At the end of the show,
in Broadway they call it
the "eleven o'clock number."
It's the climax of the show
and it's usually somewhere
within five or ten minutes
of the end of the show and we
always try to hit that moment.
( fireworks )
* *
>> The camaraderie,
the esprit de corps,
trying to be the best--
it goes back to Leckrone.
Mike Leckrone is the man.
He is the one person who's
doing the perfect job
for the perfect person
in the perfect place
at the perfect time.
Not many people can say that
in their lives.
>> He's been doing that job
for 30 plus years.
* *
( cheers and applause )
>> We close
as we'll always close,
if I have anything
to say about it, with a medley
of Wisconsin songs.
We think we belong
to a great university.
We're going to play for you
some traditional songs.
If you know the words,
sing along with us.
We hope everyone here tonight's
a Badger fan.
( cheers )
These are
"Songs to Thee, Wisconsin."
* *
>> Being here,
this was a realization
of a childhood sort of a dream.
My dad was a band director.
I wanted to be a band director.
My feeling then,
as it is now,
is that the Big Ten bands
are the greatest college bands
in the world.
To be a part of that, I think,
has been a realization
of a dream.
* *
( cheers and applause )
>> In a big school like Madison
you have to belong somewhere or
else you get lost in the crowd.
The band became a family for us,
I think, and for so many
of the other people there.
It's a place where you belong,
where you connected.
Where you could easily make
friends and you stay with that
for the rest of your life.
* *
>> Sing!
* * Varsity
* Varsity
* U rah rah Wisconsin
* Praise to thee we sing
* Praise to thee
our Alma Mater
* U rah rah
Wisconsin * *
>> U rah rah
Wisconsin!
U rah rah
Wisconsin!
U rah rah
Wisconsin!
( cheers and applause )
>> Thank you for coming.
You have made our year by your
presence here tonight and
the reception you've given us.
We can't thank you enough.
I want you to know these
are terrific kids behind me.
( cheers and applause )
>> The band is special because
the product we put out was
so much more creative than
any other band in the Big Ten,
the musicality, the arranging,
the animation
and the interaction
with the crowd.
You don't find that
in any other Big Ten band
and that's the special part
because we all knew that this
program was found nowhere else
and that's why
everybody keeps coming back.
* *
( fireworks )
>> We never say goodbye,
but tonight we will say goodbye.
>> The band has heard me say it
countless times
and other people have heard me.
"I want to do something that no
other college band could do."
I want this to be something that
nobody else could do
or even attempt to do.
>> Where ever it is,
we'll see you real soon
and On Wisconsin.
* *
( cheers and applause )
* *
* * O Lord it's hard
to be humble
* When you're perfect
in every way
* I can't wait to look
in the mirror
* I get better looking each day
* To know us is to love us
* We must be a hell of a band
* O Lord it's hard to be humble
* But we're doing
the best that we can * *