Have you ever felt confined in a circumstance in which escaping seems impossible?
Or occurrences in which even your free will has been denied.
A maze, an addiction, in our rooms or even our own minds; to live life with complete freedom is ultimately impossible. Imprisonment even on a small scale is a normal occurrence in everyday life.
Black Knights 2012 will be celebrating their 20th anniversary in the Marching Arts and will be portraying this well-known but ultimately unspoken fear “Trapped”.
Our dedicated design team will be complimented with the addition of Andrew Markworth, Director Paul Richards commented “Having seen what Andrew has been writing for the UK corps over the past few years, I know we will be receiving a fantastic score that will really bring the percussion book together as a whole to allow us to continue our rapid development over the past 3 seasons. The group is very excited to hear the arrangements Andrew and Joe Rodwell create for us”
Saturday 8th Jan at 2.00 at the BK HQ
AGM Agenda
1.Welcome
2.Corps Directors Report
3.Treasurers Report
4.Standing Down and Election of Trustees
a.Standing Down; Steve Muzio, Donna Easter, and Gary Wooldridge
b.Standing for Re-election/Election:
i.Steve Muzio (Nominated by Donna Easter and 2nd by Lucy Philips)
ii.Donna Easter (Nominated by Paul Richards and 2nd by Lucy Philips)
iii.Gary Wooldridge (Nominated by Helen Taylor and 2nd by Jim Easter)
iv.Jim Easter (Nominated by Steve Muzio and 2nd by Donna Easter)
v.Vicky Richards (Nominated by Donna Easter and 2nd by Steve Muzio)
5.Changes to Constitution
a. 4.c “The financial year to be 1st December to following 30th November.”
Change to: “The financial year to be 1st January to the following 31st December.”
Rational:
Proposed by Helen Taylor (Treasurer). Easier to manage the accounts when there is an obvious point for the start and end of the year.
b. 3.c “The Board of Trustees will elect from their number, a Chairman, Treasurer and Secretary. The Board may elect a President.”
Change to: “The Board of Trustees will elect from their number, a Chairperson, Treasurer and Secretary. The Board may elect a President.”
Rational:
Proposed by Steve Muzio. To make the role sound open to all and not be biased towards gender.
6.AOB
Black Knights 2011 Staff Announcement
Black Knights are pleased to announce the return of all 2010 staff for the following season. After such an improvement last year, there are certainly exciting times ahead for the group and the staff are very keen to continue to push up the rankings both at home and abroad.
Black Knights 2011 Staff Team
Show Co-ordinator- Steve Blakeley
We could also like to welcome our new staff for 2011:
Chris Law – Visual Caption Head
Christian Daly – Percussion Caption Head
Craig Walker – Brass Staff
Sarah Gledhill- Guard Staff
Denni Hawke – Guard Staff
Creative Team:
Joe Rodwell – Brass/Pit arranger
Andy Cartwright – Battery arranger
Matt Powell – Guard writer
Chris Law & Paul Brakewell – Visual designers
Dave Harrison – Overall Music Co-ordinator
Instructional Staff:
Percussion Caption Head: Christian Daly Staff: Dave Harrison (Front Ensemble), Vicky Richards (Front Ensemble) & Jason Hawke (Battery)
Brass Caption Head:Steve Blakeley Staff: Craig Walker & Rob Fry
Guard Caption Head: Matt Powell Staff: Sarah Gledhill & Denni Hawke
Visual Caption Head: Chris Law Staff: Rob Fry & Craig Venables
Black Knights 2011 production, Knights, Camera, Action
In 2011, the Black Knights will be celebrating their 20th anniversary in competition and once again be looking to entertain the masses, bringing well-known popular music to the field, with an exciting visual package to match.
Part One - The Red Carpet
Welcome to the glitz and glamour of the celebrity world, seeing the highs and lows of our renowned celebs, from the red carpets to the paparazzi following. Part Two - Celebration
We now enter into the world of celebrations. The drinks are flowing the club is packed; everyone is out with their camera's capturing magical moments to look back on. Black Knights intend to get the party started and get the audience partying on down to the beat of the music. Part Three - Family Reunion
One of Black Knights greatest strengths is the solidarity and friendships throughout the organisation. As a corps, we are one big family, so to demonstrate that on the field will be something quite special. Family reunions are brimming with emotions for us to embrace, with a touching piece of music to match. Part 4 - The Watched
Black Knights end their production looking into the ever-growing world of CCTV and security surveillance. We cannot escape from it, so can we embrace it? This is going to be a fast paced finish to the 2011 production, exploring the new age electronic era that we live.
Black Knights perform on "Don't Stop Believing"
6 members of the Black Knights percussion section were lucky enough to perform on Channel 5's Don't Stop Believing, working with Choir Group "Jacobs Street" on 1st August.
Black Knights have had a variety of performance opportunities over the pass 5 years, but this was to be their first "LIVE" television performance.
It also proved to be a great opportunity for the relatively new section to bond the night before, as they finalised their performance.
The drummers met Emma Bunton, as well as a host of other performers during the days filming and even had the luxury of their oen runner and dressing room.
MJ centre snare for the Black Knights commented:
"This was an amazing experience for the members of the Black Knight's drumline. It was great being able to work on a live TV production. It bought us closer together as a section and was nice to represent the Black Knights in aprofessional capacity, receiving nothing but positive comments from the production team about our professionalism, our uniform and our ability to have a good laugh whilst not losing focus on the end goal"
This is not the only television work that the Black Knights have been fortunate to be involved in during 2010......Watch this space.....More exciting news to follow.
DCE - Drum Corps European Finals
The members of Black Knights brought the crowd to their feet with an amazing performance of their 2010 production 4motion last night at the European Drum Corps Finals in Kerkrade, Holland.
The corps, who went into finals in 6th, pulled out their best performance of the season which resulted in them overtaking previous European Champions Beatrix and taking 5th place overall.
The corps have worked their butts off all season, statistically being the most improved corps in Europe from the first show, scoring 54.85, to last show and this trend continued right through to the Euro finals. Their finals score of 82.05 is almost 10 points higher than their previous high score from their DCUK championship winning show in 2006.
Corps Director Paul Richards commented after retreat, “The result is a fitting end to an amazing season at Black Knights. The atmosphere within the members and staff of the corps is something really incredible and I think that is the thing that everyone will take away from this season. It has been a pleasure to lead this group through 2010 and I look forward to more of the same in 2011”
So the “Dark Horse” is back in the stable for another winter but with new staff lined up and various enquiries already coming in from all over about membership we can be sure that the beast will be unleashed bigger and better for 2011
Black Knights join forces with Evans Drumheads (15.07.2010)
Black Knights are proud to announce a new partnership with Evans drumheads from 2010.
Evans offers the perfect heads for use in the Drum Corps activity, a crisp sound and outstanding durability.
Their skins are used by high profile corps across the world and “This re-enforces our continuous commitment to bringing quality equipment to the Black Knights membership, it’s great to be able to offer high performance heads to add to what is shaping up to be a great show” Black Knights Percussion Caption Head, Vicky Richards
Thanks must go to Jason Hawke, who has been working hard the past few weeks negotiating a deal that meets the needs of both organisations.
“Evans drumheads are proud to be associated with the Black Knights Corps and to support its activities”
Simon Turnball of Daddario Ltd
New Corps Director (16.01.2010)
Paul Richards takes over as Corps Director
The Black Knights recently appointed a New Corps Director at an EGM called on 16th January. Paul Richards is the latest person to take on the role of Corps Director. Paul joined the Black Knights Cadets back in 1995 and worked his way up to the Senior Corps in 1997. He has been a key member of staff for the Cadets for a number of years and in recent years he has taken on the role as instructor and coordinator of the Senior Corps.
The opportunity for Paul to take the lead with Black Knights came after Rus Rogers decided to step down from his position. Rus will still be involved in the organisation but felt he could not commit the time required in order to move the Corps forward at the pace required.
Steve Muzio will be assisting Paul with the day to day running of the organisation. This will help Paul focus on the future direction of the Black Knights, giving him time to develop links with other locally based charities.
BK’s Got Talent! (10.01.2010) Black Knights are successful in their audition for Britain’s Got Talent
Sunday 22nd November 2009 saw the launch of the Black Knights Brass Theatre Project, and what better place than to launch than at the auditions for a nationally televised talent show?!
The members of the group which consists of 11 brass and 1 percussionist, travelled to the Business Design Centre in Islington for the preliminary auditions for Britains Got Talent.
Rus Rogers commented, “We are very proud to be representing not just Black Knights, but the whole of the Drumcorps activity at this event. We are confident that the producers of the show will not see anything similar to our act”.
The Black Knights recently received news that they were successful in their first audition and are through to the next round. The group will now be performing on stage and in front of an audience of thousands as well as judges, Piers Morgan, Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell at a theatre in London at the beginning of February.
The group will be looking to develop further performance opportunities in the new-year and updates will be posted on the Black Knights website.
Be sure to keep an eye out for the Black Knights Brass Theatre group on TV during the audition stages. Updates on the BK Brass Theatre group will be posted regularly on the Black Knights website.
Another successful fundraising Christmas Period (December 2009)
Throughout December a number of members of the Black Knights were out in various locations playing Christmas carols to raise money for the organisation. Thanks to their efforts over £2000 was raised. A fantastic achievement! This will go a long way to purchasing new equipment for the membership of Black Knights.
Throughout December the Black Knights could be seen performing at Marks & Spencer in Bluewater, Dartford Orchard Shopping Centre, and outside Woodville Halls..
Many thanks to all the members who gave up their time to perform on each occasion.
The Black Knights would like to say a big thank you to all the supermarkets and Shopping Centre’s for allowing them to perform at their venues throughout December.
Further fundraising will be happening throughout 2010. Any support given by the current membership and alumni is always appreciated.
Black Knights 2010 production, 4motion (November 2009)
Over recent years, Black Knights have built a reputation of presenting crowd-pleasing productions, often receiving standing ovations from audiences in both the UK and Europe.
“Having fun and letting the audience in were essential elements we wanted to include in our choice for a production for 2010”, commented corps director Rus Rogers.
“Many people forget that Drum Corps is a form of entertainment. We are serious about improving our performances as a Drum Corps year on year but we must never lose sight that we do this because it is fun and we love it. An audience pay to be entertained, not challenged”
Throughout the years Black Knights have performed several different styles of music, from Broadway to Rock and varying styles in between. 4motion will celebrate the corps diversity, as they will perform music from 4 popular and contrasting genres, those being Classical, Latin, Jazz and Rock. Visit the BK 2010 page for more info.
