December 16, 2004

Queen travels with Purdue Band to the Sun Bowl

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Look for Queen, complete with a crown, to accompany the Purdue "All-American" Marching Band to the Sun Bowl for the Boilermakers battle with Arizona State on New Year's Eve Day.

It won't be members of the British royal family, however, but a glittery band show devoted to British rock royalty – the 1970s group Queen known for its devotion to the excess of the decade and its use of camp and bombast to create huge mock-operatic sounds.

Purdue's bowl fortunes were reenergized during the Nov. 13 Ohio State game where the band premiered its Queen show at halftime. One of the show's highlights was a rendition of "We Are The Champions" coupled with a field formation of a trophy with a No. 1 inscribed on it.

Not only did the band members consider the show, designed by assistant professor Pamela Nave, their favorite of the season, it seemed lucky because the win propelled Purdue to its eighth straight bowl game.

At bowl games, college bands provide the essential service of transporting school traditions to faraway sites – traditions like the "Block P" and "I Am An American" for Purdue – and also are called upon to add to the hoopla of the special occasion. The "All-American" Band's Queen show promises to meet those demands by energizing and entertaining the crowd.

To let Sun Bowl fans see the show in its entirety, the "All-American" Band will perform prior to the Purdue-Arizona State game rather than at halftime.

"'We Are The Champions' will be a prelude to a Boilermaker victory," predicts senior alto sax player Ben Angelo, of Kankakee, Ill.

Senior flag corps co-captain Amy Duckworth, of Indianapolis, looks forward to seeing reactions from the bowl fans.

"I love that this show is a crowd pleaser," Duckworth says. "When we performed it at Ross-Ade, the students sang along with the band."

Senior drummer Andy Wiseman, of Camby, Ind., says, "I think the fans will enjoy it because it's a chance to hear good rock music in a different style. They'll hear music they love and see a marching band rocking out to it and banging their heads. Now that's a cool experience."

Putting such well-known Queen songs on the field as "Bohemian Rhapsody," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "We Are The Champions" was something Nave had been looking forward to for a long time.

"It's just great music, very melodic and powerful," she says.

The thought that Queen had the potential to be chosen for the bowl show danced around in Nave's mind as she designed it, and the thought pushed her to try different things.

All kinds of challenges presented themselves, but arranger John Wasson solved one of the hardest by condensing the complex and rambling 12-minute "Bohemian Rhapsody."

"He got the whole essence of the tune in two minutes and did a super job," Nave says.

Then Nave took over, researching ideas for the designs the 340-member band would create on the field while playing Queen's music.

"I looked up all their album covers. (For starters) I chose a crown because that's their logo, the flames from an album cover, and the trophy for 'We Are The Champions' was a no-brainer," she says.

The flickering flames, from Queen's "A Night at the Opera" album "look the hardest to create but they were actually the easiest. Making the crown work was the hardest. I wanted to get the exact shape to be as authentic as possible," she says.

Marching band directors use a computer program called DrillQuest to create designs, but it couldn't deal with the arcs. So Nave had to sketch the arcs out on paper and place each of the 340 band members in the design.

"To get the right amount of people in each arc, I had to put each person in an arc individually," she says.

If all that isn't enough to worry about, Nave also considered the placement of various sections of instruments within the design. Placed in the proper relationship, "it makes the sound loud and big, and I wanted the sound to be really, really good," she says.

With a Queen show there also has to be some craziness involved, so Nave encouraged some head banging and choreographed lots of horn pops during "Bohemian Rhapsody."

The "All-American" Band practiced to perfect their show during the final weeks of Purdue's fall semester, and will rehearse several times in El Paso before presenting the show at the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31. For halftime that day, the band will present a short show dominated by Purdue traditions like "I Am An American."

As much as the students like the Queen show, presenting "I Am An American" is a moment that evokes special emotions.

"There is a rush that runs throughout my body and soul every time I hear Roy Johnson lead the crowd with 'I Am An American.' When the whole stadium cries it out, I get goose bumps and my eyes water a little. It is such a powerful feeling," says Big Bass Drum crew chief Ben Stengel, of Indianapolis.

"The 'I Am An American' has meant a lot to me ever since we performed it my freshman year, the week after 9/11," Duckworth says. "As I perform it at the Sun Bowl, I hope that everyone watching listens closely and thinks about the true meaning behind the words."

CONTACT: Kathy Matter, Purdue Bands public relations director, (765) 496-6785, kcmatter@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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