Star did not tour in the summer of 1999 since the staff was devoting their time to making changes in preparation for a winter season. New material was being explored that would attract audiences that would be paying up to $50.00 per ticket. This was no easy task, but it became obvious that the show would have additional entertainment value and so a new name for the show was selected: Blast!.

During the summer of 1999, Jim Mason, Donnie Van Doren, Jim Moore, and Thom Hannum held cast interviews and tryouts. Over 500 musicians and color guard performers applied for the seventy positions. These caption heads had to find members who had professional quality talent and also the stamina to complete two hours of music, movement, and dance.

Jim Moore, choreographer, recruited the best color guard people who could spend a year rehearsing and performing with Star. Jim Prime was arranging new music, while John Vanderkoff and Jim Moore were choreographing and staging the new Blast!.

The visual ensemble moved into the corps hall the first of July, 1999, followed by brass and percussion sections the latter part of August. The rehearsal time was frantic and the months whirled by.

In the middle of November, the corps headed for London. The logistics that Mason and others faced were awful.

For example, every corps member had to have a British work permit, which was a Herculean task; English immigration made certain that foreigners did not replace citizens in the work place. Even in October, we did not have a theater under contract, and when a contract for the Apollo (Hammersmith) Theater arrived, it was a formidable tome. Like most legal documents, it presented a mountain of hurdles to overcome.

Next, Jim Mason had to find apartments for every corps member; British housing is very, very tight, not to mention expensive.

Originally, American Airlines was to be the air travel sponsor for the flights overseas and back. At the last moment they backed out of their commitment. Fortunately, Virgin Airlines had some very attractive airfares and another crisis was avoided.

Because someone other than a Star staff person selected the housing, several apartments were unsuitable for the 6 to 8 corps members to live in. Within hours before the corps arrived at Heathrow Airport, the last apartment needed for the show's run was selected and leased.

Rehearsals were to start in London by mid-November but Mason could not find a suitable place to rehearse a cast of seventy musicians and dancers. Finally a lodge hall was found, again on the day that the corps arrived.

During the week just before the first performance on December 14, the corps rehearsed in the Apollo Theater itself. We didn't even have the costumes (called "boiler suits" in England) until final rehearsals began. Hugh Vanderstone, the English costume designer, had a hell-of-a-time finding and fitting the simple coveralls and shirts that the corps was to wear. On opening night, some of the costumes were still not fitted but somehow everyone avoided killing themselves on pant legs that were too long.

Also on opening night, the lighting and sound designers were at the panic stage. Lights, ceiling drops, and sound equipment still needed to be re-positioned, hung, or computerized. None of the audio or lighting boards had their final programs. What a mess!

But someway, somehow the show opened and at the end, the crowd rose in mass for a standing ovation. Standing ovations are very unusual in England. When we attended Lion King one night, the audience only clapped for the performance-there was no standing "0". Of course, our show was rigged-no audience can resist going crazy when the last salvo of Malaguena is played. Jim Prime's arrangement of Malaguena is an unbelievable closure to a superb show. The sound and lighting engineers worked wonders with the microphones. Sound control was very difficult because some members of the cast are miked while others are not.

Blast! during January, February, and two weeks in March 2000 had reasonable sales but the theater was never completely filled. During the last days of March, our luck changed. The cast gave fifteen-minute performances on two popular BBC television shows. During the next week after the telecasts, the ticket phones rang off the hooks. Star of Indiana and Blast! had finally made the big time.

My first time to see Blast! was December 14; by that time the corps had adjusted to the new environment and the show content. While the performances were not perfect, they were close enough to be called professional, and the reviews were good. I returned to London three more times after the opening and the improvements were amazing.

There were times that Jim Mason and I would have given up but each time we hit a downer, some positive event kept us going. For example, ticket sales were dropping slowly until the public saw Blast! on the BBC. In late January, we even talked about closing the show and going home but the enthusiasm of the cast kept us going. They probably never realized that they were our strength during a period when financial losses were mounting and advertising had run out. During this bleak period, however, media critics were giving us rave reviews.

After twenty-two weeks the theater contract was complete and a new show was moving in. Star had to come home, with ticket sales booming and knowing that they had succeeded beyond any expectation.

On April 22, the final Blast! show was performed. It was fantastic. The cast moved up tempos and put all of their hearts into one last effort. The audience stayed for an hour afterward listening to the corps play selections of Blast! outside the theater. The cast members and the audience were having a final love affair - it was a true happening. So, we gave the members a week to tour England and Europe. After the 22-week run, they deserved the opportunity to relax and sightsee.

Theatre personnel told me that the cast was the most disciplined, punctual, hardworking, and cooperative group they had worked with. During the show run, I might mention that many of the members and even entire ensembles took their days off to visit and work with drum corps in England. A lot of British corps members came to see Blast; some attended over and over; some members of the audience loved the show so much that they returned ten or twelve times.

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