The Phantom Regiment

Since marching band season is over right now at Kennedy I haven’t had much to say about band. Due to this, I have decided to feature some professional marching bands, also known as drum and bungle corps. The Phantom Regiment is a very prominent drum corp located in Rockford, Illinois. Auditions for this prestigious group are going on now and during the summer they will travel around the United States to compete. The Phantom Regiment drum line is one of the best in the country and at one time was ranked 2nd in the world. I have a friend who plays the tenors that is auditioning for the Phantom Regiment and he has made the call backs so hopefully he will get in!

The pre-season is made up of several different camps instead of the simply one week band camp we have in high school. The first camp started on December 4th and ended on December 6th so it was pretty short. The object of this camp was to audition and try and secure a spot in the regiment. The second camp is scheduled for January 8th through January 10th. The third camp, later in the month, is scheduled from January 5th through the 7th. These camps continue throughout the months up until early May. At the end of May, the regiment travels to Texas to have major rehearsals as the performance season draws near. Throughout May and June the different sections of the regiment continue to prepare and rehearse for the season. Most of the people not rehearsing in Texas have their rehearsals/camps in Rockford, Illinois. The show season finally starts on June 21st when the regiment performs in Charleston, West Virginia. They have a total of about 31 shows throughout their competition season. They end the season with their last show in West Chester, Pennsylvania on August 8th. After this though, the season is not completely over because there are still the DCI World Championships to compete in.

The Phantom Regiment was originally under the name of the Rangers and their all girl color guard was therefore named the Rangerettes. This name did not last long though, and before their first competition they had changed it to the name that they still hold today, The Phantom Regiment. The all girl color guard became the Phantomettes. They started their career out as just average competitors. They were newly created and still had not established themselves yet. Unfortunately, around 1965 a fire wiped out the instruments and materials that were essential to the drum corp and they were forced to abandon the season due to a lack of money. The Phantom Regiment has made amazing advances since then and now they compete annually for the drum and bungle corps world championship.


Here is a performance of the pre show and opener of the 2008 show Spartacus.