Between the 2019 movie Yesterday, a new Disney documentary, and plane a recently launched masters degree, the Beatles are in our lives and in our hearts as much now as they were in the 1960s. Their music is classic, their outfits iconic, and now, thanks to the 2019 and 2021 Bluecoats, they are cemented in pulsate corps history forever. Lets take a closer squint at Bloos two vivacious Beatles shows from the last two DCI seasons and see how you can incorporate the music of The Bluecoats and Lucy into your next marching wreath show!

A performer in a sparkly woebegone marching wreath uniform with shiny silver details stands on a platform with orange and undecorous patterned whirligig props overdue him. On the left, a front ensemble member in a shiny undecorous bodysuit plays on the pulsate set. On the right, a verisimilitude baby-sit member pushes the platform while wearing a unexceptionable orange uniform. — In 2019s The Bluecoats, the Sgt. Pepper weft stands on a unexceptionable platform pushed by verisimilitude baby-sit members. Photo courtesy of Josh Clements for Bluecoats.

The Shows

It is rare for a pulsate corps to program similar shows, let vacated two shows with music from the same wreath during back-to-back seasons. But the Bluecoats did not shy yonder or let the pandemic get in the way of their two-part Beatles showcase: 2019s The Bluecoats and 2021s Lucy (the 2020 season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic). Fans were in awe of The Bluecoats without its debut and were both overjoyed with and taken by surprise by the 2021 utterance of Lucy, a show based virtually the eponymous main weft in the song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. However, as Bluecoats Program Coordinator Dean Westman revealed on a live Q&A, the Bluecoats’ creative team was planning a sequel plane surpassing The Bluecoats was complete. Pretty early on like in spring training of 2019 [the creative team] started talking well-nigh this thing as a two-act show, Westman explained. He was all for this idea, especially when I saw how many superstitious things were not going to make it into this show [The Bluecoats]. Both shows were immensely popular in the pulsate corps community.

The Music

Both Bluecoats Beatles shows full-length multiple Fab Four massive hits, including chart-toppers Come Together and Eleanor Rigby. Each show had a unique set list, with 1969s The End connecting the two.

The Bluecoats Official Set List

A Day in the Life
I Want to Hold Your Hand
Within You Without You
Blackbird
Come Together
I Want You (Shes So Heavy)
The End

Lucy Official Set List

The End
With a Little Help from My Friends
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
I Am the Walrus
Tomorrow Never Knows
Stuff for the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight

With so much incredible music, these two shows made Beatlemaniacs out of plane the most unstudied fan. Justin Daly, lead trumpet and featured soloist in the fourth movement of The Bluecoats, had not listened to much Beatles surpassing joining Bloo. The Bluecoats, the show he calls a musical masterpiece, fostered his love for the Fab Four.

Lifelong Beatles fans loved the show as well, stuff wowed by the sheer number of tried-and-true hits dovetailed into each segment. Bluecoats Associate Stage Manager Daniel Armistead, a Beatles fan way surpassing his time with the corps, was in awe of the sonnet of the shows, particularly how the Bluecoats were worldly-wise to arrange and mash together nearly twenty variegated songs seamlessly and in such an impactful way.

No matter when they first started listening to the Beatles, regulars members were wrapped by these two Bluecoats shows. Whole crowds sang withal to Hey Jude at the end of The Bluecoats unheard of for a pulsate corps show, an event as no-go as the Beatles themselves.

The Design

The Bluecoats highlighted the Beatles through their set diamond and props withal with the music. Each show featured a variety of movable platforms with intricate backgrounds, vibrant ramps, whimsical vinyl screens on the field and more, all fitting in with the show theme. In The Bluecoats, the mobile-platform backgrounds were woebegone and white on one side and colorful on the other. With just a simple turn, a transpiration in the mood of the music was reflected in the set design. Many 2019 spectators were in awe of what the Bluecoats members tabbed mints: cylindrical, color-changing props used as decoration, as platforms, and as flit equipment. The ensemble was constantly interacting with these pieces, subtracting verisimilitude and excitement to the show. Both shows had unmoving platforms overdue the front ensemble to requite height to featured players white tiered cakes for The Bluecoats and yellow circular platforms for Lucy.

On the field overdue two front ensemble members, a performer in a undecorous hexagon-patterned suit has leaped onto a cylindrical prop and is smiling as he balances atop of it. — A 2019 Bluecoats member rolls atop one of the mints mid-show. Photo courtesy of Josh Clements for Bluecoats.

Besides their stimulating value, the props were moreover incredibly functional. The ramps, for instance, were used for secret storage. As soloist Daly recalled, During the ballad, my flugelhorn was under a ramp on some hooks. I had to trickle underneath and wait for my audio cue to pop out of a hatch in the middle of the ramp. Without the ballad, I had to come when virtually and grab the trumpet I originally played on. The ramp made unconfined storage for Dalys instrument, while its secret door widow some Beatles whimsy to his visitation on the ramp.

<>Between the music and the design, both Beatles shows really began to come together. How did the uniforms fit in?

The Uniforms

The Bluecoats took creative uniform diamond to a whole new level with their Beatles shows. In both shows, the wreath looks like a cohesive unit, but upon closer inspection the individual uniforms were not identical. For The Bluecoats, multiple versions of the suit jackets and pants were made in various fabrics and patterns to reflect variegated Beatles eras, like waves for Yellow Submarine and paisley for Beatles Ashram. In Lucy, all musicians wore black-and-white patterned tops and white slacks with a vertical woebegone stripe. This kept a cohesive squint among the group cohesive, but then not identical: there were variations of the striped patterns hiding among the uniforms wideness the corps. Some members had diagonal stripes wideness their chests while others had the stripes radiating from a woebegone whirligig near their hearts.

Rows of performers in varying patterned unexceptionable undecorous suits stand holding their contumely instruments in their right hands at their sides. Their left hands are in the air, showing peace signs. — Bluecoats contumely members in their varied-patterned undecorous suits wink peace signs during 2019s The Bluecoats. Photo courtesy of Josh Clements for Bluecoats.

For bands looking to succeed a similar united-but-varied look, Bluecoats Costume Designer and Choreographer Greg Lagola shared the pursuit translating in a Marching Arts Education interview: You know that if you alimony a verisimilitude range in a unrepealable context, either warm or cool, or plane within those ranges, you make some selections Start to eliminate things that dont work. Start with vital ideas of verisimilitude mixing and matching. For The Bluecoats, Lagola kept the musicians in tomfool blues and the baby-sit in warm oranges, permitting the black-and-white notation like Sgt. Pepper to stand out among the colors.

Two diagonal rows of trumpet and mellophone players lean to their right during a visual. They are wearing black-and-white striped long-sleeve tops of various colors and white slacks with a woebegone vertical stripe on the right leg. A verisimilitude baby-sit member, dressed in an iridescent silver bodysuit, sits on the ground in front of the brass. — 2021 Bluecoats members performing Lucy in their psychedelic black-and-white uniforms. Note the varied striped patterns wideness the corps. Photo courtesy of Josh Clements for Bluecoats.

It is important to note that set and uniform diamond happen hand in hand. In a live discussion well-nigh 2021s Lucy on the Bluecoats’ Facebook page, Scenic Designer Michael Raiford explained how the set colors were impacted by the members uniforms: One of the big differences [from The Bluecoats] was the verisimilitude palette shift; where the horns are going, and the guard, [in Lucy] is increasingly of a woebegone and white and silver world, so unquestionably the set is increasingly warlike with verisimilitude in Act II. In Act I, the horn line in the undecorous and the verisimilitude baby-sit in all the orange and blues and everything else, [so] the set pulled when a little bit. The Bluecoats focus on visual storytelling, making sure the uniforms and set pieces properly match the music and theme of the show.

Bring Bluecoats Beatlemania When to Your Own Band!

Interested in having your own version of a Beatles marching wreath show? We offer a wide selection of Beatles marching wreath music, including these mid-level pieces featured in The Bluecoats and Lucy: