Canadian Confusion
In September 1966 the Edmonton All-Girl Drum and Bugle Band was founded by Mr. Bob Nagel in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. By the end of 1969 Mr. Nagel and the board of directors had a falling-out, and Mr. Nagel departed the organization.
In 1970, Mr. Nagel started another corps, this time without a board of directors to answer to. Mr. Nagel named the corps: The Alberta All-Girl Drum and Bugle Band. The corps he started in 1966 (and that was still going) had claimed “Edmonton” as their home town. His new corps claimed all of “Alberta” as their home turf.
There you go. Two all-girl corps in the same area, with similar names, with similar uniforms (down to the pom-poms on their boots), both traveled to Europe, and both founded by the same guy. A recipe for confusion.
The original “Edmonton” All-Girl D&BB ran from September 1966 through the end of 2000. I would describe their uniforms as Battle jackets over short white pleated skirts and traditional shakos. In 1975 they changed their name to: Edmonton All-Girl Marching Ambassadors. End of confusion.
The second “Alberta” All-Girl D&BB ran from 1970 through June of 1977. Their uniforms also started out as battle jackets over short skirts. By the late 70s they wore one-piece short white dresses (think mod flight attendant dress) with furry shakos. The shakos look like “lodge hats” or Buckingham Palace guard hats (bearskins).
It could be argued that maybe one or both of these corps were not actually drum corps by the American definition. We did march against the “Alberta” corps in the early 1970s. We never marched against the “Edmonton” corps. Either way you can’t tell the story of one without telling the story of the other.
August 2021 Update: Drum Corps World has an excellent article on Bob Nagel’s contribution to drum corps. Below is a link to that article.
https://www.drumcorpsworld.com/publications/2021/august/#page=62
