1996

CCC Collegians bound for Olympics As the Olympic torch makes !s \'iay to the United States and • rough Mississippi for the entennial Olympic Celebra– n, the East Central Commun– :y College Collegians will fol- a strong group I had, I decided to send in a tape. I never expected to be selected," Car– son said.

director. "I take for granted we get picked for things. In my mind, we're going to perform in Atlanta. I keep reminding myself when I see a 1V com– mercial that this is the Olymp– ics. It's a big deal, because obvi– ously if the games '' ere in _Hong Kong, we wouldn't be going. We are fortuna te the games are in the United States." Last fall, Carson received a

letter from the city of Atlanta encourag·~. g college bands across • e U.S. to submit audi– tion tapes for an Olympic per– formance. The bands would be selected by a committee of col– lege and university band direc– tors from the Atlanta metropo– litan area.

As the Top 40 rock ' n' roll band prepared fo r thei r November concert on the ECCC campus, thoughts of a possible Olympic performance were los in the shuffle.

w to that same destination as . gear up to perform at the 9~tt summer games in Atlanta. 'TI:e Collegians have per- rmed so many places," said mas W. Carson, Collegians

"I responded with 'I've got too much else to do.' But when the fall got here and I saw what See CoUegians

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convention of the official honor society for two-year colleges. The Collegians will be the only group to perform as the fea– tured entertainment for awards night at the convention. Other invitations on their schedule for this year include another appearance at Disney World and performances at Universal Studios in Florida and at Opryland.

July 22 and July 31. Possible performance s ites include Olympic Stadium Plaza and the Martin Luther King Peace Memorial Plaza. The Collegians' audition vid– eotape may have been unique because it featured footage from one of their campus con– certs. The judges not only heard a variety of upbeat songs, but also saw a light show and flashy costumes. "1 put several songs on the tape like 'Old Time Rock ' n' Roll', which everybody knows, and a country song, a fa st– paced song and a slow ballad," Carson said. "I really wanted the selection committee to see that no matter what type of music people like, we're going to do something that appeals to everybody." The Collegians also will be performing at the Phi . Theta Kappa International Conven– tion in Washington D.C. April 17-22. Approximately 5,000 col– lege students will attend the

"Knowing band directors, especially college band direc– tors, I thought they would look at us and say we're not a band group because of the singers, flashy costumes and every– thing," Carson said. "Then low and behold, on November 14 I get the notification ... that we're going to the Olympics." Carson said the Collegians differ from other concert bands in the variety of music they play. Their songs range from pop and rock to oldies and country. "Our music appeals to gener– al audiences so someone from Brazil might recognize one of our songs from the radio," Car– son said. "We've had people from other countries come up to us at Six Flags and Disney World thinking we were the actual group performing a song from the radio." The Collegians will perform one or two shows on a desig– nated day sometime between

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