UC Davis California Aggie Marching Band-uh!

The California Aggie Marching Band-uh! is the official UC Davis marching band. The band, which has roughly 200 members, plays at both home and away games to cheer on the UC Davis Aggies sports teams, as well as participating in parades.

The original UC Davis marching band dates back to 1922, when E. H. Barger of the school's veterinary science department formed an 18-member group. But that band disbanded after interest waned.

The current incarnation of the band was formed in 1929, when the university was approximately 20 years old, as a pep band for the home football games. There were 15 original members, all male. The first female members joined within two years. In the 1960s, the student body voted to exclude women from the Band-uh!, allegedly to give the band a rowdier, more masculine spirit. During the women's rights movement in the early 1970s, pressure mounted to reopen the band to women, in part to comply with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. By 1973, the Band-uh! once again had female members.

The Band-uh! had long been known for its wild, raunchy, and occasionally obscene antics. It was reprimanded several times in the 1970's. In 1992 the band was put on probation after a sexual harassment charge was made against the student director. In 2008, the staff director of the band, who is not a student, filed a sexual harassment complaint to the university after several incidents involving the removal of shirts, offensive language and gestures, and lewd behavior. [Williams, L. [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/06/MNM7135E1B.DTL Director files complaint about UC Davis band] . "San Francisco Chronicle". October 6, 2008.] As of October, 2008, he is on a "leave of absence because of all the band stress." [Gianulius, K. [http://cbs13.com/local/UCD.Marching.Band.2.834064.html UC Davis Marching Band Accused of Harrassment] . CBS13.com October 6, 2008.]

The band members show up for their engagements in either their formal blue and gold marching uniforms, or their more casual white shirt, blue jeans, and button-laden floppy hat outfits, known as the Mav'rik Band uniform. Recently the band added a more formal version of its mav'rik uniform for athletics-sponsored events (replacing the white collared shirts with white track jackets featuring the current UCD "c horse" logo). This alternate uniform is referred to as Athletics Mav'rik.

The Band-uh! has released two compact discs of its music, "Barn Party" in 1998 and "Noise Violation" in 2002. The band's catalog is composed of its marching songs, such as the "Aggie Fight" song, as well as renditions of popular rock songs such as Green Day's "Welcome to Paradise", Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein", and Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit", among others.

The announcement used to present the Band-uh! at every Aggie home game is usually as follows, with occasional minor variations:

"Fast, furious, and foaming at the mouth,""Bold, blue, and bitchin',"
"It's the pride of the Regents of the University of California,"
"The spirit of the Davis Campus,"
"The California Aggie Marching Band-uh!"

References

External links

* [http://camb.ucdavis.edu/camb/ Cal Aggie Marching Band-uh!]
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