About the Wild Bunch Drum & Fife Corps Basel

The corps was founded in 1986. We gave our first performance at the end of the 80's in Lugano, Switzerland, where an international muster took place. In July, 1992 we travelled for the first time, to the homeland of ancient fife & drum music and participated in the Deep River Ancient Muster in Connecticut. Over the years the corps has grown to 6 snares, 4 basses (3 for the moment - we "lost" one bass to our good friends, the Swiss Mariners), 16 fifes and 6 colour guards.

The name "Wild Bunch" will certainly sound familiar to American ears. During "Wild West" times, the Wild Bunch was a gang of outlaws led by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They earned their "living" with bank and train robberies. We of course, don't do that. At least - not yet !! It all depends on our treasurer.

Our "uniform" or costume is based on the clothing of the pioneers and settlers who lived during the rough times between 1830 and 1900. With our clothing, but mostly with our music, we try to show a little bit how this long ago time may have looked and sounded. If you want to see how wild we are, just join us in one of our food and drink parties.

We probably don't need to tell our American friends in music an spirit about the instruments we play, but there may be a few people reading this who are not ancient style musicians that could be interested anyway.