The band performs.
Just when he thought he wasn’t going to be able to see a show by Old Crow Medicine Show, a band he has followed for about two years, he received a personal invitation from the group’s guitjo player, Kevin Hayes.
It was set up by Fromal’s friend, Brandon Williams, whose father was one of the volunteer stagehands for the Thursday night performance at the Roanoke Rapids Theatre.
“I was outside with Kevin and I asked him if he could do me favor and call my best friend,” Williams said following the performance.
Hayes obliged and Williams told Fromal he had an OCMS member waiting to talk to him.
“I got a call and was hesitant,” said Fromal. “I though he (Williams) was calling to rub it in he was at Old Crow Medicine Show.”
When Williams handed the phone to Hayes, the band member asked him why he wasn’t at the show.
Ticket prices and the fact it was a school night were the reason, said Fromal, who said he was excited and surprised to hear from one of the band members. “I think God just wanted me to be here.”
One of the band’s top songs, Wagon Wheel, was playing in his MP3 player about 5 minutes after sitting down for dinner, Fromal said.
Joked OCMS member Ketch Secor, “I think he inhaled his dinner in 10 seconds.”
“He called me and asked me to come to the show,” said Fromal.
Hayes said he was glad to do it. “If you can’t afford to come to the show, all you have to do is show up. It’s a good thing that we can help the youth out so they don’t get their heads corrupted by the popular music of today.”
During the show, which Secor mentioned Roanoke Rapids and Weldon several times, including places they toured with members of the city’s police department, the band played many songs which had not been released.
They included two Veterans Day tributes, including an unreleased number about a man from Galax, Virginia.
Near the end of the two part performance, Secor bid the audience members to get up and many came to the front of the theater to dance, take photos and sing along with the band.
Ketch Secor bids the audience farewell.
For Fromal, the show not only met his expectations, “It passed my expectations.”
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http://rrspin.com/News-from-Roanoke-Rapids-Weldon-and-Halifax-County/Council-approves-theater-contract-draft.html
"Under the contract the city will receive a facility fee of $2 per ticket and $2,000 per day where the stage or auditorium is used. The contract also includes a schedule of revenues the city will receive from rentals of other parts of the venue and all parking fees will be collected and paid to the city."
The city doesn't want the taxpayers to know the full extent of the financial hole they've dug for us, that much is clear. I called the town this morning to try to get some answers, and was pretty much stonewalled. I'm going to try filing a Freedom of Information request and see where that goes. From the evasive answers I received, it sounds like this last effort just put us deeper in debt.
So RRSpin, do you think that you can get them? Unbiased please.
-The city is in the theatre business and has not made any contact with professional theatre operators for consultation (there are companies out there that do that).
- An RFQ was made and a contract was awarded, but the public has no idea what the contract says or what the city gets out of it.
- Based on the limited information about the contract, but in line with the RFQ, the current management is not fulfilling their end of the arrangement. You know, two shows a month, etc.
- The only information about the latest show is based on opinion. Shouldn’t the city have that information already? Isn’t that public information? Aren’t there news sources in RR that would get that information to the people?
The RR Theatre can be a success. But it needs a professional staff, including a talent buyer/in-house promoter to bring in 150 shows per year, a PR person to promote the shows, and an operating budget to secure talent and advertise.
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