Promoting Shows In A Sleepy Northern Town!- Part One…..

Hey Folk’s! If you have been following my Blog  for a while you may have seen some concert reviews that have come through Thunder Bay. You will  have noticed the name of the facility that I have reviewed these shows is at an establishment called CROCKS!

Frank Lofreddo has worn the Promoters Hat for well over 3 decades here locally (bringing bands to Crocks) and if it wasn’t for Frank hundreds of bands would have just skipped or basically made a gas stop in Tbay and just kept trucking either to Eastern or Western Canada. Frank has seen it all man, and this is the guy that brought many bands for the first time here to our Sleepy Northern Town.

For myself and my Pal Tbone the one show that we can lay claim to is the first time The Tragically Hip rolled into Thunder Bay back in early 1988 for three shows at Crocks on which Frank has told me that attendance for the three shows totalled about 75 people! The night in which we attended(Saturday) granted there was a massive snowstorm I think there were about 15-20 peeps at Crocks..

I could list many more of them but I will let Frank tell ya at some point as I plan on getting inside the noggin of man who at one point of his life decided to bring Live Music to Tbay and continues to do so today!

Here’s Franks Words from FaceCrack a few days ago! ( I told Frank I’m going to make  this a feature at this site as he’s got a few good stories to tell! haha)

Take it away Frank!

From my upcoming book My Bizarre Life in A Sleepy Northern Town or something like that.

“I was a cook playing a wannabe promoter in a restaurant. The kitchen telephone cord was 20 feet long but I was able to stretch at least another 10 feet. Those curled up old phone cords stood up to all sorts of abuse, not like this new crap that breaks within 24 hours of leaving Best Buy.

That said, day after day the phone rang & I would pencil in shows on the calendar beside the walk in cooler. No contracts, no email, no nothing. Just old school word & no fuck ups.

For several weeks something different happened. I had people non stop asking about a certain band & when tickets would be available ( I never sold tix unless it was a no brainer, not even for Colin James or 54 40 , which is another story lol ) .

I was clueless and told people repeatedly this certain artist was not performing. After dozens of enquiries I just kept saying to myself damn maybe I should have booked this one after all. Well just so happens that Greyhound called to tell me a package was sitting at the depot. I go to the depot the day before the show was to happen. I look at the poster and it was the band everyone knew was performing the next day but me.

The show ended up happening and it was one if not the most financially succesful nights even with me sabotaging myself. All I ever said to the agent while making those fucking grilled cheese sandwiches with the 50 foot phone cord wrapped every which way was , yes the date is open. Nothing confirmed. Now that band? The Tea Party but the support was none other than legendary UK folk hero Roy Harper.”

More stories to come Folk’s!…

STAY TUNED…..