SEVEN WITCHES Guitarist Comments On Allentown Fiasco

SEVEN WITCHES guitarist Jack Frost has issued a statement regarding the disastrous circumstances that led to the group's underage fans being evicted from the venue halfway through the group's live DVD shoot at Crocodile Rock in Allentown, PA Saturday night (Feb. 12). His statement reads as follows:

"First of all, I just want to thank from the bottom of my heart, all of our true fans who have stuck with us since day one.

"I would like to explain what happened last night at our DVD taping. My good friend John from Vyagra Music is the one who backed up the entire project. Orginally he was going to have the shoot at The Freightyard in Allentown, PA. However, our former booking agent, Tammy Taylor, had an idea that Crocodile Rock would be a better location as her friend is the owner of the club.

"When she approached me about this change in location, I was a little apprehensive at such a late change, but she assured me that it was a better place for the shoot because it has a better production set-up, so I agreed.

"So, as we started our U.S. tour, every day it seemed that Tammy would call me with yet another change in plans such as a different time slot for us due to a cover band suddenly also playing that night, lack of dressing rooms and VIP areas for press.

"On the day of the taping, we loaded in as usual. However, we were rushed through our sound check by the club as they said other bands had to also set up. Now Tammy had promised us full access to the stage until we were done, so this came as a total shocker.

"Finally, come 10 minutes before we were to start the show, Tammy approached James [Rivera, vocals] and informed him that the club owner had just approached her and told her that James had to make an announcement at 9:50 p.m. that everyone under 21 years of age would have to leave the show. She claimed not to have known about this until the last second. However, isn't that the job of a booking agent to know these things? James came to me to tell me this and we said that there was no way we were going to kick out our fans who came from all areas to see our show.

"So come 10 p.m., we did not make that announcement so the club interrupted the taping of our DVD to make the announcement themselves. Of course, I got pissed and I told the kids not to leave as it was an all-ages show. Halfway into our next song, the bouncers started physically yanking the underage kids out of the club.

"We feel very badly that this all happened to so many of our fans and we wanted them to know that we had no idea that this was going to happen. James and I both obviously lost our cool a bit as could be expected but we would like to apologize for the swearing that went on as a result of us being so upset.

"We want to make it clear that John from Vyagra Music was not responsible for this, it was Tammy Taylor and the club who dropped the ball.

"Crocodile Rock indicated this was an all-ages show and should have been more specific on what their idea of that was. To me, an all-ages show means people of all ages can attend the show, not attend 1/2 of the show.

"Since then, we have fired Tammy from being our booking agent because of all the above, as well as the fact that she tried to steal our merchandising money. Crocodile Rock didn't even make a point of it to apologize to us or you for all of this.

"In closing, we would like to thank everyone who came to the show, the whole Vyagra family for making the night memorable for us.

"And a word to my fellow bands and fans: BOYCOTT THIS CLUB! They obviously do not respect us or any of our fans and we will never play there again."

Photos from the DVD shoot can be found at this location.