In just one week from tonight, Charlie Thomas’ The Drifters will hit the Tyrone Area High School auditorium stage as part of the headline act for this year’s Tyrone-Snyder Township Public Library’s annual concert fundraiser.
“Tickets are still available for the Saturday night, March 25 show, ‘An Evening With the Drifters’,” said Chuck Banas, the library’s concert chairman. “We are closing in on a full house, but we still have tickets that are available. We are going to continue to sell tickets as long as there are any remaining clear up to show time.
“They will be available at the school’s ticket office window outside of the auditorium that night as long as we have some remaining,” Banas added.
All seats are reserved seating. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. and the show will start promptly at 7 p.m. Tickets are also available by mail order by calling 684-7929 until Friday, March 24 at 4:30 p.m. Ticket outlets, which include Bressler’s Food Mart and Sports, Kopp Drug and the Tyrone-Snyder Public Library will have tickets, as long as they last, and until noon on Saturday, March 25. Then the only way to get a ticket after that is at the door.
The library provided some background on Charlie Thomas, who was born in Lynchburg, Virginia on April 7, 1937. Twenty-one years later, in 1958, he became a member of a group called the Five Crowns along with a gentleman by the name of Ben Earl Nelson. Ben was later known as Ben E. King.
While the Five Crowns did not meet a great deal of commercial success, they were enjoying local popularity, and that is one reason why they were on the bill of the famous Apollo Theater in New York City in 1958. It was George Treadwell that heard Charlie Thomas’ voice and hastily recruited the Five Crowns to sing at the Apollo Theater.
Lover Patterson, who was the manager of the Five Crowns, once said that, “Charlie Thomas’ voice is one that the world would enjoy forever.”
The Five Crowns changed their names to The Drifters and their first release in 1959 was a song called “There Goes My Baby”. This was the very beginning of what had later become known as the golden years of The Drifters.
It was in 1988 that Charlie Thomas, along with the other original members of The Drifters, Doc Green, Ben E. King and Elsbery Hobbs were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.
Listeners can hear Charlie Thomas’ voice as the lead singer or a strong tenor voice in the background on all of the following Drifters classics: “When My Little Girl is Smiling”, “Save the Last Dance for Me”, “Up on the Roof”, “This Magic Moment”, “Under the Boardwalk”, “Sweets for My Sweet”, “Saturday Night at the Movies”, “On Broadway”, “There Goes My Baby”, “Dance with Me”, “I Don’t Want to Go On” and “Roomful of Tears”.
Charlie Thomas’ Drifters continue to tour the world over. They are bringing their classic songs and tremendous talents to appreciative audiences everywhere that they go.
“Many people do not know the traveling that is involved when you are a top-notch group such as Charlie Thomas’ The Drifters. As an example, March 17 they are appearing in Stamford, Connecticut on March 18 Palm Beach, Florida, on March 23 in the Civic Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, March 25 right here in Tyrone and on March 31 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. I am just overjoyed that we were able to work a date that would get us an opportunity to showcase yet another amazing group,” said Banas.
Opening “An Evening With the Drifters” will be Tyrone’s own Dance Fusion, 14-year-old singing sensation Katie Olerich, who will be backed up with none other than all 29 members of Tyrone Area High School’s POPS Extension, singer/songwriter B. Elle and singer Brittany Ullrich.
The library will also raffle off a beautiful quilt that evening. The proceeds of this raffle will go towards funding the summer reading program at the library. Tickets for the quilt are available at the Tyrone-Snyder Public Library and will also be available at the high school auditorium the night of the show. The winner of the quilt need not be present at the show.
In addition, the library will have a raffle for a gift basket of teas and spices that was donated by Joe Doyle of Tea Merchant 101 in Duncansville. Tickets for this gift basket will only be available the night of the concert and will be on sale at the high school auditorium. All monies raised in this raffle will go towards the payment on the mortgage of the new library. The winner of the gift basket will need to be present the evening of the show.
As a reminder to those in attendance the night of the concert, there will be a meet and greet after the show in the main lobby of the high school auditorium. This will give audience members an opportunity to meet the performers, get autographs and have pictures taken with the groups.
Remember, individuals may bring cameras for the meet and greet for picture taking, but there is no flash photography permitted during the show. There is also no video recording devices or tape recording devices permitted in the auditorium that evening.
The groups may have CDs and other items for sale as part of the meet and greet, so come prepared.
This is the fifth concert the library has brought to Tyrone. Prior headliners have been Jimmy Beaumont and The Skyliners, The Marcels, The Vogues and The Platters.
During last year’s concert, it was announced the total monies generated has been over $35,000. A new total will be announced next Saturday evening during the show.
Next Saturday in The Daily Herald, the day of the show, there will be one more news release from the library announcing a final surprise.
