August 15, 2008: Update

Vicki Kuczmarski wrote again with another picture...and an audio clip...and these record images.


 

"I recently came across a few more Rolling Rockets memorabilia while I was cleaning out a closet.  I found two 45’s, which my daughter quickly swiped from me, two reel-to-reel tapes with audio from the Pieces of Eight show and another picture of the  Rolling Rockets.  I thought this picture was particularly interesting since it shows Eddy in the center of the picture and on the bottom right,  surrounded by other band members and other groups that were playing at the Apollo Theater when this picture was taken.  If you look on the right there is a picture of the marquee with their name on it along with the other show members.  The only ones I’m familiar with are the Isley Brothers, Billy Mercer and the Bobbettes."


"Apparently Bob Dylan produced a radio show in England called the "Theme Time Radio Hour"  where he chose and played the songs for the show.  He played one from the Rolling Rockets and this young man sent me a copy of the recording of it.  I thought it was pretty interesting that Bob Dylan would come across something like this.  I don’t remember them doing this song because I was quite young at the time but you can definitely tell it’s the Rolling Rockets.  My mother says she remembers it and you may remember it as well."

[The MP3 clip: ...is large (5 MBytes), so be patient with the download. It played just fine for me on Windows Media Player -- the Player actually found the album cover also!   Click Here -- Bob Lilley]
 
 



June 16, 2008: Received this note from Vicki Haynes Kuczmarski

I came across your website and enjoyed your piece about Eddie Seacrist.  You mentioned Norman Chapman, who was a very good guitarist, but failed to mention any of the other band members.  My father, Robert Haynes, played the triple neck Fender Steel guitar for the Rolling Rockets.  If you do a search on the U. S. Copyright website you will find that my father was the co-author of some of those songs.   I remember watching them perform on television when I was young a very long time ago.

I m attaching a few pictures for you since I'm reminiscing.

Vicki 

Eddy Seacrist and the Rollin' Rockets - circa 1958

March 2009, from Kay Lowther: In the picture above, Norman Chapman is on the left (incidentally, Norman was the next-to-last lead guitarist that the Rondells ever had, after Eddy's band broke up).  The bass player next to Norman is Dude Webb, a somewhat-itinerant disc jockey with whom I worked briefly at WMON, Montgomery, WV. And if I am not mistaken, the drummer is a very young Mark Wolford, nos leader of the Mark IV, a band that has been active around the area for the last 40 years.  Mark had a good career as a firefighter, recently ran for mayor of South Charleston, and has been a Kanawha County public official for a long time.