Shock as Raith Rovers Hall of Fame evening is called off

Fife Cultural Trust released a shock statement on Monday announcing that shows at all its theatre venues have been suspended until the spring of 2021 – including the Hall of Fame which was scheduled to take place on Monday, November 9.

Alistair Cameron of the organising committee said the news was a “bombshell”.

“This was going to be our ninth year,” he said.

“I received the news earlier this week and it would be fair to say that I was taken by surprise, and also very disappointed as well.

“We had been in touch with the theatre in recent weeks just to keep up to date with where we were. Even up until very recently the feedback had been that they were looking forward to the show happening and even that it was going to be one of the first big shows that they would be putting on after lockdown.

“As far as we were concerned as a team, we were starting to put together little ideas for it so it was a bit of a bombshell to get the news this week.”

Despite his disappointment, after talks with the Trust, Alistair says he understands the reasons behind its decision.

“Fife Cultural Trust are coming out early before other venues around Scotland which I think will follow suit,” he said.

“I’m sure it will seem ultra-cautious to a lot of people but the theatre world is different to many other live venues, particularly sporting venues.

“It’s different because of the preparation. Also, if the Trust are going to put shows on, they need to make up firm contracts, make commitments, you then have the preparations for the shows themselves.

“One thing you don’t have in sporting events is live rehearsals and this is one of the big issues.

“It’s not about social distancing, it’s about the commitment beforehand. Theatres have to take this into account and that’s what makes it different from other venues.

“It would be totally wrong for someone to compare a cricket match, which are starting in July, or a football match, which are maybe starting back in July or August, with the theatre.

“They are two totally different things with different problems and we totally respect that and the Trust’s decision.”

This year’s show was to take on a different format as a fundraiser for Raith Rovers and the club now stands to miss out on a bumper donation.

“It would have been around £10,000,” Alistair says.

“That is the minimum amount that we as a committee would spend on our VIP guests - their flights, hotel, etc. - that’s the money we would have been saving from our normal show and this year it would have gone directly to the club.

“We were going to make this official nearer the time so that people who then didn’t want to come to the show because there wouldn’t be any VIP guests, would have the opportunity of getting a refund, which would have applied to our sponsors as well.

“But I think our fanbase and the supporters would have stuck with us. We would have given them that option, but I think we would still have had a sell out show, so it’s really disappointing from that point of view.

“We’d already put out feelers to what I would call the original gang - the ex-players etc. This was orchestrated by Jimmy Nicholl and we were going to have the likes Gordon Dalziel, Tom Houston, Peter Hetherston and others, all these fantastic characters on the stage, at least for one more time.

“It was going to be a totally different show altogether and we were excited about doing that.

“From a personal point of view I’m the last of the original committee members and it has been a big part of my life, so to not have it this year is a big disappointment.

“The other guys on the committee will be feeling the same because it was a new challenge for us.

“In previous years we had a well-established routine which we consistently kept with. We tweaked it in the last couple of years and it has always been really successful, but we were looking forward to putting together something new.”

The committee will now meet to plan what route to take next, and Alistair is asking for patience from fans who bought tickets for the show.

“We will find out more about that in the coming days as we speak to the theatre, but I would ask people if they could just hang off for a while,” he said.

“The committee will be having a couple of Zoom meetings next week to decide what we can do because one thing that is playing on my mind is that this is a £10,000 loss to Raith Rovers.

“We didn’t want that to happen.

I don’t know how we get over this, or if we can get over this.

“It might be one step too far for us to do anything else but we at least want to look at one or two suggestions and see where we can go.

“So I would ask fans with tickets to please be patient and we will let you know our thoughts as to what we can and can’t do as soon as possible.

“We do really want to see if we can put something together that at the very least can partly contribute to the funds of Raith Rovers - that’s what the show this year was all about.

“If we can conjure up something it’s obviously not going to be in the theatre or something that people can go to, but maybe there’s some sort of technology that will allow us to put together something and that’s one of the options that what we want to have a look at.

“So, give us a week or so and we can come back to you.

He added: “This has been as much of a shock to us as it has been to everybody else so please, if the fans can just give us a bit of time to see if we can come up with something.”