Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 22, 1994                   TAG: 9407200017
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BAND GETS DISPUTED PROM FEE

Blacksburg High School's principal and prom adviser said the gig was up.

So began a six-week misunderstanding that ended Tuesday when the band was paid in full for performing at Blacksburg High's prom May 7. The dispute was caused by the band's prom-night attire - T-shirts and shorts.

Jean Wright, the prom adviser, told the band between sets that night that she believed they violated a contractual agreement to wear long pants and shirts with collars. Blacksburg High Principal Alfred Smith arrived at the prom around midnight and told the band that payment would be withheld so the matter could be discussed with the Montgomery County School Board's attorney.

Joe Steffen, a Blacksburg attorney representing Alchemy, said he received the band's $1,000 check by mail Tuesday after sending a letter to Kim Ritchie, the attorney for the School Board. Steffen said the letter requested that the band be paid in full for the performance.

The band had received a $500 deposit on the $1,500 fee before the prom, Steffen said.

"There wasn't any legal reason for [the school] not to pay this," he said.

The contract between the band and the school called for the members of Alchemy to wear shirts and pants, Steffen said. "Nothing else was specified."

Kenny Seay, a guitarist for the band, said he's glad Alchemy got the money for the performance because "the bills can get paid this month."

"I'm sorry things happened the way they did," he said, "but the main thing is that we didn't misrepresent ourselves. We didn't send [prom organizers] a picture of us in tuxedos. Besides, we tried to conform as much as we could. When you're singing songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, you've got to cut some words out of the lyrics if you don't want to be obscene. And we did."

Seay said Alchemy - an alternative rock band based in Roanoke - has played several other high school proms in T-shirts and shorts since May 7, including Franklin County and North Cross.

"No one else has had any problems," he said.

Montgomery County School Superintendent Herman Bartlett said he, Smith and Wright met Monday and made a decision to pay the band.

"Rather than pursue it, we felt like we and they would be better served to go ahead and pay it," he said.