The summer concerts presented at Cape May Convention Hall and the Ocean City Music Pier can provide an ideal end-of-the-day event to the earlier hours spent in the sunshine, on the beach and in the ocean.
This vacation season, events scheduled for Convention Hall range from the 1950s vocal group the Drifters to the 1970s Southern rock group the Marshall Tucker Band.
The summer concert series at the Music Pier takes place Mondays and Tuesdays and offers everything from the reggae of The Wailers to the progressive rock of Rick Wakeman, formerly of Yes.
Convention Hall began hosting concerts in 2013. This will be the fifth summer they will be booked by Kacie Rattigan, Cape May’s director of civic affairs, recreation, tourism, marketing and public information officer.
Before Rattigan was hired by the city, she was in the event industry. She had worked at The Claridge Hotel in Atlantic City and prior to that at the Queen Mary hotel, museum and restaurant in Long Beach, California.
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Rattigan started in Cape May on April 15, 2021. Eight shows were scheduled for the summer of 2020, but none of them took place because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The hardest time was trying to rebuild from COVID. An artist passed away. Mary Wilson passed away,” said Rattigan, who added Wilson, formerly of the Supremes, was originally booked for summer 2020. “She passed in February 2021.”
Only three of the eight 2020 shows were able to be rescheduled for August 2021, she said.
On Aug. 4, 2021, Rattigan’s first concert took place with the R&B vocal group The Manhattans, who had a No. 1 pop and R&B hit with the song “Kiss and Say Goodbye” in 1976.
Concerts in the 800-seat venue are meant to appeal to an older demographic through a variety of genres, including soul, country and rock, Rattigan said. The shows are geared to both residents and guests. There are other activities to appeal to children and families such as movies on the beach.
“I am the one who does the initial booking and marketing,” said Rattigan, who likes to have the summer schedule set by March 1. “We want to succeed.”
Rattigan’s full-time staff, including herself, totals nine, but part-timers help with ushering and the box office, she said.
British singer-songwriter-guitarist Richard Thompson had his show rescheduled from August 2020 to April 11.
“It was sold out, a phenomenal show,” said Rattigan, who heard this from her staff as she usually is on site early in the day and leaves at the start of the show.
Independent promoter Michael Kline, founder of Spy Boy Productions based in Lower Township, was the promoter of Thompson’s show and will be bringing Mac McAnally, The Drifters and Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone later this summer to the venue. Kline also has put Exit Zero Jazz Festival headliners into Convention Hall.
“It’s a cool venue,” said Kline, who added good sound is possible within the venue even with its big glass window and metal bleachers. “The acoustics there are great.”
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While Rattigan departs once the shows begin, Bob Rose, CEO of Bob Rose Productions, stays at the Ocean City Music Pier until the show is over and everybody is gone.
Along with the city and BRE Presents company, Rose is responsible for the series of concerts on Mondays and Tuesdays this summer, including the Beach Boys and R&B and gospel star Mavis Staples, formerly of the Staples Singers.
This summer will be the 32nd year that Rose has been booking shows into a venue with 880 sellable tickets. He has been booking concerts for so long at the Music Pier that he has some stories about his interactions with the headliners.
Dickey Betts, who was formerly of the Allman Brothers Band, and his group Great Southern performed at the Music Pier at least three times. Rose was driving Betts back to his hotel in a convertible during a late, foggy night when they were stopped by a young Linwood police officer who never heard of the Allman Brothers and received a $200 speeding ticket.
Rose went to court. He was willing to pay the fine, but he asked to keep the ticket, which the judge allowed. Betts, who died in April 2024, signed the ticket, “Bob, Let’s keep our streets safe, Dickey Betts.”
Paul Kantner and Marty Balin were in Jefferson Starship when the group played the Music Pier in the 1990s. They asked for a pingpong table to be placed in the green room backstage, and Rose acquired one from the city’s recreation department.
Rose remembers bluegrass-country singer and fiddler Alison Krauss, a 27-time Grammy Award winner, in her soft voice singing the single “Highway to Hell” from the hard rock band AC/DC to him backstage prior to a show and her watching television in the Music Pier’s box office.
The fastest seller was singer-songwriter Jason Mraz, who had a No. 6 pop hit in 2008 with the song “I’m Yours.” The Beach Boys have done the most concerts there, with their 21st through 24th shows coming June 23 and 24.
“The Beach Boys are the perfect band for Ocean City. They are America’s favorite band, and Ocean City is America’s favorite resort,” Rose said.
