A Newtown legend brought his well-loved ghost stories to a nearly sold out Theatr Hafren to raise money for local music education.

Freeman of Newtown and fundraiser extraordinaire Rory Evans brought his renowned ghost stories to the stage in what audiences described as a “spellbinding evening”.

Rory is one of the only three esteemed Freemen of Newtown and the only one living among legends such as Robert Owen and Pryce Jones.

He captivated a near-sell out audience with enthralling tales and legends from Montgomeryshire with the help of local rising star Matthew Davies who provided musical interludes.

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“They asked me a few weeks ago and I was like I don’t know if I want to do it – it would be like a full house which is about 570,” said Rory. “I did about 10 minutes and they couldn’t get me off. The director was going to put a white sheet over himself to get me off the stage. I absolutely loved it.”

The show took the audience on a two-and-a-half-hour ghostly tour from Llanidloes to Welshpool, whispering tales that mingled with mentions of luminaries like Paul McCartney and Charlotte Church, and even Nikita Krushchev and was accompanied by local rising star Matthew Davies who provided musical interludes.

"Matthew was on the ghost walks with me when he was little and he was backstage and I thought I wouldn’t mind having Matthew to open for me and he said 'yeah no problem' - he is a fantastic young singer," said Rory.

"He was brilliant, I was pacing up and down in the back and he told me to shake it off and as soon as I got on the stage I lost all my nerves and just went for it."

They got a wonderful reception from the crowd - "It was brilliant and at the end they were coming down and hugging me. I had a few cards off people saying “have a good night tonight” and thinking about my mum who I lost when I was young, so that was nice too."

It has been confirmed there will be a new show next year hopefully involving more of the local students and building on a very successful start.

This year's show show raised an impressive £3,658 for The Hafren’s Music Project with the Da Capo Foundation which provides software that trains teachers and provides resources for teaching primary school children in Montgomeryshire how to read and write music.

This comes after Rory's recently raising £1,000 for Hector's Greyhound Rescue in Oswestry and upcoming fundraisers for Gregynog Hall.

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Theatre manager Sara Clutton said: “Hafren is delighted to be able to supply these resources to our Montgomeryshire Primary Schools.  Fundraising is vital to Hafren, and Rory has donated his time and extensive knowledge to ensure that our younger children have access to fun, educational music activities. 

“Who knows, we could have the next Cerys Matthews, Michael Ball, or Manic Street Preachers right here in Montgomeryshire. 

The theatre said they were looking forward to the expansion of the project, which begins with a pilot in two schools before reaching out across the region.