LOS ANGELES / 3:45 p.m. -- The rock band Great White plans to perform
together for the first time since the band's Feb. 20 concert in Rhode
Island that resulted in a nightclub fire that killed 99 people.
Survivors of the group say they will perform one song at West
Hollywood's Key Club on April 29 to raise money for a memorial fund in
honor of their late guitarist, Ty Longley, who was among those who died
in the blaze.
The charity concert will benefit the late guitarist's pregnant
girlfriend, victim relief funds and students seeking art scholarships.
The fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., was one of
the worst nightclub fires in the country's history. Investigators
suspect the band's pyrotechnics ignited soundproofing foam.
A grand jury is investigating the case.
Great White has no other plans to perform again, band manager Paul
Woolnough said, although surviving band members may make individual
appearances at various other benefits.
Other bands in the Key Club lineup include the glam-metal group XYZ and
5 Cent Shine, of which Longley was a former member.
Longley was a 31-year-old Ohio native who had lived in Los Angeles for
the last five years. Longley listened to Great White in the late 1980s
and idolized guitarist Mark Kendall, said Longley's sister, according to
family members. He joined the band about four years ago.
Kendall and singer Jack Russell are the only members from the original
lineup. The band had recently performed mainly as a nostalgia act at
small venues after reaching the peak of its fame with the 1990 hit "Once
Bitten, Twice Shy."
