Members of the rock band Great White will gather in Los Angeles tonight, reuniting 68 days after The Station fire to raise money and remember their dead guitarist.
Thousands of miles away, in West Warwick, one block from The Station's charred rubble, Ed Wiggins will be waiting.
Wiggins, owner of the Slip Disc music store on Cowesett Avenue, said he is waiting for Great White to do something to recognize or benefit the 98 other people who died in the Feb. 20 nightclub blaze, to show they care about the fans killed in this state's deadliest fire -- in short, to remember Rhode Island.
"The things they are doing out there in L.A. are salt in the wounds to the people of Rhode Island, to the victims and the victims' families," Wiggins said. "They have a responsibility here that they absolutely need to address."
From Wiggins's perspective, Great White has turned its back on Rhode Island since the fire, which started when the band's pyrotechnics ignited packing foam used as soundproofing around the stage. "This band has walked away," he said. "They said it was somebody else's fault, and they left."
Band members did return to testify before a grand jury. "But they came in limousines with tinted windows," Wiggins said. "Come on, take a minute, will ya? Hold a news conference. Write a letter to the editor. Do something. I'd say you need to come back, talk to people, bare your soul, show that you care."
Members of the band could not be reached. But their Los Angeles lawyer, Ed McPherson, said the surviving members of Great White are planning to raise money for other victims of the fire.
"They are trying to come up with ways they can help," McPherson said. "And they do care very much about the victims and their families and the people in general in Rhode Island."
After years of touring, members of Great White had come to know many of their Rhode Island fans, and in the fire's aftermath, band members are not thinking that they lost "one of their own," McPherson said. "The band feels they lost 99 of their own," he said. "Their hearts are broken."
Tonight, Great White's lead singer, Jack Russell, and guitarist Mark Kendall will play at a West Hollywood nightclub as part of a benefit concert in memory of guitarist Ty Longley, who died in the fire. Money raised will go into the Ty Longley Memorial Fund, helping to establish a trust fund for Longley's unborn child and to provide arts scholarships. Longley's girlfriend, Heidi Peralta, is expecting a baby Aug. 3.
"This is a night for Ty and Ty's family," McPherson said of the West Hollywood event. "But they are going to do what they can for the other 98 [victims]. There are things in the works," he said, declining to provide details.
Tonight's event has been described as the first performance by Great White since the fire, but Russell and Kendall made an unannounced appearance at an April 17 benefit at The Hard Rock Cafe in Beverly Hills to raise money for the Baby Longley Fund, which Peralta has established for the child.
Slip Disc's manager, Jared Cohn, said he's glad Great White's surviving members are taking part in Longley's memorial concert. But, he said, "They really need to do something here. L.A. is a long way away. No one here will even know about [tonight's event]."
"God rest Ty's soul," Wiggins said. "It's a tragedy for his family, as well." But, he said, "[Longley] was part of the band. He got off the bus with them. And as responsibility lies with the band, responsibility lies at his feet."
Wiggins said Great White members are taking part in tonight's event because Longley was their friend. "Well," he said, "the people who died here were my friends."
At least half a dozen of his customers died in the fire, others were injured, and Wiggins said the tragedy hits close to home in Rhode Island, a state of little more than 1 million people, and in West Warwick, a town of less than 30,000.
McPherson said band members have been in mourning since the fire. "It's not like they are just sitting in California partying," he said.
The band members will be in a better position to speak out after the fire investigation is complete, McPherson said. "Unfortunately, I have to be the spokesman for a while because there are very serious proceedings going on in Rhode Island," he said.
McPherson said Great White's surviving members have been "assisting authorities" rather than talking to the media. By contrast, he noted that in the days after the fire, Atty. Gen. Patrick C. Lynch repeatedly appealed to the nightclub owners, Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, to cooperate with authorities rather than talking with the media.
But Wiggins, who had in the past run cooperative advertising with The Station, credited the Derderians for holding a news conference less than 48 hours after the fire to express sorrow for the tragedy. "Jeff Derderian brought people to understand he was a human," he said.
And now, Wiggins argued, Great White needs to speak to the people of Rhode Island. "They should apologize or offer some form of explanation," he said. "You can express grief without taking responsibility -- without it being a confession."
To be sure, not all local residents are looking for Great White to make amends.
"I put the blame on the club," John Arnold said as he and Mike Mills flipped through CDs at Slip Disc the other day. "They were just a band trying to perform."
Arnold, 25, of Coventry, said he had planned to attend the fateful concert with a friend, but backed out at the last minute when he got into an argument with the friend.
"It's the club's fault for not having the foam flame retardant," said Mills, 20, of West Warwick.
But Wiggins, 50, of Coventry, said a lot of his customers agree that the band has to live up to its responsibilities to Rhode Island.
As he walked around his store, Wiggins pointed out the gap between the CDs by Macy Gray and Green Day. It's where the Great White CDs used to be.
Wiggins said he yanked the band from his shelves the morning after the fire. He said he didn't want to sell Great White music to people looking to refamiliarize themselves with the band out of curiosity stirred by the tragedy. "Some people treated it like a car accident," he said.
"I don't want the band to participate in this store," Wiggins said. "If you want to feel anything, it's for the victims. The focus should be on the people who were lost -- not the band."
