Great White Downsize Tour
Originally slated to kick-off this weekend, Great White’s tour to
benefit victims of the fire at the Station in West Warwick, Rhode
Island, will now begin July 22nd in Sterling, Colorado, and run
through October.
The outing, called the Help Us — Help Our Own! tour, was
supposed to run fifty-five dates and feature fellow rock vets LA
Guns and XYZ, but it was reconfigured due to difficulties insuring
the shows. Now Great White will travel alone — by plane instead of
bus — to forty-one dates.
“If you get into a car wreck, your car insurance can get
canceled,” says Great White co-manager Charrie Foglio. “What Great
White is up against is what everybody else is up against in this
country. We don’t want anyone else on our bill — we don’t want to
be responsible in the event that we don’t get insurance.”
The first twelve dates of the tour are confirmed, with each
scheduled at venues with insurance, and Foglio says Great White
will seek to play shows — such as the August 7th date at the
Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota — where the venue itself
is insured.
The Great White lineup will feature singer Jack Russell, Mark
Kendall, drummer Derrick Pontier, guitarist Jordan Martin and
bassist Scott Pounds, with original member Michael Lardie joining
the group in early September after completing a touring obligation
with Night Ranger.
Great White guitarist Ty Longley was among the hundred people
who died last February 20th, when a fire triggered by the band’s
pyrotechnics display razed the Station.
Proceeds from the tour will go to the Station Family Fund for
victims of the fire. “We’re very grateful they’re willing to go out
and tour despite some of the negative feelings they’re facing,”
says Victoria Potvin, the fund’s president and also a survivor of
the fire. “They’re musicians first and foremost, and this is the
only way monetarily they can give back to the people harmed by the
fire. They’re a poor band, a workingman’s band.”
Great White tour dates:
7/22: Sterling, CO, Logan County Exhibit Center
7/23: Colorado Springs, CO, The Gardens
7/31: Omaha, NE, Anchor Inn
8/1: Souix City, IA, Lewis Bowl
8/2 – Jane, MO, Hots
8/7 – Sturgis, SD, Black Hills Speedway
8/8 – Medina, MN, Medina Entertainment Center
8/9 – Cedar Rapids, IA, TBA
8/10 – Merionette, IL, Bourbon Street
8/22 – Russel, KS, Plains Amphitheater
8/23 – Kearney, NE, Kearney Nebraska Fairgrounds