GREAT WHITE Guitarist Reinvents Himself After Surviving Terrible Nightclub Fire

June 22, 2005

Bruce Fessier of The Desert Sun has issued the following report:

Mark Kendall, a co-founder of the GREAT WHITE rock band, moved to Palm Desert from Los Angeles for all the usual reasons. The weather, the environment, those twinkling things in the sky.

"The vibe is really good here," said guitarist Mark Kendall, sitting in the patio of his suburban-type home on a warm winter day with dark glasses wrapped around his shaved head.

"I'm a vibe person and, if I've got the right environment, I'm really creative."

But the desert moon has a different significance to Kendall and his fellow Palm Desert band founder, singer, Jack Russell, than, say, "Stardust" did to the late Rancho Mirage composer Hoagy Carmichael.

"Desert Moon" was the first song Kendall and Russell played with GREAT WHITE on Feb. 20, 2003, at the Station nightclub in West Warwick, R.I.

Their performance featured pyrotechnics, a gimmick typical of heavy metal bands, but one GREAT WHITE hadn't used in 20 years of touring together. Shortly after 11p.m., a spark ignited some foam around the stage. The nightclub was soon engulfed.

When the damage was assessed, 100 people were dead and 200 others had burns or other injuries.

Kendall was a lucky one. He walked out a side door and didn't know the scope of the tragedy. The trauma set in later. He wouldn't be able to open his guitar case for four months. He thought he'd never play with GREAT WHITE again.

But Kendall is now playing with new inspiration. He's touring again with Russell and GREAT WHITE. They postponed a European tour this month for security reasons, and Kendall is currently out of the valley, but they're planning short runouts throughout the nation this summer.

They did a tour in 2003 to raise money for a Station Family Fund, an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization offering assistance and relief to people directly affected by the fire at the Station nightclub.

He's also recorded a solo album, "2.0 (Two Point Zero)", for which he's negotiating a distribution deal.

Read the rest of the article at TheDesertSun.com.

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