Band Together For NYC 5 Brings Rock Stars and Wall Street Musicians Center Stage to Raise Money for Little Kids Rock

Wall Street Rockers Outfit NYC Schools with Music Programs

May 8th, 2006 – Montclair, NJ - Little Kids Rock (LKR), a non-profit music education program that provides free instruments and instruction to children in public schools, announced today that it will be the recipient of funds generated from the Fifth Annual Band Together by NYC, a benefit featuring rock stars and corporate rockers. The event will take place at the Knitting Factory in New York City on May 11th at 7:30pm. The $20 tickets will support LKR’s mission of restoring music education to the public schools. Tickets for the event may be purchased directly from the Knitting Factory’s web site www.knittingfactory.com or at the show. The Knitting Factory is located at 74 Leonard St. in New York City.

The program this year will feature a special appearance by world-renowned drummer, Carmine Appice. Known for his astonishing live performances, Mr. Appice was a founding member of classic 60s rock band, Vanilla Fudge and has worked with a wide range of artists including Ozzy Osbourne, Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart and Pink Floyd. A highlight of this event will be when Mr. Appice performs alongside The Rockin’ Thunder Band which is made up of 3rd through 5th grade Little Kids Rock students from the Bronx’s own C.E.S. 58x school.

Band Together For NYC was the brainchild of corporate rockers Bill Bennett and Charles Mangano to raise money and donate instruments to public schools impacted by the events of 9/11. The idea came to them when they found themselves hunkered down near ground zero on that tragic day. They resolved to do something positive in its wake. The first event came about in 2001 when Bill and Charlie, with the help of the "FORTUNE Battle of the Corporate Bands", invited bands made up of business executives to play in New York. For the third year in a row, Little Kids Rock has been named this event’s beneficiary. As a result, enough money has been raised to buy instruments for several public school music programs.

The night’s entertainment will include performances from THE DIFFERENCE (All the way from Allentown), THE ROLLING BONES (The world's 2nd greatest Rolling Stones show) and NO MERSEY (NYC's leading good time Beatles tribute band).

"Collectively, these bands represent the best of corporate America making a commitment to kids and rock and roll,” added Charles Mangano, co-founder of Band Together for NYC. "This is exactly the right partnership for Little Kids Rock, an organization that is taking the country by storm as they work to bring music programming back to our kids."

"It is so wonderful to work with successful folks from the music and business communities who understand the importance of 'giving back,'" said David Wish, Executive Director of Little Kids Rock. “I think these guys are real role models for our kids.”

Bill Bennett ran Off Wall Street Jam (now known as http://www.thejamnyc.com) in NY, bringing together amateur musicians who made their living in corporate America. Charles Mangano is one of those executives. Together they played for The Rolling Bones, a band that competed at the FORTUNE Battle of the Corporate Bands at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in 2001 and 2002. Bill was always committed to the music scene in lower Manhattan as well as public school kids and this benefit was one of the many ways Bill contributed back. Sadly, Bill died in a car accident in late 2003 and this benefit lives on in his memory.

Other support for this event comes from Reuters, Yacktmen Asset Management, Roland Musical Instruments, NAMM, D’Addario, Dreyfus, Minyanville, Paysett, Air Products, First Republic Bank, Boss, Dark Star Advisors, the Hintz Family, and our ind-kind sponsors, the Jam NYC, Pro-Mark, Sabian and Sonor.

About Little Kids Rock
Little Kids Rock believes that music is a critical component of first-rate education. Many elementary schools have been stripped of their music programs. These cuts have had a disproportionately large impact on children from low-income backgrounds. Little Kids Rock restores music to its rightful place in the academic lives of kids in our public schools by providing a rich music education program including instrument instruction, free instruments and trained mentors. Founded by a single elementary school teacher in 1996, Little Kids Rock has served more than 7,000 students in CA, NY, NJ and TN. James Burton, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, B.B. King and Les Paul sit on our Honorary Board of Directors and we are supported by friends Tom Waits, Liberty DeVitto Bob Weir and others. Little Kids Rock programs are scheduled to launch in Shreveport, LA this year. More information can be found at: www.littlekidsrock.org

Media Contact:
Allison Neves, PR Director
Little Kids Rock
415-948-1200
allison@littlekidsrock.org