Billboard Daily Music News
Edited By Jonathan Cohen. November 04, 2003, 3:30 PM ET

Billboard Bits: Bruce/Fox, Taking Back Sunday, Fire Relief

Bruce Springsteen and actor Michael J. Fox were among those who performed Saturday (Nov. 1) at the first of the two-night Light of Day concert in Asbury Park, N.J. Springsteen played with longtime friend Joe Grushecky and his band the Houserockers for more than an hour at the end of the night, joined by Fox for the show's namesake song, also the name of a 1987 Fox film.

Also featuring performances by Gary U.S. Bonds, Freddie Scott, John Eddie and Dan Bern, among others, the weekend raised $100,000 for the Parkinson's Disease Foundation (PDF) and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Grushecky's manager Bob Benjamin -- a former Billboard staffer who, like Fox, suffers from Parkinson's -- organized the event.

As previously reported, Benjamin also compiled the two-disc collection "Light of Day: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen." Proceeds from the covers set, released in May in Spain and in August in the U.S., benefit the PDF and the Kristen Ann Carr Fund, which raises money for research and treatment of sarcoma.

-- Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.