MEMORIAL FOR SLAIN STUDENT

The impressive lineup for today’s concert at Saddleback College includes several of the Southland’s best bands, from the Rave-Ups to Fishbone to the Wild Cards. Yet in this case, who is playing isn’t nearly as important as why they are performing. To the show’s organizers and participants, the concert represents more than just a musical event; it is also a bittersweet labor of love.

The show was conceived by the college’s Associated Students group as a memorial to Robbin Brandley, the 23-year-old communications major who was stabbed to death on campus in January.

Miss Brandley was pursuing a radio-television-broadcast degree at the Mission Viejo community college and had worked at the campus radio station, KSBR-FM (88.5). It was following a KSBR-sponsored concert on Jan. 18 by pianist Liz Story, at which Brandley had worked as an usher, that she was murdered.

Today’s concert begins at 2 p.m. in the college gymnasium and will continue until midnight. Also on the bill are Secret Service, Attach, Zanty Misfits, U-Sqwad, Chardon Square, Broken Homes, Wednesday Week and Unforgiven. Tickets are $6 for general admission, $5 for Saddleback students and proceeds will be used to establish a scholarship in the slain student’s memory.

“It’s a lot of work,” said student activities director Vern Hodge, who is coordinating the event. “But this is something that the students feel is extremely important. The student government very much wants this to be a success and they are really throwing themselves into it. Whatever it takes, they are going to get it done. The great thing about this is that most everything about the concert is happening all through donations.”

For the staff and students at KSBR, who were closest to Miss Brandley, the concert has become even more of a personal crusade.

“We are plugging the heck out of it on the air,” said KSBR music director Paul Marshall. “This is a very personal thing for the people at the station. She had been around here for two years. So you hear (radio station) people saying: ‘This is a benefit for a very good friend of mine’ and things like that.”

In one respect, Marshall said, the show is helping some people overcome the sense of shock and helplessness they still feel about the crime.

“At least it’s something we can do,” he said. “It won’t bring her back, but we can put our energies into something worthwhile instead of just churning.”

Along with KSBR’s announcements of the details of the show, several of the performers have been profiled in the school newspaper and interviewed on various KSBR programs, Marshall said.

Details of how the memorial scholarship will be set up are to be worked out after the concert, Hodge said. “We have to see how much money we raise and how many scholarships there will be. We hope it will be a perpetual scholarship, not a one-time thing. I’m sure it will go specifically to a communications student. That was Robbin’s major and what she had talked about doing as a profession.”

A spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday that there were no new leads in the search for the killer. It’s very much an active case, but I’m not aware of any new information at this time,” sheriff’s Lt. Bob Rivas said.

Because the show is scheduled to run until midnight, Hodge said, every effort will be made to ensure a safe and worry-free atmosphere. “We will have a lot of security at the concert,” Hodge said. “We have also notified the Sheriff’s Department and I’m sure they will have cars coming by.”

Said Marshall: “Everybody is still very nervous. When something violent like that happens so close to you, it shows you how fragile life is. I was here that night and I’m still getting over the shock. But at least this (concert) gives us something to focus on that’s positive.”

BREATHLESS: Predictable is one word that never applies to a Jerry Lee Lewis concert, yet even longtime fans of “The Killer” found a host of surprises in his show Sunday at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

Along with outrageous versions of such pop oddities as “Darktown Strutter’s Ball” and “Mexicali Rose,” the 50-year-old rock legend left many fans slack-jawed after his closing number when he returned to the stage, borrowed a guitar from veteran sideman Kenneth Lovelace and playfully engaged in a whole lotta pickin’ and strummin’.

The best news was that even after another bout in 1985 with serious illness, Lewis’ always distinctive voice sounded stronger and fiercer than it has in years, culminating in titanic, overwhelming renditions of his classics “Great Balls of Fire” and “Breathless.”

METAL MADNESS: The sellout response to the Feb. 23 Montrose concert at Joshua’s Parlour has prompted the Garden Grove Top 40 bar to expand its original music offerings in coming weeks with a series of primarily hard-rock and heavy-metal shows.

After this Sunday’s return performance by Montrose, Joshua’s will have shows with Leatherwolf (March 16), Odin and Citizen Kane (March 17), the Producers and Eddie & the Tide (March 20), Kix and Jet Boys (March 23) and Foghat and Wishbone Ash (April 4 and 5).

Despite a few bugs at last month’s Montrose concert, such as opening the doors nearly 90 minutes late and an extremely slow process of admitting patrons, Joshua’s shows potential as a concert club. Its large (500) capacity and good sound help compensate for the room’s congested feel due to a very low ceiling and inadequate ventilation.

LIVE ACTION: Tickets go on sale Monday for Simple Minds and the Call in concert April 22 at the Pacific Amphitheatre. Subscription tickets will be available Sunday for a series of concerts at the Pacific with Frank Sinatra (June 21), Bob Hope (July 6), the Giants of Jazz, featuring Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz and Dave Brubeck (Aug. 1), and Julio Iglesias (Sept. 27). . . . Big Audio Dynamite will play UC Irvine on March 15. The Damned and T.S.O.L. will be at UCI on March 26. Tickets go on sale Sunday for the Untouchables/Red Hot Chili Peppers show at UCI on March 28.. . . Phantom, Rocker & Slick will be at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano on March 26. . . . The Nuns will perform at Safari Sam’s in Huntington Beach on March 19.