LITTLE RICHARD CHIPS IN

Faced with the problems caused by his home town mayor failing to pull together enough financing for his own gig, Little Richard has subsidised his own performance. Businesses had been asked to underwrite the cost of the event, but moaned they hadn't got enough time.

Richard isn't going to play for nothing, though:

Little Richard told the almost 5,000 people attending the concert free of charge Saturday that he will return a $30,000 portion of his fees.

"It's not a whole lot of money, but it's from the heart," he said.

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