musicNEWS:
Band Still Promises Onstage Suicide, Plans Webcast.
10-01-03
Keavin
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Update: The leadsinger of the band Hell on
Earth vows that his group will go forward with an onstage suicide and even
plans to webcast the event, despite assorted efforts by authorities and
club owners to stop them.
"The show will go on," the groups lead
singer Billy Tourtelot told a reporter for the Associated Press on Monday
following the city council vote. "It will be available on the Internet,
and it will be in the city limits."
"This show is far more than a typical Hell
On Earth performance," Tourtelot said in an e-mail to the Associated Press
last week. "This is about standing up for what you believe in, and I am
a strong supporter of physician-assisted suicide."
The controversy broke a few weeks back
when the group announced that their October 4th concert at the Palace Theater
in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, would include a live suicide from
the stage.
Once the story broke the venue quickly
pulled the plug and other venues in the city refused to book the show.
The group claims that the planned suicide
by a terminally ill person was planned to bring awareness to right to
die issues. Assisted suicide is illegal in Florida.
After being turned away from alternate
venues, the band reportedly booked an undisclosed venue within the city
limits of St. Petersburg, where they will host a private concert that will
include the suicide. They plan to broadcast the event live from their website.
The latest effort to stop the suicide occurred
on Monday morning when the St. Petersburg city council unanimously passed
an emergency ordinance that makes staging a suicide for commercial or entertainment
purposes illegal within the city limits.
The city council believes that this is
just a publicity stunt but passed the ordinance just in case the group
was serious about going through with it.
The city also seeks to get a court injunction
to bar the group from going through with the suicide and that also keeps
them from advertising the event.
The group apparently isnt worried about
the legal consequences of going forward with the onstage suicide. If they
violate the city ordinance, they face up to 60 days in jail and a $500
fine. One sticking point is a Florida law that states assisting another
person in committing suicide is a manslaughter. The group claims that they
are not assisting in the suicide.
"This person will be doing this self-deliverance
totally by themselves, on their own accord," Tourtelot said.
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