Posted on 09/30/2003 2:50:55 PM PDT by blam
'The show will go on,' says rock band that plans a suicide on stage
By David Usborne in New York
01 October 2003
Plans to make a suicide on stage the centrepiece of a performance by the alternative rock band Hell on Earth will not be thwarted, the lead singer said yesterday.
Earlier this week, the City Council of St Petersburg, Florida, tried to block the event, due to take place on Saturday, by passing an emergency ordinance making it illegal for anyone to include a suicide in an entertainment event or use it for promotional purposes.
But Billy Tourtelot of Hell on Earth has said that the suicide will take place anyway.
"The show will go on," Mr Tourtelot insisted and said that the band had agreed to allow a person with a terminal illness - who has not been identified - to take their life during the concert as a statement supporting euthanasia and the right-to-die movement. "It will be available on the internet and it will be in the city limits," he added.
Promotional posters for the St Petersburg-based band's "Haunted House Tour" carry the slogan: "Dying to Meet You". Where the event may now take place remains a mystery after the owner of a club that was to host the concert decided last week to ban the band. Other venues on the band's tour have also pulled out.
Mr Tourtelot said that the concert would take place at a secret location with a select group of fans invited. The concert and, in theory, the suicide will be broadcast on the band's website: www. hellonearth.com.
Meanwhile, a judge has granted the city council a temporary injunction against the performance and a hearing is to be held today. Bill Foster, a council member, said it had been left with no choice. "While I still think it's a publicity stunt, we still couldn't sit idly by and let somebody lose their life."
Hell on Earth have a reputation for incorporating outrageous stunts into their concerts, including chocolate syrup wrestling contests and blending live rats into "rat milkshakes". Mr Tourtelot said he had taken legal advice and did not expect to face charges of assisting a suicide. "What I'm doing may be immoral, but it's not illegal."
Comedy is hard.
Hell on Earth? He'll be wishing for Hell on Earth compared to the next stop.
Funny you should ask the question. A generation ago the Rolling Stones could write a caustic lyric on the subject (Bob Dylan did too, in Blood on the Tracks.) I think that the idiot box has pretty much robbed the new generations of imagination, and, as a result, the things they manage to create are often so boringly literal. Just like American television.
Here are the Stones' lyrics (It's Only Rock and Roll- Jagger/Richards):
"If I could stick a knife in my heart Suicide right on stage Would it be enough for your teenage lust Would it help to ease the pain? Ease your brain? If I could dig down deep in my heart Feelings would flood on the page Would it satisfy ya, would it slide on by ya Would ya think the boy's insane? He's insane I said I know it's only rock 'n roll but I like it"
Let the audience vote on who gets it.
SO9
You beat me to it. What is really frightening to me is people will actually go to see that.
On one of their comedy albums, National Lampoon did a hilarious parody of "Leader of the Pack", titled "Pizza Man". The key lyrics were:
He saw two bike lights up the road
And he thought he'd try his luck
He tried to drive between them
He never knew it was a truck
I ran out on the highway
But I couldn't find my guy
Between the deisel's headlights
Something looked like pizza pie
Maybe a partial-birth abortion on a girlfriend. That'd be, uh . . . cool, eh, Beavis?
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