Victim's Mother: GREAT WHITE Should Be Dancing Around In A Jail Cell, Not On Stage

Dave Wedge of The Boston Herald reports that "GREAT WHITE will be paid thousands to headline a 'benefit' gig at a Weymouth nightclub later this month, enraging families of victims killed in the deadly inferno at The Station.

" 'Why are they out singing and dancing when my son is dead?' railed Carol Sweet of Pembroke, whose 28-year-old son, Shawn, was among the 100 killed at the Feb. 20 concert at the West Warwick nightclub. 'They should be dancing around in a jail cell, that's where they should be.'

"The Los Angeles-based band, whose illegal pyrotechnics allegedly touched off one of the worst nightclub fires in history, is in the midst of a controversial 40-date benefit tour that will hit Club Odyssey in Weymouth on Sept. 26. The band is not expected to play in Rhode Island.

" 'They'll be lucky if they don't have a lynching mob outside waiting for them,' said Sweet, whose son died watching the band with his 32-year-old girlfriend, Laura Gillette. 'I can't believe they're playing right in Weymouth, right in our back yard. I should bring them down to the cemetery to show them my son Shawn and his girlfriend. They're buried two feet apart.'

"The band says the tour is to raise money for the Station Family Fund but the Herald has learned that GREAT WHITE's standard nightly fee is $6,000, which is $1,000 more than their contract called for them to get paid for the doomed Station concert.

"Andrew Rome, who was supposed to host GREAT WHITE at his Leominster club, Liquid, said he was shocked at the lofty fee. Rome, who canceled the Leominster show because he sold the club, said the band claimed they needed the money to 'cover expenses.'' But Rome said he recently paid less for similar acts, including $4,400 for QUIET RIOT and $2,500 for DOKKEN guitarist George Lynch." Read more.