Great White, Club Sued

Family members of Tina Ayer and Donald Roderiques, two of the ninety-eight people killed in the February 20th fire at Rhode Island's Station nightclub, filed wrongful death suits in Providence Superior Court yesterday. The claims name both Great White, whose pyrotechnics set off the blaze, and the club's owners Michael and Jeffrey Derderian.

Also named as defendants in the suit were the town of West Warwick, where the Station is located, the American Foam Corp., which made the packing foam the nightclub installed for soundproofing, a fire inspector who passed the club on an inspection last year and the man who ignited the pyrotechnics. As many as thirty families are expected to join the litigation.

A grand jury convened in Rhode Island last week to investigate the possibility of criminal wrongdoing. Yesterday, Great White guitarist Mark Kendall testified.

The members of Great White have maintained that they had permission from club owners to set off the sparklers, but the owners have denied that claim.

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Song Stories

“Too Close”

Next | 1998

Next was formed in Minneapolis when the uncle of Terry "T-Low" and Raphael "Tweety" Brown, who was a gospel choir director, introduced the brothers to Robert Lavelle "R.L." Huggar. Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby groomed the R&B group before handing them over to Naughty by Nature's KayGee, who wrote and produced "Too Close." The idea for the song was sparked "from a conversation we had with several girls at a nightclub," explained T-Low. "It's talking about the club scene, with guys getting out of hand and the female telling him to back up, asking, 'What are you doing?'" 

More Song Stories entries »

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