BAND'S SUICIDE BATTLE

A rock group says it will go ahead with an on-stage suicide during a concert in the US next weekend, in defiance of a hastily-enacted law designed to scuttle the plan.

Hard-rock band Hell on Earth said a suicide by a terminally ill person would take place during a concert on Saturday in St Petersburg, Florida, to raise awareness of right-to-die issues.


The city council unanimously approved emergency legislation making it illegal to conduct a suicide for commercial or entertainment purposes, and to host, promote and sell tickets for such an event.

"While I still think it's a publicity stunt, we couldn't sit idly by and let somebody lose their life," council member Bill Foster said.

A judge granted the city a temporary injunction against the band, preventing them from advertising the show and allowing the suicide.

But band leader Billy Tourtelot said: "The show will go on."

Tourtelot, 33, said the concert will be played before "a select few people" at an undisclosed location in St Petersburg and will be shown live on the band's website.

He wouldn't disclose any details about the terminally ill person or say how the death would take place.

The Florida-based band, known for such outrageous on-stage stunts as chocolate syrup wrestling and grinding up live rats in a blender, created the furore by announcing that the suicide would happen at the State Theatre in central St Petersburg.

But the theatre's owner, David Hundley, promptly cancelled the band's show, and another venue also turned away the event.

Tourtelot said the band was aiming to raise awareness that physician-assisted suicide should be legalised in Florida.