GREAT WHITE Concert In Massachusetts Called Off

GREAT WHITE's previously announced concert at Club Odyssey in Weymouth, Massachusetts was cancelled yesterday after complaints from people who thought the Massachusetts venue was too close to the scene of the Feb. 20 tragedy, according to the Providence Journal.

"We did get official word that it was actually cancelled," Shelby Tillett, assistant to Weymouth Mayor David Madden, said this morning.

She said the band's manager called the office yesterday to say that the concert had been called off.

Tillett said the mayor's office had received "tons" of calls from people complaining about the scheduled concert.

GREAT WHITE's publicist, V.Q. Promotions of Burbank, Ca., issued a statement last night and received today, saying the concert had been cancelled "due to negative reaction by the local radio stations."

"Although hundreds of people have requested the band perform in New England, the band feels that this is about healing," the statement says. "The people in Rhode Island and Massachusetts have already had enough pressure to deal with. The band does not wish to add further stress in any way."

The Sept. 26 performance would have marked GREAT WHITE's first performance in New England since the fire. The band had previously scheduled a Sept. 26 performance at Club Liquid in Leominster, Mass., but that, too, was cancelled.

Some people believe any good from the concert would have come at too high a price.

"It's too close to Rhode Island, There are too many families from Massachusetts involved, " said Dawn Moquin, of New Bedford, Mass., whose former boyfriend, the father of her son, was injured in the fire. The fire claimed victims from around southern New England.

Moquin and her current boyfriend, Leo Wells, also of New Bedford, are part of a group, including survivors, friends and family, pushing an online petition to keep the band from playing in Rhode Island, Massachusetts or Connecticut.

The group started the petition last month when the band was scheduled to play in Leominster. The group redoubled its efforts when word spread of the Weymouth concert, and it's keeping the petition going in case the band tries to schedule another date in the area, Moquin said.

Wells said, "It's too controversial and it hurts a certain group of people too much to let it happen."