SEARCH FOR ANSWERS
Investigators hunting for the source of the stage insulation used at The
Station nightclub searched a Johnston foam manufacturer Tuesday night
and took samples of products.
The club's makeshift soundproofing, described as common egg-crate foam
packing, ignited like a volatile fuel last Thursday night when the rock
band Great White opened its show with fireworks. The blaze raced through
the wooden building in minutes, trapping concert goers. Ninety-six died
in the conflagration and 187 others were injured, dozens critically.
Owners of American Foam Corp. did not return messages left yesterday at
the company's office at 61 John St., Johnston. According to the
company's Web site, American Foam operates a 100,000-square-foot
manufacturing facility and has been in business more than 30 years.
The club's former manager, Tim Arnold, of Johnston, would not confirm or
deny yesterday that he had installed the foam soundproofing. A woman who
answered the door at his house said Arnold no longer worked at a foam
company.
THE STATION was renowned by local bands as having a great sound system.
To neighbors, it had the reputation as a noisy nuisance -- a problem
which brothers Michael and Jeffrey Derderian sought to quickly resolve
after buying the club in March 2000.
Geoffrey E. Rousselle, who served on the West Warwick Town Council from
1998 to 2002, remembers that town officials had pressed the club's
previous owners to cut down on illegal parking, loitering and noise.
"It was getting pretty heated. We were thinking about revoking their
[liquor] license," he said.
When the Derderians bought the club, Rousselle said, the council granted
The Station only a short, contingency liquor license, rather than a
standard 1-year license. If the problems persisted, the council was
prepared to revoke the license, he said. But instead, the situation
improved.
"I just know that when the Derderians arrived on the scene, they were
very proactive about appeasing the neighbors and making the place work,"
Rousselle said.
Robert Moorehead, a West Warwick Town Council member from 1990 through
November of 2000, said the council received several complaints of noise
at The Station. Months after the Derderians bought the club, those
complaints stopped, Moorehead said. "I felt the problem had been dealt
with."
The solution apparently had come with the new soundproofing the
Derderians had installed. Whether the soundproofing was safe and fire
retardant, as required by law, is now at the center of the investigation.
"I KNOW for a fact that that foam wasn't of any kind of acoustical
insulation," said Bruce Grupposo, a guitarist for the group Mutha Ugly,
which played at The Station every month.
Other members of the band said the foam looked like regular packing
material which the club had painted black and decorated with light party
glitter.
Rob Ellis, lead singer for the band, which last played at The Station in
November, said: "It was cheeseball. . . . I remember specifically
looking at the foam. It looked like it was egg crate spray-painted, and
you could see glitter on the egg crate. . . ."
The Station was one of the only clubs, he said, that had "that much
foam," extending to the bathrooms and over an exit door.
Janine Grupposo, wife of lead guitarist for Mutha Ugly, said she and the
other wives and girlfriends of band members used to sit along the walls
and talk about how it looked like the walls had been decorated with
"that spray you use at Halloween."
"It was a light even spread, hard to see, but [it] shimmered. I would
sit there and pick at it. I noticed it at our first show in 2001 -- I
thought they must have remodeled."
Jason Williams, the bass player for the band Trip, which was touring
with Great White, said the soundproofing encased the whole stage, around
the drums, up the side walls and on the ceiling.
"It looked old. I've never seen any soundproofing on any other stages on
the tour like that, if any.
"That's one thing we noticed about the place, it was soundproofed on the
stage," Williams said. "We thought, wow, we're going to get really good
volume."
Carroll, the Mutha Ugly drummer, said: "None of that stuff should have
been put up there."
Al Prudhomme, drummer of the band Fathead, which opened for Great White
at The Station, said the foam seemed unstable. "That stuff would just
fall off, and they would glue it back up."
INVESTIGATORS are also looking into the number of patrons at the club
last week and whether the crowd exceeded its occupancy limit.
Local officials have put the club's legal capacity at 300 patrons.
However, The Station listed its patron capacity at nearly double the
legal limit in a music-industry guidebook used by entertainment agents
to book acts.
The 2003 Talent Buyers' Directory, published twice a year by
California-based Pollstar, listed the club's capacity at 550.
A Pollstar spokesman said yesterday that the information contained in
its listings is provided by the venues, typically by fax.
The Station listed Mike Derderian as "owner/booking" in the Pollstar
guide.
Mark Hyman, an agent who represents the band Quiet Riot, said his
clients played The Station last June 21. The band's contract listed the
club capacity at 550, he said.
None of the acts that Hyman represents uses pyrotechnics, he said. His
bands had no complaints about The Station. "Nobody ever raved about the
place; nobody ever complained about it," he said.
Paul Vanner, sound manager and stage coordinator at The Station, said he
estimated the crowd at the Great White show at 325. "I've seen it
busier. . . . It wasn't that bad."
Williams, the bass player for Trip, said yesterday that club workers
bragged about the size of past crowds as the band unloaded its equipment
last Thursday afternoon.
Williams said his first impression of The Station was that "the club was
pretty small."
"But that was no big deal because we've played small clubs before that
were packed and had great crowds," he said.
For last Thursday's show, Williams said, "We heard it was sold out when
we first got there, but then they continued to sell tickets all day. I'm
pretty sure there were over 300."
Williams said he had heard from some staff at the club that as many as
600 or 700 people had attended shows there.
"We were going, 'What, no way! There's no way you could have 700 people
in there.' "
JODY CYR, a Maine-based music promoter who used to work with many
'80s-era "hair bands" that toured throughout the Northeast, used to book
bands into The Station under the Derderians.
She said she was told that The Station held between 400 and 500 people.
In general, clubs "can't afford the bands if they're doing less"
traffic, she said.
Tricia Byrnes, who manages her husband's Massachusetts-based Aerosmith
tribute band Draw the Line, said yesterday, "The occupancy, from what I
know, is 250 to 300, depending on whether they have the pool tables in
or not."
Byrnes said sometimes the pool tables were carried outdoors to make room
for a bigger crowd.
Her original contract with the club -- sent to her by the Derderians
shortly after they took over the club's management -- said the club's
capacity was 200.
Byrnes said her band drew crowds several times a year of 200 to 250
people to The Station. Draw the Line's most recent gig at the club was
Dec. 28.
Bands negotiate their fee based on the size of the room, Byrnes said. So
in her experience clubs generally under-sell the capacity in contract
talks to get a better price. Many bands negotiate for a cut of ticket
sales after a certain block of tickets are sold, she said, to make sure
they get more money if a good crowd comes in.
Byrnes said she always posted herself or someone else she worked with
near the door, with a clicker, to count the crowd, and to compare
numbers with the club at the end of the night to determine the band's
pay.
Governor Carcieri has said that the numbers of dead and injured, added
to the number of people who said they got out of the club safely,
suggest that the club was over capacity.
With reports by Mark Arsenault, W. Zachary Malinowski and Zachary Mider.
and Mark Arsenault.
