Radiohead have posted a new statement to the band’s Twitter account concerning the collapse of a temporary stage at Downsview Park Toronto in 2012, which led to the death of the band’s drum technician Scott Johnson, asking that those “responsible” for the incident apologise to Johnson’s family and friends.
In the statement posted this afternoon (November 5), the band said that “we all acknowledge that no one intended for Scott to die,” but notes that “only Optex staging company owner Dale Martin has taken any ownership of his role in the tragedy”. Read the full statement below.
— Radiohead (@radiohead) November 5, 2019
Johnson died in June 2012 at the age of 33 after a stage roof collapsed on him ahead of a Radiohead gig at Toronto’s Downsview Park. Three other people were also injured in the stage collapse. A Toronto-held inquest concluded in April, returning a verdict of accidental death — a conclusion the band called “frustratingly insufficient given that the stage collapse was shown to be preventable”.
Last month (October 25) a coroner in charge of the second inquest into Johnson’s death said the collapse was due to “inadequate construction techniques”.
Among those in attendance at the inquest on October 24 were Scott’s father Ken Johnson, Radiohead’s Philip Selway (who said Johnson was a “lovely person, very sunny and very professional”), Keane‘s Richard Hughes and Paul Bonney of The Australian Pink Floyd Experience.
Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Nicola Mundy said: “Inadequate technical advice coupled with wholly inadequate construction techniques led to the collapse of the roof system which led to Scott Johnson’s death.
“It’s quite clear from what I have heard that the design and construction itself had inherent deficiencies within them.”