Back in 2012, Radiohead were set to play an outdoor concert in Toronto. Shortly before the audience was due to file in, the stage collapsed, tragically killing their drum technician and friend, Scott Johnson.
Four years later, Radiohead dedicated their next album, A Moon-Shaped Pool, to Johnson.
But it would taken eight years and multiple governmental and industry investigations (you can read up on those here via Pitchfork), to get to the bottom of the disaster, with the Discipline Committee of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) recently determining “negligence” on the part of engineer Domenic Cugliari, who designed and approved the stage, was to blame.
In response to the revelations, Thom Yorke & co have issued a joint statement via social media, slamming Cugliari for waiting close to a decade to fess up to what they call his “catalogue of errors”.
Radiohead’s statement reads:
“On 16th November 2020, the Discipline Committee of the Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO) conducted a hearing to investigate Domenic Cugliari, the engineer responsible for the design and approval of the stage which collapsed at Downsview Park in Toronto, ahead of our scheduled show on 16th June 2012, killing Scott Johnson, our tour technician and friend.
Mr Cugliari has acknowledged in this hearing, his catalogue of errors and the negligence on his part that led to the stage collapse and Scott’s death. These admissions are 8 years too late. If the evidence now accepted by Mr Cugliari had been agreed at the original court case brought against him, @livenation and the contractor Optex Staging, it would have been complete in one day, with a very different outcome and some justice would have been delivered. As it is, Mr Cugliari has now retired and, is seemingly beyond any legal recrimination.
This is a sad day. Our thoughts and love are, as ever, with Scott’s parents, Ken and Sue Johnson, his family and friends, and our crew.”
You can check out the band’s full post below.
