At an inquest into the death of crew member Scott Johnson at Toronto's Downsview Park, Phil Selway claims that the band heard 'a very loud sound of breaking glass' as the stage collapsed.
- Mar 27, 2019
AceShowbiz - Radiohead drummer Phil Selway informed an inquest the band is still traumatised by the death of a crew member when a stage collapsed at a Canadian gig in 2012.
Phil's drum technician Scott Johnson died at Toronto's Downsview Park when the stage collapsed an hour before fans were due to arrive at the venue.
In 2017, a judge stayed charges brought against the show's promoter, Live Nation, engineer Domenic Cugliari and contractor Optex Staging, citing a Canadian law protecting the right to a timely hearing, but an inquest into the accident began in Toronto on Monday, March 25.
During the 51-year-old musician's evidence he said the tragedy had caused the band, "immeasurable pain and grief" and had made them feel "vulnerable where we used to feel secure," according to the BBC.
He also told the inquest how they had heard "a very loud sound of breaking glass, which reached a crescendo" and then rushed to the stage only to see that it had collapsed.
Phil expressed anger that the charges were stayed after the case was originally ruled a mistrial when the presiding judge was promoted to the Ontario Superior Court.
"After all the charges were stayed, we had a real sense of injustice from it and nothing constructive, from our point of view, came out of that court case," the "Creep" hitmaker told reporters from Canada's CityNews TV news show outside the courtroom. "So we feel a responsibility to Scott, we feel a responsibility to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, and our crew, and to our audience as well to keep pursuing this."
Radiohead was due to perform to a sell-out crowd at Downsview Park when the stage's metal scaffold roofing collapsed onto crew members preparing for the gig, killing Scott and injuring three.
They only returned to the city to perform in 2018, when they held a minute's silence for Scott and from the stage frontman Thom Yorke condemned the failure to hold people to account. The inquest into the crew member's death continues.
