Scott Johnson moved to Hickleton, a centuries-old village of about 100 houses in northern England, with his parents when he was still in school so they’d be closer to Electro Music, a shop in nearby Doncaster. He’d gotten a job working there on Saturdays, which changed to full-time after he graduated from college. Scott had started drumming when he was 11 years old and playing in bands at 15, eventually contributing a surf-rock instrumental to a spy film’s soundtrack as a member of a Sheffield group called the Special Agents. Later, as a drum tech, he toured the world with Robyn, the Killers, Keane, and eventually Radiohead.
On June 16, 2012, a stage collapsed before Radiohead’s scheduled concert that night in Toronto’s Downsview Park. Scott, who was 33, was crushed to death. Three others were injured. Radiohead wrote that they were “shattered by the loss,” and the entire band and its crew attended Scott’s funeral in Doncaster. No less a music-business icon than Elton John phoned the family to offer his condolences, and the tragedy prompted industry soul-searching about how to end what had become a sad streak of stage-related accidents. But more than a year passed before authorities in Canada filed charges against Live Nation, the concert’s promoter. These days, the case’s lack of visibility in the music world at large seems to mimic a Radiohead song: “How to Disappear Completely.”
Scott is still gone, though. And the trial, at the Old City Hall Courthouse in Toronto, continues. In fact, the trial has dragged on so long that, absurd though it may seem, Live Nation is using its length as a defense. On October 14, Justice Shaun Nakatsuru is scheduled to hear a motion from the defendants that the case violates their constitutional right to a speedy trial, despite their role in delaying the trial at several turns.
Scott’s father, Ken Johnson, calls the motion a “stunt” and a “trick.” He wonders whether, if the defendants had put as much time and effort into simply building the stage, the collapse would’ve been avoided in the first place. “It just seems so frustrating that the trial seems no longer about Scott’s death,” he tells me via Skype, emotion welling in his voice. “It’s more about: How can we avoid any responsibilities?” Live Nation declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.
