AUSTIN, Texas, March 22 (UPI) -- The British pop band OMD says they expected their concert at the South by Southwest music festival in Texas to be shortened after a stage mishap.
OMD played three shows in Austin during the festival. As the British group was about to take the stage at Stubbs last Friday night, a camera boom fell into the crowd and injured four people, who were taken to a hospital.
The band said in a release "various media have misconstrued comments made from the band on the incident."
"Once we realized what had actually happened, and that there were people who needed medical treatment, it was obvious that we could not start playing. I guess that if there was any 'luck' involved, it was the fact that the camera crane fell before we actually started," OMD lead singer Andy McCluskey said in a statement Tuesday. "It would have been much more confusing and slower to resolve if we were into the set. I expected the concert to be canceled. We just waited to see if the injured were going to be OK. (I hear that they are OK). Once the police said it was fine to play we decided that we should at least do something for those who had paid money and waited until 1:30 a.m. Even though the a.m. curfew would not be pushed back! It felt rather weird at the beginning, but slowly the band and audience started to re-connect. It was actually a great 7-song set! And an even greater relief that no one is permanently hurt!"
McCluskey added the band plans to get in touch directly with the injured.
"Please note that we have been misquoted in some of the media, slandering Stubbs, which is not the case," McCluskey said. "We unfortunately had our set cut at another venue in a very unprofessional manner earlier in the week and that information was misconstrued with our statement about the accident at Stubbs."
Spinner.com said the band's show at Maggie Mae's was shortened Thursday night, prompting McCluskey to write on the OMD Web site Friday: "The venue... or should I say 's-- hole'... had a very tight policy on scheduling ... Unfortunately there was a totally unrealistic plan for changeover times. Most bands went on late and got told to stop early."
