Canadian electronic music star Richie Hawtin evidently isn't a fan of cellphones at live shows. This much became clear over the weekend, when the producer pushed a speaker onto a fan recording his set on an iPhone. The beatmaker also known as Plastikman has since said this was an accident.
The incident took place on Saturday (November 29) at New York City's Time Warp event at the Kingsbridge Armory. Footage from the show — ironically recorded by a different fan with a phone — shows Hawtin pushing a large monitor into the chest of a woman rather obtrusively filming him from point blank range.
Hawtin has since issued a statement explaining that he was trying to indicate to the woman that she should back off and stop filming, but he never intended to push the monitor onto her. His Facebook statement is as follows:
Regarding the incident at Time Warp in New York this weekend which is being posted and talked about on the web, I would like to apologise here to the girl involved. It was not my intention that the speaker fell. Only to nudge the monitors in her direction and for her to understand that perhaps she had filmed enough. I was as surprised as I'm sure she was when it moved the way it did and the top speaker fell off of the stack. For that, I'm extremely sorry and embarrassed about what happened. This was never my intention. Sometimes being in the middle of the spotlight, continual cameras and glaring iPhone lights, things can get stressful and frustrating. I'm sorry that this frustration took an unexpected turn and took away from anyone's experience of Time Warp. I have tried to reach the girl to apologise personally but have not yet been able to track her down and will continue to try to contact her.
A number of commenters on the post have called this explanation into question, saying that the speaking-pushing appeared to be intentional and that Hawtin's reaction didn't appear to be one of surprise.
According to Dancing Astronaut, the woman was uninjured. Her phone didn't break either.
Watch the incident below. The speaker-pushing happens at around the 44-second mark.
The incident took place on Saturday (November 29) at New York City's Time Warp event at the Kingsbridge Armory. Footage from the show — ironically recorded by a different fan with a phone — shows Hawtin pushing a large monitor into the chest of a woman rather obtrusively filming him from point blank range.
Hawtin has since issued a statement explaining that he was trying to indicate to the woman that she should back off and stop filming, but he never intended to push the monitor onto her. His Facebook statement is as follows:
Regarding the incident at Time Warp in New York this weekend which is being posted and talked about on the web, I would like to apologise here to the girl involved. It was not my intention that the speaker fell. Only to nudge the monitors in her direction and for her to understand that perhaps she had filmed enough. I was as surprised as I'm sure she was when it moved the way it did and the top speaker fell off of the stack. For that, I'm extremely sorry and embarrassed about what happened. This was never my intention. Sometimes being in the middle of the spotlight, continual cameras and glaring iPhone lights, things can get stressful and frustrating. I'm sorry that this frustration took an unexpected turn and took away from anyone's experience of Time Warp. I have tried to reach the girl to apologise personally but have not yet been able to track her down and will continue to try to contact her.
A number of commenters on the post have called this explanation into question, saying that the speaking-pushing appeared to be intentional and that Hawtin's reaction didn't appear to be one of surprise.
According to Dancing Astronaut, the woman was uninjured. Her phone didn't break either.
Watch the incident below. The speaker-pushing happens at around the 44-second mark.