Incidents in Pink Floyd’s Concerts

Incidents in Pink Floyd’s concerts are as legendary as the band itself. Not every Pink Floyd concert went smoothly. In fact, some of them were marred by accidents, controversies and even violence. Here are some of the most notable incidents that happened during Pink Floyd’s concerts.

The ‘Infamous’ Montreal Show (1977)

This is the concert that has been said was the catalyst for Roger Waters writing The Wall. Many of the crowd at the show were in an unruly mood, with some idiots letting off fireworks in the crowd. Waters was so annoyed by this that he spat on one of the fans who tried to climb on stage. He later regretted his action and felt alienated from the audience. He also suffered from a stomach cramp and had to leave the stage for a while. The band played a shortened set and did not return for an encore. Waters later said that this was the worst show he ever played.

The Earls Court Collapse (1994)

In 1994, Pink Floyd played a series of concerts at Earls Court in London as part of their Division Bell Tour. On October 12, a 1,200-seat stand collapsed during the show, injuring more than 90 people. Three people were seriously injured and taken to hospital. The band was unaware of what happened until after the show. They later expressed their shock and anger over the incident and offered their sympathy to the victims. They also cancelled their next show and refunded the tickets. The cause of the collapse was suspected to be human error by the contractors who erected the stand.

The Roger Waters Rant (2023)

Roger Waters, who left Pink Floyd in 1985, returned to the stage in 2023 to perform the live premiere of his album Dark Side of the Moon Redux at the London Palladium. However, instead of playing music, he decided to spend a significant and early portion of the evening reading excerpts from his yet-to-be-published memoir, which is apparently titled Dark Side of the Moon: Memoirs of a Lanky Prick. He read from his laptop passages about his childhood, his pets and his former bandmates. One of the stories involved a duck named Donald that lasted for 20 minutes. The audience grew restless and bored, and some of them started to heckle him. Waters responded by telling them to “f*ck off” and “tell stories in your own time to your own audience in your own fucking theatre”. Many fans walked out before any songs were sung.