How Roger Waters Spitting on a Fan in Montreal 1977 Created 'The Wall'

The most famous incident of fan-performer alienation in rock history happened on July 6, 1977, at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium. Midway through Pink Floyd’s “In the Flesh” tour, Roger Waters was already fed up with the rowdy crowds—firecrackers, constant shouting, people rushing the stage. During the set, a fan near the front kept screaming and trying to climb the barrier. Waters, at the end of his rope, leaned over and spat directly in the fan’s face.

That moment haunted Waters. He later said he felt disgusted with himself and with the relationship between the band and its audience. The barrier he had just crossed became a metaphor: instead of a literal spitting incident, what if he built a wall between