The Night Roger Waters Spit on a Fan in Montreal (1977)

It happened at the Olympic Stadium on July 6, 1977. Floyd was deep into the Animals tour, and the vibe had soured — the band was playing huge, impersonal venues, and the crowd was restless, setting off fireworks and shouting all through the quieter parts of the set. During “Pigs (Three Different Ones),” a fan near the front kept screaming and lighting firecrackers. Waters leaned down and spat directly at him. He later said he felt like the crowd was just there for a spectacle, not the music, and that the fan’s behavior broke something in him.

Right after the show, the rest of the band was stunned and angry. David Gilmour recalled thinking Waters had crossed a line — he walked offstage without speaking to him. Nick Mason described the mood as grim, and Waters himself locked himself in his dressing room, shaken. The incident became a turning point: Waters started developing the idea that would become The Wall, a wall between performer and audience. The band never fully repaired that breach on tour; they’d cancel all North American dates in 1980–81 for The Wall shows, and the 1977 spat is often cited as the moment the seeds of the band’s eventual fracture were planted.