Not only did a riot break-out at the front of the stage before the band finally left, but Waters disgraced himself earlier that night by spitting in the face of a rowdy fan. Touring guitarist Snowy White filled in Gilmour’s place, but that wasn’t even the only shameful shenanigan to take place over the evening. Things went from bad to worse when David Gilmour decided to sit out the final encore after failing to hide his annoyance with the band’s performance that night. Meanwhile, their roadies dismantled the stage before the band had the chance even to finish the song. It was during this show that the band decided to give fans a second encore of ‘ Drift Away Blues‘ to round off the set. It spilt over in the most distressing circumstances on the final night of the run at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. The project arrived at a curious time for Pink Floyd and, even though they were one of the biggest bands on the planet, they were drained mentally and physically, with The Wall being the perfect mechanism to explore these emotions.ġ977 saw Pink Floyd spend the first half of the year on a non-stop cycle of playing stadiums across the world, starting to play with Roger Waters, who was slowly becoming more mentally fragile as the tour went on. The first option was a 90-minute demo with the working title Bricks in the Wall, which the band decided to roll with and allow Waters to follow his creative vision.
The group first decided to take on the concept in July 1978, a period in time when Pink Floyd reconvened at Britannia Row Studios, and Roger Waters gave his bandmates two new ideas for concept albums. Roger Waters was inspired to create The Wall after a shocking incident on tour, which would be a low point in his life and cause him “eternal shame”. However, before the group even stepped foot in the studio to make the record, Pink Floyd already found themselves on the ropes. The Wall is arguably Pink Floyd’s magnum opus, a record that depicts the story of a burnt-out rock star who has turned his back on civilisation to become a recluse.