David Gilmour recalled an incident in which he was electrocuted during a rehearsal when a piece of equipment malfunctioned. He mentioned that his fingers were still “trembling” from the shock during the actual performance.
Pink Floyd has had one of the most remarkable careers in rock music, allowing them to experience things that few, if any, others have. In David Gilmour’s case, this included being electrocuted at London’s Royal Festival Hall and living to tell the story. The incident occurred on April 14, 1969, while the progressive rock icons were rehearsing for a concert scheduled for later that day, as Gilmour recounted in a recent interview with Record Collector.
As he went about his business, a “wiring error” in an unspecified piece of equipment had him flying across the stage. He said:
“In the afternoon rehearsal, there had been a wiring error, and I got electrocuted. I flew over the drum kit and landed on the floor on the other side, missing Nick’s head by inches.”
He added:
“The shock stays in you for a long time, and my fingers were still shaking all through the concert.”
Gilmour noted that Pink Floyd had a reputation for using “new electronics” at the time, adding that some of it had to do with their friendship with Peter Zinovieff. He added,
“In Pompeii, we were asked, ‘Do you control them, or do they control you?’ Well, let them control you and see what happens. There was a moment when there was a lot of that electronic gear coming at us, partly because we were friends with Peter Zinovieff, who owned Electronic Music Systems [EMS] in Putney.”
“I would go round his house and into his big shed where he would be looking to miniaturise electronics into a briefcase. The VCS3 was a big wooden thing, and the Synthi AKS was pretty much the same, with extra electronics.”
In the same interview, Gilmour reflected on his recent solo album “Luck and Strange”, which became his third number-one album on the UK Albums Chart:
“I love ‘Luck and Strange.’ I would venture to suggest it’s my best solo album. Maybe it’s my best album. I’m really satisfied with the way it came out with the team of people that came together to make it.”
