“I flew over the drum kit and missed Nick’s head by inches”: David Gilmour on the time he suffered an electric shock during a 1969 Pink Floyd rehearsal due to a “wiring error”
Looking back on some of his fondest gig memories from his storied six-decade career, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour has detailed one unfortunate incident during a show in London in the late ‘60s.
Specifically, the show took place at Royal Festival Hall on 14 April, 1969, and during rehearsal, Gilmour suffered an electric shock due to a “wiring error” with some of the equipment.
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In the afternoon rehearsal there had been a wiring error, and I got electrocuted,” he recalls in the new issue of Record Collector. “I flew over the drum kit and landed on the floor on the other side, missing Nick’s head by inches.”
As he explains, “The shock stays in you for a long time, and my fingers were still shaking all through the concert.”
Gilmour doesn’t pinpoint exactly what piece of equipment was responsible for the electric shock, but notes that the band had a “reputation for using new electronics”.
“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.
Elsewhere in the interview, Gilmour reflects on his latest solo album. “I love Luck and Strange,” he says. “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.”
Mentioning, specifically, vocalist and collaborator Polly Samson, he continues: “My main ally in all this is Polly, who is a brilliant lyricist and has ideas about every part of it.”
The post “I flew over the drum kit and missed Nick’s head by inches”: David Gilmour on the time he suffered an electric shock during a 1969 Pink Floyd rehearsal due to a “wiring error” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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