After my latest annual happy birthday wishes to Pink Floyd’s iconic Dark Side of the Moon, MarkB sent along a link to David Gilmour and his daughter Romany singing Wish You Were Here at an impromptu appearance at an open mic night in a local pub. That was in September 2024. Shortly after MarkB sent the video, I was telling some friends about it and one asked me how old Romany was. I didn’t know but said I thought she was in her early twenties.
The next day, I decided to look it up and discovered to my horror that Romany had passed away in February 2025. She was only 22. My heart goes out to Gilmour and his wife Polly Samson. I can’t imagine the pain of losing a child like that.
Update : Alasdair Dickson writes to say that this isn’t true and that Romany is alive and well. When I first wrote this post I found several sites reporting her death. They’re still reporting it but I find no mention of her death on the French or Dutch language Wikipedias (She doesn’t have an English language entry) and some sites are still talking about her as if she were still performing.
At this point, I don’t know what the truth is. Dickson seems quite emphatic but, of course, his comment is just another voice from the Internet. I’d certainly be relieved to learn that Romany is alive and that, as Mark Twain famously quipped, reports of her death are greatly exaggerated.
If anyone can point me to a reliable source concerning this, I’d be grateful. I’ll update this post further if I discover anything more.