With just over a week to go until the cinema screenings start at selected cinemas, last night in London saw a special preview showing of Roger Waters This Is Not A Drill Live In Prague at Dolby's Screening Room in Soho, which Brain Damage was lucky enough to attend.

The concert originally had a live cinema broadcast around the world on May 25th, 2023, and included some footage from the preceding night (May 24th). As those behind it are keen to point out, this upcoming version is nothing like the original stream, and is a completely new entity, featuring a brand new edit from all the footage, captured by multiple 8K cameras.

From beginning to end, it looked really stunning. This is coupled with an absolutely excellent audio mix, which gave Dolby's speakers a great workout. It had an entirely suitable surround mix, giving nice involvement and positioning, and kept extreme surround effects to the appropriate places (Dark Side voices, and suchlike) without overusing them.

Interestingly, a lot of attention is given to Roger and the band, making it more focused on their performance rather than majoring on the screen imagery and messaging. For those who saw the tour, much of the attention in the venues inevitably was on the screen, so this new film gives the opportunity to get up close to the musicians throughout the show. This approach also seems to soften some of the political nature of the show, which might make it more palatable to those who aren't so keen on this aspect of Roger's presentations.

For those seeing it in the cinema (or subsequently at home), don't leave as the end titles are due to start, as they have included some amusing behind-the-scenes footage from the development and rehearsal of the tour, which is worth watching.

With such high quality capturing of the performance, it was an easy guess that it would receive a home release at some point, and that is coming on August 1st, 2025, when it will be available to buy on Blu-ray and DVD, in a special 4LP vinyl package, and on a double CD. It will also be available via the normal digital services too.

As a reminder, you have a chance to enjoy the incredible new version of the Prague performance in cinemas later this month, thanks to Trafalgar Releasing - and it really is worth capturing on the big screen with a great sound system! For information on dates, venues and tickets - which are now on sale - visit RogerWaters.film or participating cinemas.

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Finally, here's the trailer for Live From Prague: