Roger Waters will release physical versions of his concert film Us + Them and its soundtrack this fall.
For now, he’s releasing a clip showcasing a suite of songs from Pink Floyd’s The Wall album, starting with a helicopter spotlight surveying the crowd during “The Happiest Days of Our Lives.” Children stand at the front of the stage dressed in orange jumpsuits and executioner masks like prisoners, and the lights go up for the transition into “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2.” About halfway through, the kids remove their masks and jumpsuits to show T-shirts that bear the word “Resist,” as the song segues into a triumphant “Another Brick in the Wall Part 3.”
The film, which Waters co-directed with his long-time collaborator Sean Evans, will come out on October 2nd on Blu-ray and DVD and its soundtrack will also be available on CD and vinyl. It’s currently available to stream or purchase on digital platforms. The physical releases adds two songs that weren’t in the original film — The Wall’s “Comfortably Numb” and Is This the Life We Really Want’s “Smell the Roses” — bonus features, as well as a behind-the-scenes short film, dubbed A Fleeting Glimpse.
Waters’ Us + Them tour spanned 2017 and 2018 and found him juxtaposing hits from his career with Pink Floyd and solo cuts from his recently released Is This the Life … with his messages of humanity and resisting tyranny. He and his band played 156 shows on the tour to 2.3 million people. The footage in the Us + Them film comes from the tour’s stop in Amsterdam and includes some shots filmed in the U.K.
This summer, Waters was supposed to mount another grand North American tour — dubbed This Is Not a Drill — but he had to postpone it due to the coronavirus pandemic. He called the decision a bummer in a statement, but said, “if it saves one life, it’s worth it.”
Waters recently told Rolling Stone that despite the postponement, he is carrying on with planning for the tour. “The show is part rock & roll arena show, part cinema,” he said. “It’s couched on this idea that we are divided between the ruling classes, who I characterize as living in the iCloud. They live in the sky — it’s all white up there, and they live in great luxury. And then there’s the netherworld where the rest of us shuffle around, uncomfortably numb. And then there’s a third place, the bar, which is a figment of my imagination, where people from all over the world, all communities, colors, creeds, religions can gather and speak to one another. I will be employing actors to be characters in the bar — I’m already casting and I’ve written the whole screenplay.”
He also used some of his time in self-isolation to record a socially distanced rendition of “Mother,” from The Wall.
Roger Waters: Us + Them Blu-ray and DVD Tracklist:
1. “Intro”
2. “Speak to Me”
3. “Breathe”
4. “One of These Days”
5. “Time”
6. “Breathe (Reprise)”
7. “The Great Gig in the Sky”
8. “Welcome to the Machine”
9. “Déjà Vu”
10. “The Last Refugee”
11. “Picture That”
12. “Wish You Were Here”
13. “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”
14. “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2”
15. “Another Brick in the Wall Part 3”
16. “Dogs”
17. “Pigs (Three Different Ones)”
18. “Money”
19. “Us and Them”
20. “Brain Damage”
21. “Eclipse”
22. “The Last Refugee (Reprise)”
23. “Déjà Vu (Reprise)”
Bonus footage:
“A Fleeting Glimpse” (Documentary)
“Comfortably Numb” (Live Performance)
“Smell the Roses” (Live Performance)
Roger Waters: Us + Them CD Tracklist:
Disc One:
1. “Intro”
2. “Speak to Me”
3. “Breathe”
4. “One of These Days”
5. “Time”
6. “Breathe (Reprise)”
7. “The Great Gig in the Sky”
8. “Welcome to the Machine”
9. “Déjà Vu”
10. “The Last Refugee”
11. “Picture That”
12. “Wish You Were Here”
13. “The Happiest Days of Our Lives”
14. “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2”
15. “Another Brick in the Wall Part 3”
Disc Two:
1. “Dogs”
2. “Pigs (Three Different Ones)”
3. “Money”
4. “Us and Them”
5. “Brain Damage”
6. “Eclipse”
7. “The Last Refugee (Reprise)”
8. “Déjà Vu (Reprise)”
