Look upon Hop the Pond Productions' work and despair, O Nth generation VHS cassettes.

Ahem. Anyhoo, what we have here is Hop the Pond's beautiful 2-disc presentation of Waters' 2002 World Tour. At this point, you've made up your own mind about the setlist (it being nearly a carbon copy of ITF 2000 (and it being nearly a carbon copy of ITF 1999)), so I'm just gonna bullet down why on earth anyone would ever want to get this when 'In the Flesh' is available.

* This is a two-camera mix, one camera on the floor, one in the Upper Level VoIO Zone. Both occasionally come in close enough so that, say, Chester Kamen's hands fill the entire screen.

* Both cameras are blessedly unobscured....well, someone's hand pops up in front of the floor cam on occasion, but it isn't enough to get even mildly worked up about.

* While Chester Kamen's guitar work during this tour was a bit uneven, this was shot on one of his good nights. One of his really good nights (see 'SOYCD6-9').

* All the fun film effects absent from the 2000 and 1999 tours appear here in crisp color and completely flicker free. I think it's safe to say the days of strobe-light backdrop films is finally coming to an end

* The cameramen shoot just enough of these films...meaning that you see all the parts you want to see, but the players onstage aren't neglected either.

* This features, IMHO, the finest live version of 'Shine On...(Parts VI-IX)' around.

* If you don't care for that night's encore ('Each Small Candle') you can choose 'The Flickering Flame' from a different date instead

* Commercial DVD-style extras....Scarfe nerds can enjoy an angle devoted solely to the 'Welcome to the Machine' film, for example. There's also home video footage of a photo session for Snowy White (who, IIRC, released a solo album during this tour) and a bit of rehearsal foolishness from ol' miseryguts himself.

Now to go over the cons, of which there are few :

* It may just be my copy, but there are a couple of spots where the video pauses and the audio stutters for a quarter/half second. There are only 3 spots where this happens, and they're not bad, but they are present and noticable.

* The sound seems a bit strangely compressed at times. The audio quality itself doesn't suffer, but the eagle-eared may notice.

* I just can't get used to Chester Kamen's voice.

* This set list is, admittedly, getting a bit tired by now despite the minor adjustments.

* The backdrop films for 'Speak to Me', 'Time', 'Brain Damage/Eclipse', and '5:06am (Every Stranger's Eyes)' were inexplicably absent from this tour (as was the "flowering orb" portion of 'Welcome to the Machine')

* I'm sorry, but 'The Flickering Flame' is just not a good song. I liked it better when it was called 'Your Possible Pasts'.

There it is. Admittedly, only total Waters nerds would care about a few of those cons, but they're there for those who need them. Is it worth tracking down in the end ? Very much so. It won't replace your copy of 'In the Flesh' (hell, it's not supposed to), but it is a wonderful companion to it, especially for American audiences who missed out on all the fun in 2002. This beats the handful of 2002 Waters VoIOs that have emerged thus far to a bloody smear.

'In the Flesh'	'Welcome to the Machine'	'Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX)'
'Money'	'The Flickering Flame' (2002-05-08)	Snowy White Photo Session