Shelved David Bowie Concert Film to Tour Arenas in 2027

An unreleased David Bowie concert film shot in 1978 will tour arenas in 2027 as a multi-screen live show called "Stage". It premieres at Berlin's Uber Arena on February 14, with further dates yet to be announced.

Brett Morgen, director of the 2022 Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream, adapted the footage for the production. The material comes from Bowie's Isolar II tour, the run behind his albums Low and "Heroes", and was originally shot on 35mm film by David Hemmings — the actor-turned-director best known for Blow-Up.

The show pairs Morgen's remastered film with an integrated lighting design from Patrick Woodroffe and immersive audio mixed by Paul Massey. According to the press release, the LED displays and audio mix target "auditoriums and venues with capacities starting at 5,000, enveloping audiences in the atmosphere of a full-scale rock concert." Rob Hallett's Wonderworld production company and the David Bowie Estate collaborated on the project.

Why did the footage sit unreleased for nearly 50 years?

Bowie had intended the Hemmings film, shot at Earls Court in London, to play in unorthodox spaces such as live venues — an alternative to touring himself, as The Guardian notes. In the end he released only a live album, 1978's Stage, and shelved the footage to focus on other projects. He also quit touring until 1983.

The artist himself explained the decision in a 2001 interview with Uncut: "I simply didn't like the way [Hemmings' footage] had been shot." He added: "Now, of course, it looks pretty good and I would suspect that it would make it out some time in the future."

That prediction took decades to cash out. Morgen conceived the project in 2018, while sifting Bowie's archives for Moonage Daydream; Hemmings' footage of the song "Heroes" made that film's final cut. He then spent years meticulously remastering the 35mm material and configuring it across multiple screens.

What does this change for Bowie's catalogue?

It converts a famously buried artefact into a touring commercial property, and it does so at arena scale rather than as a home-video release. Fans who have only known Stage as an album will finally see the concerts it documented — not on a streaming platform, but as the live-venue experience Bowie originally wanted.

The Berlin premiere, on Valentine's Day 2027, effectively tests whether a remastered 1978 performance can fill a modern 5,000-plus-capacity arena. If it does, the estate and Wonderworld will have a template for reviving other shelved Bowie material — and the announcement of additional dates will be the next signal to watch.