QUEEN guitarist Brian May's official website has issued the following update:

While for now is seems we will have to wait for next summer’s Nelson Mandela Hyde Park concert to see Queen live again, for those in need of a quick-fix reminder of the band at their royal best, a trip to a local cinema in the coming weeks will do the trick.

Queen Rock Montreal, Queen’s first concert filmed especially for cinemas, and not until now given the big screen treatment, will play at selected Empire cinemas later this month, several weeks ahead of its October 29th release on DVD and CD (Eagle Vision and EMI/Parlophone).

The film’s tour of cinemas begins in London at Leicester Square’s Empire 2, with late showings Friday September 21 and Saturday 22, and will also show the same nights in Wigan and Swindon

The film screens again at these cinemas at various time the following Tuesday, September 25, with an additional screening at Slough Empire. Further cities are to be confirmed.

Tickets for all these showings are now on sale at the Empire website where screening times are given: www.empirecinemas.co.uk. Details can also be found on www.queenrockmontreal.com.

Queen Rock Montreal was filmed at the height of the band’s worldwide popularity at two concerts in Montreal on November 24 and 25, 1981.

This was the point in the band’s career when they literally ruled the rock world. They had conquered America with a No.1 album and two No.1 singles, were back at the top of the UK charts with 'Under Pressure' and their first Greatest Hits album, and had just completed their history-making tour of Latin America in which they broke the world attendance record for a single concert when 131,000 people turned out to see them play at Brazil’s Morumbi stadium, followed by another 125,000 people the next night.

So it is no wonder that Queen were playing at the peak of their powers when they hit Montreal. “Hello Montreal…you wanna get crazy,” is Freddie’s opener before Queen then let rip with a blistering 96 minute performance.

Only previously seen on screen when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984, Queen Rock Montreal now gets to be seen as it was originally intended; large and loud in a brand new digital print of the highest possible quality and a unique theatrical 5.1 sound mix designed for best possible sound in a cinema environment.

Queen Rock Montreal at Empire cinemas from September 21.