Rock DVDs make compelling viewing

The Material Girl's arrogance is laughable but she still delivers as a performer. Picture / Reuters

MADONNA
I'm Going to Tell You A Secret
(Warners)
The Material Girl re-invents herself as a self-centred oracle of truth and wisdom, but still rocks out under the lights. Comes with a live CD, her first.

THE WHO
Tommy and Quadrophenia Live
(Warner)
Old boys and mates re-enact their shining hours with surprising passion, power and commitment.

PINK FLOYD
Pulse
(Sony/BMG)
Lights! Cameras! And ... inaction, as a staid-looking Waters-free Floyd play Dark Side in its entirety. And more. Massive sounding and great looking though.

BEASTIE BOYS
Awesome. I Shot That
(Roadshow)
Beasties give cameras to audience members and get them to do the work.

The sheer volume of music DVDs on the market means artists have to do something other than film a live show to make sell-through product. Ambition now makes the masterpiece.

Like Madonna, whose I'm Going to Tell You A Secret is less a live show than a doco-cum-vehicle to present her new, Kabala-based world view.

Where once she sold sex, now she is selling The Great Truth: that there is more to life than fame and fortune. She passes this wisdom to her (un-famous, fortune-free) fans, dancers, crew, sycophants and anyone who'll listen to her quasi-mystical babble.

The former Material Girl speaks about the superficiality of the material world, opened her 2004 Re-Invention Tour - from which this footage is taken - with a reading from the Book of Revelation (which threatens a lake of fire for fornicators), and says "that really hurt me to hear that" when her tour manager says he doesn't believe in God.

Her pomposity, egocentrism and arrogance are laughable, especially when she has a prayer before one show and asks that her troupe (of nuns in mini-skirts and semi-naked dancers) "inspire [the audience] to be better versions of themselves than the people they are already".

However, the live footage has real impact. She is a remarkably agile and engaging performer, the staging is extravagant with huge back-screens, and there are dozens of dancers-cum-gymnasts. Cirque de Soleil with sex and a political sub-text.

Madonna on stage is what you come here for - although the pre-show prayers and mystical spew are often howlingly funny.

Laughs are also to be had in the Who's live performances of Tommy and Quadrophenia, especially when Phil Collins comes on in a dressing gown and underwear to play Tommy's wicked Uncle Ernie.

With footage from the film intercut and narration from Alex Langdon (as the protagonist Jimmy), the production of Quadrophenia in 96/97 is more successful than Tommy, although a bonus in both is the commentary from Pete Townshend.

It's fascinating to hear the complexity of his thinking behind these rock operas which came at the peak of the band's career.

Guests include Billy Idol (in both, and he's good), Elton, PJ Proby (no good), Patti Labelle (the Acid Queen with astonishing hair) and Steve Winwood. The third disc is great hits live - and they are great.

Pink Floyd suffer a disadvantage live: two members are buried behind a barrage of instruments (drums and keyboards) and that only leaves paunchy Dave Gilmour as visual interest - and he's an unengaging frontman. So they compensate with lights, lasers, back-projections and spot-on surround-sound.

All of that makes their Pulse double DVD - of an Earls Court concert in 94 where they played Dark Side in its entirety, and then some - spectacular. A bonus is the Bootlegging the Bootleggers film in which they grabbed hand-held camera footage from around the hall and edited it themselves.

In 2004 the Beastie Boys formalised that idea by giving 50 cameras to various audience members in Madison Square Garden. It makes for compelling, multi-viewpoint watching - one of the guys took his camera when he went for a pee while another shot through for beers.

The show only falters with their meandering mid-set band routine - in bowties like the group at the prom. Among the extra material is a leaden film by Adam Yauch (comedian David Cross pretends to be German but says zut alors and oui?), a barbecue in someone's backyard, and so tedious - other than the remix tracks which are very cool.

The real deal in these DVDs is the concert footage. And in each case it's something more than a camera at a show, that's for sure.