"Actor: Darryl Jones"

• The Rolling Stones - Four Flicks | DVD | (17/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  The juggernaut four-disc set that is the Rolling Stones Four Flicks is taken from their unique three-in-one 2001 tour when they combined a stadium tour, an arena tour and a theatre tour into one 54-truck peregrination. It's the kind of epic endeavour that brings to mind William Burroughs' remark on Laurie Anderson's Home of the Brave: "Y'know, I prefer to watch this kind of thing on TV. Tones it down." Of the four discs, there's one devoted to each of the three sets plus another of documentary footage which is every bit as entertaining as the concerts, with the chaps coming across as the bunch of lovable old monkeys they resemble these days. The track listings speak for itself, but there are quite a few nice insights into the way in which the band operates musically. Jagger's voice is nowhere near as strong as it was, yet, like Miles Davis did when his chops began to desert him, he simply knits any shortcomings into his style of delivery. One side-effect of this, though, is that the more recent material, presumably written with this in mind, is much more effective here than the classics; "Brown Sugar", for example, its lyrics now neutered to avoid giving offence, finds him resorting to all sorts of shortcuts. No matter, though, the Stones still put on an incomparable show. Keith "the Human Riff" Richards is in fact playing better now than he ever has. It's well worth getting yer ya-yas out for. On the DVD: Four Flicks presents its material in such an integrated way that it's hard to say where the main event ends and the extras begin. As well as the concerts, you get to see the band working with AC/DC, Sheryl Crow and various other associates, there's a fun feature which allows you to zoom in on any individual member on a few tracks (revealing the secret of Charlie Watts's propulsive drumming to the percussion-minded observer) plus a great deal more. --Roger Thomas

• Sting - Bring On The Night | DVD | (11/04/2005) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Film director Michael Apted was commissioned to create this film of Sting and his new band on location in rehearsal and most importantly live on stage. With an hour and a half of film and music including 'If You Love Somebody' 'Fortress Around Your Heart' 'Russians' and 'Roxanne'.

• The Rolling Stones - Bridges To Babylon 1998 | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Like any good brand, the Rolling Stones know to preserve the formula even when updating the package, and this long-form concert video underscores that market strategy. As with each of their tours since the early 1980s, the quartet, augmented by a discreet auxiliary of backup musicians, gives the fans new eye-candy while dishing up a familiar set list spiked with Mick Jagger's lip-smacking vocals and Keith Richards' signature guitar riffs. The visual twists are at once spectacular and conservative: a cyclopean main stage design with massive pillars (presumably the Babylonian connection), a vast oval video screen (shades of Big Brother), and a hydraulic bridge enabling a mid-concert sortie into the audience, with the Stones playing a more stripped-down, intimate set on a small satellite stage. That huge physical setting doubtless made the live shows eye-filling rock spectacles, but the video crew necessarily accepts the limitations of the small screen, focusing more on close-ups of the band, rapid cuts, and racing, hand-held tracking shots to convey excitement while keeping the viewer close to the action. The evening's repertoire sticks to the band's most familiar hits, and if the Glimmer Twins occasionally slip their masks to let the routine show, the real wonder is how effectively they keep the playing focused. During the first half of the programme, the band's newest songs (especially "Saint of Me" and "Out of Control") elicit conspicuously higher energy from the band, if not the audience. But just as the show seems doomed to a certain anonymity, the escape onto the smaller, no-frills stage pumps up players and crowd alike, particularly when they launch into "Like a Rolling Stone", a cover that winds up sounding like a great idea too long deferred. --Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com