The Beatles – Anthology (1995)
Originally broadcast in the UK as six one-hour episodes, the DVD edition was expanded to a whopping eight hours to tell the story of the biggest and most important band of all time. Tracing their story from their Liverpudlian backgrounds, through to their Hamburg apprenticeship, Beatlemania, world domination and their eventual demise, Anthology combines cracking archive footage with interviews with the then-surviving members of the band and some of the best music ever recorded. If you fancy an epic rock’n’roll tale while stuffing your face with turkey on the sofa, then this is the one for you.
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Dig! (2004)
Though long denounced by its participants for their perceived distortion of the truth, director Ondi Timoner’s study of the careers, friendship and then rivalry between The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre makes for horribly compulsive yet frequently hilarious viewing. Filmed over seven years as both bands struggle to break through, the car crash that unfolds is soundtracked by some of the best psychedelia of the modern age.
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Some Kind Of Monster (2004)
This unintentionally yet frequently hilarious study of thrash titans Metallica in the wake of the departure of bassist Jason Newstead makes for fascinating viewing. Rarely has such dysfunction within a band of this stature been so publicly documented or scrutinised. You can only sit there slack-jawed as you realise how they pay their “performance-enhancement coach” and how James Hetfield’s rehab derails the recording of St. Anger. Yet by the time they make their return to live arena with new bassist Robert Trujillo, you’re punching the air in support.
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Cocksucker Blues (1972)
You’ll have to dig deep for this one (well, YouTube), as The Rolling Stones have done their best to keep this film from bring shown in public. Shot in 1972 as they rampaged across the US in the wake of their double album, Exile On Main Street, the film’s cinéma vérité execution captures a variety of dubious activities including hard drug use, sexual antics between roadies and groupies and TVs being lobbed from hotel windows.
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Oil City Confidential (2009)
Before there was punk there was pub rock. Julien Temple’s sensitive yet melancholy study of Dr Feelgood – the John The Baptists to the Messiahs that were the Sex Pistols – reveals how four blokes in cheap suits and a sharp attitude to rhythm and blues busted out of their Canvey Island origins to shake up the musical excesses of the day and top the album charts. And then to let it all go. But through it all is the white-knuckle excitement of the music they made and incredible live footage.
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One More Time With Feeling (2016)
In contrast to Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s 2014 documentary 20,000 Days On Earth that offered a tightly-reigned and constructed picture of Nick Cave, Andrew Dominik’s portrait of the recording of The Bad Seeds’ sixteenth studio album, Skeleton Tree, in the aftermath of the death of the singer’s 15-year-old son, Arthur, is a profoundly moving meditation on the nature of loss and grief.
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The Decline Of Western Civilisation Part 2: The Metal Years (1988)
With its scenes of debauchery, decadence and excess, director Penelope Spheeris’ study of the LA hair metal scene of the late 80s emphatically displays why grunge had to happen. Featuring contributions from Kiss, W.A.S.P., Kiss and Aerosmith and some of the most deluded chancers of the age, the movie blurs that fine line between comedy and tragedy.
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Muscle Shoals (2013)
This fantastically engrossing documentary and FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, charts not just the creation of some of the music that was made there – see the contributions from legends such as Keith Richards, Aretha Franklin, Candi Staton and Alicia Keys among many others – but also the personal cost that went in to setting up and maintaining the establishment. The stunning cinematography is matched by some of the most life-affirming music ever captured for posterity.
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Anvil! The Story Of Anvil (2008)
One of the best music documentaries ever made, Sacha Garvasi’s portrait of Canadian thrash metal almost-rans Anvil is less a study in failure and more the grip of rock’n’roll and why it won’t let go, even with the advancing of years. Having hit the big time for about five seconds in the 80s, the band spend the rest of their life chasing their dream while holding down real life. Hilarious, shocking and touching in equal measure, this is an essential must-see.
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Searching For Sugar Man (2012)
The power of music and its ability to cross borders – and, in this case, evade the censors – is at the heart of Malik Bendjelloul’s engrossing and moving documentary. The film chronicles the efforts to of two South African music fans to trace the whereabouts of American musician Sixto Rodriguez, whose music proved popular in underground circles during the time of apartheid while failing to gain success at home.
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