10. Nirvana: Live at the Paramount (2011)
A hometown show staged one month after the release of Nevermind, Live at the Paramount is a tantalising portrait of a band on the cusp of going stratospheric, and leaving innocence and purity behind.
Apple TV
9. Aretha Franklin: Amazing Grace (2018)
With the cameras rolling as the Queen of Soul recorded her gospel album Amazing Grace at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, Sydney Pollack’s film captures Franklin at her most instinctive and spellbinding.
Amazon Prime
8. Depeche Mode: 101 (1989)
DA Pennebaker tracks the band’s huge Music for the Masses tour across America, mixing compelling live footage, fan interaction and the mundane reality of life on the road.
Amazon Prime
7. Laura Mvula: Live from the Paradiso Amsterdam with the Metropole Orkest (2014)
Sonically, this lushly orchestrated performance of the Birmingham singer’s debut album, Sing to the Moon, is one of the finest concert films of the past two decades. You could hear a pin drop.
YouTube
6. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Distant Sky — Live in Copenhagen (2018)
A singing shaman bending 15,000 fans to his will, Cave is feral and magnificent, elevating both the audience and himself as his band light fires behind him.
YouTube
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5. Amy Winehouse: The Day She Came to Dingle (2012)
In a tiny church in Ireland in 2006, the Londoner shows in 20 minutes why her peers and fans raved about her: the innate musicality, the phrasing, the sense of escapism and the buried but clamorous pain.
YouTube
4. Björk: Biophilia Live (2014)
Hybrid instruments, dazzling stage effects, a wandering choir, David Attenborough and, at this extraordinary concert’s core, the fearless Icelandic innovator, unique and unfettered.
Google Play
3. Various: Summer of Soul (2021)
Hours of footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which featured Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone and Nina Simone, gathered dust in a basement for almost 50 years before the Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson turned the tapes into this riveting mix of documentary and live music.
Disney+
2. Beyoncé: Homecoming (2019)
The singer’s stunning and politically forthright set at Coachella in 2018 is tracked from conception to realisation. She came, she saw, she conquered the Colorado desert.
Netflix
1. Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense (1984)
Arguably the greatest concert film of them all, Jonathan Demme’s masterpiece gets everything right, aided by some outrageously great songs — and that suit.
Amazon Prime
