A celebration of the life and music of George Harrison, the Concert for George is a record of the November 2002 Royal Albert Hall tribute. Organised by close friend Eric Clapton, the show brought together the musical luminaries of George's generation, who not only inspired his music but were in turn inspired by him. Artists ranging from Joe Brown to Ravi Shankar perform touching but not overtly sentimental versions of his best-loved tunes. The many highlights include the Monty Python gang (joined by guest member Tom Hanks) performing "The Lumberjack Song", and a bare-arsed version (literally!) of "Sit On My Face". For the first time since the demise of the Beatles, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney share the same stage.

Director David Leland does an excellent job of capturing the intimacy of the concert, as well as the emotions of those in attendance. Apart from the behind-the-scenes interview snippets included in the theatrical version, the cameras rarely move away from the main action on the stage. Shot in suitably restrained colours, the live performance footage makes for stimulating viewing, a particular highlight being Ravi and Anoushka Shankar's opening sitar recital. All in all it's a touching five-star tribute to one of the greatest musical icons of the 20th century.

On the DVD: Concert for George two-disc set has two versions of the concert: the complete two-and-a-half-hour show and a shorter theatrical version that received a limited cinema release--this latter includes backstage footage of preparations for the concert, as well as interviews with some of the key performers from the night. Additional material is included on both discs: footage from the rehearsals, the Monty Python team backstage and interviews with many of the performers. Three versions of the concert soundtrack are also featured, ranging from ordinary stereo to an ear-shattering DTS version. --John Galilee

The Concert for New York City took place at New York's Madison Square Gardens six weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. As presented here, with about five hours of musical performances and celebrity cameos, it was a frequently awkward affair: the traditional fatuous jollity of American show business ceremonies is not, perhaps, the ideal medium for articulating the feelings engendered by the kind of tragedy America had just suffered.

It is often evident--and actually quite endearingly so--that the film and television stars who appear here feel somewhat foolish accepting applause while standing alongside the members of New York's Police and Fire departments who take the stage to offer brief tributes to fallen comrades (it would be nice, but naïve, to believe that September 11 caused our celebrity-obsessed culture to redraft its parameters of heroism).

The performances captured here are mostly pretty good, though David Bowie's opening, with an eerie and affecting take on Paul Simon's "America", followed by a rumbustious "Heroes", sets a standard not subsequently matched. The short films by New York directors are also worth seeing, especially Kevin Smith's daringly funny New Jersey perspective (the concert's only other overt attempts at humour misfire woefully--especially the toe-curling George W Bush impersonator).

However, the concert is principally of interest as a document of a moment in history, rather than as a musical artefact. All of what America felt, for better and for worse, in the immediate wake of September 11, is on view here: sorrow, defiance, pride and, as Richard Gere famously discovered when he suggested that perhaps there were more constructive responses than carpet-bombing Third World basket-cases, anger.

On the DVD: The Concert for New York Cityhas a viewing option which screens out everything except the musical performances. Sound is available in Dolby 5.1 Surround and PCM Stereo. --Andrew Mueller

The super plane's sensational footages are now brought together in this DVD. Clippings from 'Concorde Around The World', 'Concorde In The 21st Century' and many more makes this a collector's item.