Best music/band documentary?

[Illbefinejustbloodyfine]

Really fancy watching something like this later - any recommendations?

Following! I loved the Get Back one on Disney.

Wow! Some great ones here especially the kinks

Spinal Tap. Obviously.

The inertia variations- about The The/ Matt Johnson. But really hard to find. One of the best docos I have seen.

Mistaken for strangers - a film about a sibling dynamic where one of you is internationally famous and the other… isn’t

@AlecTrevelyan006 that link is amazing, thank you!

I've seen the We are the world, Wham, anything recent on Netflix.

I'm going to see if I can find the Fleetwood Mac abd bros ones tonight but will def come back for inspiration!

Some kind of monster about Metallica and mental health.

Summer of Soul, about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. Some fantastic live performances by Nina Simone, a young Stevie Wonder, the 5th Dimension, and amazing interviews too!

And seconding/thirding Edgar Wright’s Sparks documentary.

History of the Eagles is superb, with amazing concert footage of the band at their peak.

Watching the documentary, it was clear that their success was no accident & not down to luck. They were very talented musicians and they knew exactly what they were doing. In particular Glen Frey (RIP) & Don Henley, the main singers & songwriters, both came across as intelligent, ambitious guys who would have been very successful in whatever career they chose.

Looks like Apple TV might be your best bet. It's not on Prime or Netflix in the UK.

I saw a TV documentary about The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson’s mental struggles with show business and the making of the Pet Sounds album. There were lots of clips from the time and interviews with the Abbey Lane session musicians. It made me go out and buy the Collector’s Edition on CD.
There were still record shops so probably 15+ years ago!

It was probably this one.
… and now I’ve got “Wouldn’t it be nice” as an earworm.

For the future because it is probably still on at the cinema - One Love which is about Bob Marley.

Great thread, OP!

There’s a fantastic one on the Bee Gees on Now TV/Sky - completely made me rethink their contribution to modern music. Astounding.

‘Depeche Mode: The Posters Came From The Walls’ - you can find it on YouTube. It’s about the fans rather than the band, and explores why Depeche Mode has a cult-like following, especially in Eastern-bloc countries before the fall of the iron curtain. The film was commissioned by the band from the (brilliant) artist Jeremy Deller.

Not a journalistic documentary but This Is Us by One Direction is an interesting watch about fame whether you like the band or not. It’s sad and revealing of how much their families miss their kids and the band don’t really have a normal childhood/life ever again.

The Amy Winehouse documentary (Amy) is really sad too. She was so amazing.

There’s a really good BBC documentary on the influence of Kate Bush who is still amazing.

Loads of ones mentioned here (George Harrison, The Band, WHAM etc) but 20 Feet From Stardom is my top tip.

Oh and my favourite documentary ever, you can find on YouTube. It's an Arena one - Elvis: The Burger and the King.

It tracks his eating habits and why he became like he did.

I enjoyed the Shirley Bassey film, which I think was just called "Shirley". I had no idea that her first single, "Burn My Candle" was such a sassy little number that got banned by the BBC for its saucy lyrics (by 1950s standards). (Great tune too).

There's one about The Specials on Sky Arts.

Metallica Some Kind of Monster and Through the never are good

Annoyingly I couldn't find ANY of my first choices between amazon, netflix, Disney and the usual channels.

For anybody who loves a good deep dive, the Ken Burns “Country Music” series is brilliant. Each episode is two hours long, although the BBC did have a truncated version on Iplayer a few years ago.

If you don't mind a parody, the 2 documentaries made by Martin & Gary Kemp were very funny

I loved the Beatles Get Back one. It was so immersive, I felt like I was there.