It's no surprise a DVD boxset featuring three concerts and one documentary charting Elton’s career across four decades has made been available. And, just to keep the figures flowing, this package forms a double-whammy with the new studio album, Peachtree Road, released on the same day. Elton may have to buy another house to celebrate.

Dream Ticket is possibly the ultimate Christmas present for an Elton John fan, but it should be made absolutely clear that if you don’t like Elton John you might as well leave here and now: this ain’t for you… Have the naysayers all gone? Good – now, for us sad Elton fans who remain, let’s get down to business.

DVD 1 is Elton’s Greatest Hits Live show at Madison Square Gardens, filmed in October 2000; a performance which has already been turned into an album. Thankfully, Mercury know their audience and haven’t included the same version of the show already available. Instead we have a selection of the usual classics, but more importantly some treats such as the entire ‘Funeral For A Friend’ opening to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and the little-known soulful 70s track, ‘Club At The End Of The Street.’ Featuring famous guests (Billie Joel, Anastacia, Ronan Keating and Mary J. Blige to name a few), this is great and well-produced entertainment.

DVD 2 takes a different turn entirely, with Elton playing with young muscians from the Royal Academy of Music, where he himself gained a scholarship at the age of 11. The addition of strings is usually a sure sign a musician’s career is on the ropes, but Elton John being the classically-trained pianist he is, the choice of songs and orchestral arrangements don’t sound at all strained. You get the impression throughout that this performance meant a lot to him and his band, despite large sections of the audience seeming entirely lost: does one whoop in the Royal Opera House, or does one have sherry?

DVD 3 is the best of the concerts – Elton playing solo at the Great Amphitheatre in Ephesus, Turkey. In this beautiful, candlelit setting you can almost taste the atmosphere, and Elton puts on a great show – for once you get to see him going off on prolonged improvisations mid-song, blatantly enjoying every minute of it. Despite little crowd banter or other breaks in the music, it still feels less like watching a DVD and more like seeing a concert.

Finally, DVD 4 is the documentary of Elton’s extensive career, but not at all what you’d expect. Rather than rehashing the endless documentaries of this ilk that have appeared on TV, this DVD picks out the less well known tracks from Elton’s career and gives you an insight into what inspired them, and what they mean to Elton himself.

Much of the running time is admittedly made up of videos of each song after it has been discussed, but when the videos in question include ‘I Want Love’ and ‘Empty Garden (Hey Hey Johnny)’, which, it transpires, was a tribute to John Lennon, you won’t be complaining too bitterly. Overall an engaging documentary, though you feel rather short-changed in terms of interviews and any real conclusion beyond “Elton’s dead good, like – buy more of his stuff.”

So, does Dream Ticket live up to its name? I can’t say Elton John features in any of my dreams, but, like a tin of beans, you get exactly what you expect from this boxset. There are no frills, no extra features, no out-takes of hair pieces slipping or any cameo appearances by his partner David Furnish, but hey, as I’ve already said, if you like Elton John, you’ll want Dream Ticket. If you don’t, why are you still reading this?
(4/5)

Release Date: 08 November 2004