Hands up who remembers the album Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet tour was supposed to promote?

Full points for Hard Candy, plus a bonus for those who can name any of its hits other than first single Four Minutes. Ten months after it opened, having already played to more than two million people and earned close to $300 million in ticket sales, Madonna’s current tour came back to Britain and rammed home the fact that, for pop’s elite, releasing new music now matters less than playing live.

Mind you, in Madonna’s case, playing live should be construed as a contentious description. Her full-on, fast-paced, sumptuous-looking show was a triumph of technology, a coup of choreography and an outstanding achievement in the dress department, but a concert in only its most modern meaning.

Madonna may have required her microphone more than Britney Spears, but she relied largely on pre-recorded vocals, while the music was more frequently driven by synthesised beats than her smartly-attired, five-piece band.

To criticise Madonna for placing style over substance is missing the point of the Queen Of Pop, of course. For an artist to whom image has always been all – and whose fans would expect no less – the gig delivered in spades from start to finish. Madonna was magnificent, belying her age by keeping up with her energetic army of several-decades-younger dancers, changing outfit for every other number and remaining the primary focus of a show that had more props and moving parts than a magicians’ convention could muster.

Famous friends and collaborators – Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams, Timbaland and a demented Ms Spears losing it in a lift – made appearances on screen, but the second most fabulous star on stage was a super-slick hydraulic lift. Or rather, about a dozen of them. Dancers, a dj booth, a boxing ring and even the occasional bottle of water appeared and disappeared within the blink of an eye.

During Beat Goes On, a vintage, convertible car drove itself down a walkway from the main stage to a central podium surrounded by screaming fans, among them Stella McCartney and Valentino.

Screens that started the show as the walls of a cuboid slithered sideways and upwards, splitting in to sections, or – around the podium – encasing the action in a see-through, circular cage.

Some of Hard Candy made it in to the set, though only 4 Minutes and Give It 2 Me felt like more than filler. Mostly, the music was techno and electro reworkings of memorable moments from Madonna’s mighty back catalogue.

Hence Holiday became house music aptly performed on a conveyor belt, Ray Of Light swopped its ambient backing for a thundering beat and Like A Prayer thrust its arms in the air and went rave. The effect was akin to a slightly naff, nostalgic disco, with the fun factor turned up to ten.

Madonna only faltered when tried to look credible, notably pretending to play a guitar during half a dozen tracks. Her faux-soloing complete with taped feedback was as excruciating to watch and the heavy blonde wig she donned for the second half of the set must have been itchy to wear.

Still, the compensations came thick and fast – among them a Michael Jackson tribute starring a thrilling, lookalike dancer, a gypsy band with fiddle and accordion players and a spot of pole dancing that set a benchmark for the phrase ‘fabulous and 50’. The music may have come second, but the highest-earning tour of 2008 still sparkles.

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