"Actor: Paul Gebauer"

• Jimi Hendrix - Rainbow Bridge | DVD | (25/09/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £8.99

  Previously unavailable in its full uncut length, Rainbow Bridge mixes the psychedelia of late 60s counterculture with its foremost musical hero, Jimi Hendrix. Shot a mere three months before the guitar god's untimely death in 1970, the story is built around Hendrix's final live performance at the Rainbow Bridge Occult Meditation Center on Maui. Straddling concert footage of Hendrix (backed by drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy Cox) is the story of actress Pat Hartley, as she travels to Hawaii and meets a group trying to establish a new alternative community. What should be immediately noted is that the actual footage of The Jimi Hendrix Experience fills only a fraction of the running time. That said, Hendrix and co deliver suitably exciting renditions of such classics as "Purple Haze" and "Voodoo Chile", which will more than satiate passionate Hendrix fans. Elsewhere, there's a plethora of trippy visuals and lots of hippie's droning on about higher consciousness while smoking marijuana (funnily enough). Still, the DVD version has the helpful option of excising all that nonsense. Otherwise, this is a satisfying if unfortunately padded glimpse of a true musical icon. --Danny Graydon

• Surf Crazy | DVD | (23/03/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The second film by the grandfather of surf films, Bruce Brown, Surf Crazy focuses on a surfing trip to Mexico in 1959, a time when surfing was so obscure that most of the Mexicans encountered along the Pacific shoreline had no idea why the crazy young Americans had long wooden boards strapped to the roof of their cars. The big problem with being a pioneer is that the subjects of Brown's film couldn't ask anyone where the good surfing spots were, so much of the film consists of the Americans riding rough unmarked roads in search of worthwhile waves. Brown appears on camera to explain that when this film was first shown in venues around California, he would appear onstage and narrate it. And a recording of his original narration, full of jokes both quirky and corny, accompanies the colour film footage in this version. The film itself sometimes shows its age, as scratches flicker past, but the colour is vibrant and the footage of surfers in an utterly pristine environment is often riveting. The second half of the film took Brown and his trusty camera to Hawaii, where surfers hit the waves at gorgeous Waimea Bay. Surf Crazy captures a beautiful golden era in the history of surfing, and even those who have never stepped on a board will find it very entertaining. --Robert J McNamara, Amazon.com