PeterDawson

This is a poorly shot and badly edited documentary on male (yes!) and female groupies from the US who spend all their time trying to bed visiting British musicians. Those wanting to see everything, will be disappointed, although there is some occasional nudity, albeit brief. The group are followed from gig to gig, and we get to see the girls putting on their makeup and best clothes, while reminiscing about previous successes. One tells how she started with The Four Tops! The women always seem to be drunk, or stoned, or both. As an Australian I found the male groupies bizarre, beyond belief. If nothing else it's a great time capsule of a bygone era. The musicians featured are Ten Years After, Joe Cocker, Terry Reid and Spooky Tooth. Their inclusion has earned an extra star. Frankly I'd rather have had more music and less of the groupies.

Although it took 30 years for this to be released, there is only about an hour of the actual 2 hour concert on this DVD. I suppose we should all be grateful that there's this much, but I'm sure you'll agree it would have been wonderful to see it all. Hendrix was paid $18,000 for his set (more than anyone else), and he was suppose to close the three day festival on Sunday night. But because of bad weather and logistic problems, he didn't walk on stage until early Monday morning. By then only about 50,000 people remained of the estimated 500,000 who attended the festival. He's accompanied by Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox. Another guitarist (Larry Lee), and 2 percussionists (Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez) also play, but why they are there is totally and utterly beyond me. They are rarely seen, and are almost inaudible on both this and the C.D. of the same performance. Having heard the songs so many times over the years, it's fascinating viewing seeing how Hendrix actually got the sounds he did. At times the direction is extremely poor, with overlong shots of Jimi's grimacing face rather than letting us see what he was doing with his hands. Come on Mr. Director. With all those cameras on him you could have done a lot better. But I should be grateful, as I said earlier, that we at least have this. Future generations of aspiring guitarists will be able to see a man in action, the like of who only comes along once every century, or more.

Although it now looks rather dated, you must remember that when this movie was made, Australia was a very conservative place. This film broke a lot of new ground in the early 70's. Firstly, it was all Australian. Written, Produced, Directed and Starring. Not an American in sight. Secondly, it contained shots of male and female nudity. Thirdly, it was extremely gory and violent for it's day. But, the biggest thing it had going for it was it's incredible bike stunts.(Have you ever seen a Kawasaki Z900 do a wheelstand?) There's some fantastic locations in and around Sydney, and the funeral procession is spectacular, but the opening 10 minutes, or so, will have you on the edge of your seat. For those of you who are interested, 4 of the actors starring in "Stone" (Vincent Gil, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Roger Ward and Reg Evans) would later appear in George Miller's "Mad Max". It must be something about motorbikes!