I was brought up on a small selection of classic VHS surf films that i could get hold of via video rental stores, surf shops and public libraries. One thing in common with many of these early 70s films is that they weren’t subject or adhered to soundtrack copyright laws, meaning the soundtracks were often classic tracks of the times, such as The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac etc. Such films included the era defining Free Ride using Pablo Cruze, Joan Armatrading and Andy Feaweather Low rarities, Alan Rich’s Salt Water Wine with The Stones, Neil Young and the Jimi Hendrix surf/concert film Rainbow Bridge. Pacific Vibrations, Playgrounds in Paradise the list goes on…
Rabbit Bartholemew (Bugs) The original surfing rockstar donning a classic Stones T-Shirt
Unfortunately this also meant that many of the films disappeared into obscurity because the record company’s and movie producers could often never agree on rights for the soundtracks and the movies general public release. This then gave birth to a new era of surf films using Australian psychedelic rock bands combining blues rock with pop and psychedelia, particularly in the riffs and guitar solos. Bands such as G.Wayne.Thomas, Tamam Shud, Terry Hannagan, Brian Cann and the awesome Finch from the obscure 1974 ‘Drouyn’ featuring Australian surfstar Peter Drouyn who is now better known as Miss Westerly Windina.
Peter Drouyn now known as Miss Westerly Windiana
I have found over the years a collection of audio clips on Youtube, sporadic tracks and albums popping up on Spotify and the odd rare vinyl purchase on Vintage Surfboard forums but still most of the best stuff is offline so i wanted to take some of the best bits i have and put them together into a mix in a style like ive heard from David Holmes and Andy Votel.
So here it is Vol 1 of Surfadelica an hour of mix of 70s surf movie psychedelia….
Grab one of these, http://www.cordsurfboards.co.uk/surfboards/ press play and enjoy the ride
