So says the all-caps sales pitch on the back of the DVD package ...

ON AN OVERCAST DAY IN THE SUMMER OF 1966, SYD FIRST TRIPPED ON MUSHROOMS WHILE FILM STUDENT / FRIEND NIGEL GORDON CAPTURED THE EVENT ON 8MM FILM. THIS MARKED THE POINT OF NO RETURN IN SYD'S LIFE AS HE KNEW IT. THE SPIRIT THAT ENTERED THE GOG MAGOG HILLS THAT DAY WOULD NOT BE THE SAME ENTITY THAT RETURNED.

THE SECOND PART OF THIS HISTORIC VIDEO SHOWS PINK FLOYD AFTER HAVING SIGNED THEIR FIRST RECORDING CONTRACT WITH EMI RECORDS OUTSIDE ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS IN APRIL '67. IT IS APPARENT IN THIS SCENE THAT SYD HAS NOT YET COME DOWN FROM THE HILL.

NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, THIS HISTORIC FILM IN AVAILABLE ON DVD. THOUGH THE ORIGINAL FILM WAS SILENT, THIS DVD COMES WITH THE ADDED BONUS OF MUSIC SUPPLIED BY HYPNOTIC RECORDS RECORDING ARTISTS DILATE, WHICH PROVIDES THE PERFECT AUDIO "DEMENTION" FOR VIEWING THIS CLASSIC EVENT.

Of course, MVD helpfully forgets to mention the fact that this video is all of 11 minutes in total length. I'm quite sure this was an innocent oversight on someone's behalf. Hem hem.

So, being an ultra cheapo DVD, 'Syd Barrett's First Trip' contains none of the de rigeur trailers, interviews, director's commentary, web links, photo galleries, or promotional videos for us to peruse. Instead, we get a crudely-shot home movie featuring young Barrett climbing rocks, playing with leaves, looking at his hands, placing mushrooms on his face, dirtying up his school clothes and possibly burning something at some point -- all while blotto on some psychedelic treat or other. Hooray! Where do I sign up?

Seriously, folks -- it's virtually impossible to imagine anyone short of David Wills or Kiloh Smith deriving any real pleasure out of watching this exploitative monkeying about. Sure, some of the Gog Magog footage may, at first, seem strikingly eerie and dream-like in feel (this is more an effect of Dilate's simplistic darkwave synth chords chiming in the background than anything happening onscreen), but after a few minutes of trying to sort out what the hell is going on, one inevitably gets more and more annoyed with the unnamed other people who keep popping into view and stealing us away from watching Barrett (which was the whole point of buying this video in the first fucking place). These "who the hell *are* these people?" bits get even more grating in the DVD's superior second half, which centers around a few glimpses of Pink Floyd themselves walking out of Abbey Road Studios and doing absolutely nothing for a few minutes. Seeing all of these folks walking around shirtless, peering in at us through the windows of whatever vehicle the cameraman is in (and for extended periods of time, at that) feels more like furtive voyeurism than anything truly "entertaining."

Oh, and if all of the above wasn't enough, this DVD was originally filmed and edited in a hyper-jittery, proto-MTVesque manner that nearly had me in seizures at several points. This is why they tell you to avoid heavy machinery while high, kids.

While it's undeniably true that Syd Barrett makes for a more interesting (and marketable) test film subject than, say, Steve O'Rourke -- paying ten bucks and change to own 11 minutes of near-unwatchably shaky super-8 footage (from which Barrett and/or Pink Floyd are completely absent about 30% of the running time) is just not an economically sound investment for *anyone* save for the most wild-eyed, mouth-breathing Sydiots trying to remember their games, daisy chains and laughs. Splurge at your own risk.