Jimi Hendrix

Alternative title: - "Guitars to The Stars (The other side of the Screwdriver)"

The Jimi Hendrix connection. (An Experience...)

The phenomenon that was Hendrix was literally life-changing for a great many people, from the lowliest bedroom strummer all the way up to the guys who were then considered to be the "Gods": - Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton.

My connection was tenuous but life-changing nonetheless.

Having achieved my earlier schoolboy ambition of finally owning a Fender Stratocaster (™®) in 1966 (one of these but sunburst) I was, nevertheless going through a period of playing keyboards in a Tamla-styled outfit called "The Oggy Band". At the time I was very unhappily employed in the Media department of a London advertising agency, then Mather & Crowther and later, Ogilvy & Mather. I had been enticed there by another employee, an ex-schoolchum with whose bass playing I had shared many a stage with during the 60's, one Martin Clarke (he who later produced "Nice One Cyril") and pictured here with home-made bass guitar as a member of "The Spektors" circa 1964.

Jimi Hendrix was still an unheard of yet-to-be-discovered entity in the early summer of '66. Chas Chandler had yet to make that magical decision to bring him to the U.K. Even stranger, the Fender Stratocaster was possibly the least fashionable electric guitar with which to be seen at that time because of The Beatles' preference for Rickenbacker and Gretsch (both of which I am sure the very practical Leo Fender would consider to be "cardboard, Sellotape-and-string machines" - I know I do). Hence my "Strat" (™®Fender), a sunburst "L-series" version of this cost me just £45 in Denmark Street in London's West End, complete with original case and little yellow instruction book. I later swapped this instrument for an EKO jumbo acoustic pile of plywood cheapness - retail value: - £26 (with soft carrying bag, to be fair - address witheld for reasons of unbridled shame).

As a member of "The Oggy Band", I was playing keyboards, doing a short tour of the West Country in July 1966. On the day of the English World Cup victory over Germany, we'd made an excursion out to the beach at St. Ives, Corwall and I was digging a sandcastle with my Fender Stratocaster (one of these but sunburst)! Forgive me; I know it's difficult but it was only a bleeding plank. When the winning goal went in, the entire beach erupted in a riot of cheering and of possessions being thrown up in the air. Yes, I did, before you ask. But at least I didn't paddle a lilo with it. I so easily could have.

As a side-note, our lead singer with "The Oggy Band" was John McCairn and our drummer was Stuart Fordham, both of whom later joined Martin Clarke in the Technique, backing John Walker of the Walker brothers. The invitation was there for me to join in touring the world with them on keyboards but I was as stupidly short-sighted then as I am to this day, so turned the offer down. I should have gone to Art College too but all of that seemed a bit too risky for my brainwashed conservative and cowardly tastes, inherited in my genes (that's my excuse and I'm stuck with it).

The venue for most of our gigs that summer break was the social centre at Bude Holiday Caravan Park - an exotic Shangri-La of wild abandon. We were playing support for a week to the resident band, The Concords. Their lead guitarist and singer was a guy called Noel Redding. Noel was an extremely competent guitar player and used an edge-bound sunburst Telecaster (™®Fender) through a Fender Bandmaster amp (if you really need to know). We all got along famously and a grand time was had by all the band, including Martin Clarke, who was playing bass with our band. That week I smelled marijuana for the first time (from a distance) and promptly passed out flat on my back. Noel and I jammed in off-stage moments and it was briefly something of a mutual admiration society, which was O.K.

A memorable week that passed by all too quickly! So then back to work in the London ad. office and a return to lunch-hours spent trawling and window-gazing the Charing Cross Road music shops. One such lunch break in September, I felt a tap on the shoulder and it was Noel Redding, resplendent in a huge affro-fuzz mop of hair - I nearly didn't recognise him; only that previous July he'd had a close crew cut. Pleasantries and greetings exchanged, we went for a drink.

Noel's exact words were (and you'll see why I can never forget them, despite their political incorrectness), "I've just been for an audition to play bass for a long-haired coon who plays the guitar with his teeth" (Oops! whatever...) and then he explained the whole Chas Chandler bit. He'd had a six string Fender bass bought for him because he'd never played bass before and it was thought he'd be more comfortable with that format, although that was (obviously) soon dropped as a bad idea. We swapped phone numbers but I didn't realistically expect to ever hear from (or of) him ever again. Ships that pass...

As it happened, I did hear from him again. "The Oggy Band" was invited to attend one of the very first U.K. Experience gigs down in Chislehurst Caves. "Get there early and I'll get you in" was Noel's instruction, which we followed but nobody had the slightest idea what we were in for that night. The actual venue was quite a small chamber then, with a low-level concrete stage built into one side wall. On that stage was a selection of square 4x12 Marshall cabs (two for Hendrix and two for Noel) and the "P.A." was a pair of 4x12 Marshall columns. On top of Jimi's stack was a glowing valve pre-amp thing, unboxed, in an alumium box/chassis casing and on the floor was a "Fuzz-Face" unit and a "Wah-Wah" pedal.

After a while Mr. Hendrix walked out onto the stage with Mitch Mitchell and Noel in tow. Jimi plugged in and played a quick lick or two. Just those few seconds were enough to drop every jaw in the place and the set that followed changed the lives of a lot of people who were present. Obviously, we'd never heard anything remotely like it before and I went home that night to announce to my mum that I was changing back from keyboards to guitar.

Lives and egos suitably date-stamped, along and in common with the rest of the world of rock music, we witnessed a major sea-change in the way guitar players subsequently viewed and treated their instruments. Needless to say, I sincerely regretted having sold my Fender Stratocaster (one of these but Damn!!!)

My second exposure to this (chopper-down-of) or mountain-moving man, came shortly after "Hey Joe" was released, a couple of weeks after the first gig we'd seen. Same place, same band - but this time you couldn't park anywhere in Chislehurst and the caves were jam-packed with punters. Because I was there early again, I was pressed by the weight of the tightly packed audience up against the front of the stage. As Jimi went through his routine, my upper body was bent forward over the stage floor and my face came within a few inches of his backside going up and down on the tremolo arm of his massively feeding-back guitar; I couldn't have stood up straight even if I'd wanted to.

There were no light shows back then. Nevertheless, with his dynamic high-volume attack on the air contained within the cave environment, to my mind, just using bits of string and a plank, Hendrix managed to conjour a convincing storm at sea, complete with thunder and (perceived) lightning - and that was without the aid of any narcotic substances!

Just wonderful stuff...

Alternative title: - "Guitars to The Stars" & "The other side of the Screwdriver"

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