JIMI HENDRIX: the first press reports

Jimi Hendrix arrived in the UK with Chas Chandler at 9:00 am on Saturday, September 24th 1966. He spent the ensuing month dazzling the former Animal's musical contemporaries, as well as joining forces with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell and supporting Johnny Halliday in Paris. He recorded his debut single, Hey Joe, on October 23rd, and on October 29th the great UK music paper Record Mirror published the first ever article about him. Written by Richard Green, it has a dubious tone (Chandler: "he's coloured but he doesn't think like a coloured person"), calls him 'Jim Henrix' and slashes three years off his age - but it also makes it clear how much of a stir he was causing.

As well as continuing to wow London's hipsters, in November Hendrix signed to Track, played some shows in Germany, hung out with the Stones as they recorded Ruby Tuesday at Olympic (and with the Who as they recorded at IBC), and began taping what would become Are You Experienced. On November 25th he spoke to Peter Jones, also of Record Mirror, and the resulting interview - his first - appeared on December 10th. By this time it was obvious that he was destined for major stardom, as the headline made clear:

Hey Joe / Stone Free was released a week later, on December 16th. It got rave reviews in the Christmas editions of the music papers and climbed to #6 in the British charts. As Chandler had predicted to Jones, Hendrix did indeed end the year 'a sensational success'.

JIMI HENDRIX: "I want to turn people on"

To promote his forthcoming European tour, Jimi Hendrix gave his last ever interviews to well-known journalists such as Keith Altham, Rob Partridge and Norman Jopling at London's Cumberland Hotel on September 11th 1970. Less than a week later, Jimi was dead. Jopling's piece appeared in Music Now on September 12th. I'd never seen it before, so thought I'd post it here.

Electric Ladyland: three electric ladies

One of rock's little mysteries is why Track and Jimi Hendrix sanctioned such a tacky concept for the British Electric Ladyland sleeve (not to mention where designer David King and photographer David Montgomery found 19 such unattractive topless models). The scantily-clad theme was continued by top London boutique I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet, which promoted the LP in November 1968 by employing three further ladies to disport themselves in its window, as this cutting - from Top Pops - shows. Despite their noble efforts, in an age when the LP has sold for over £1000 on eBay, the sheer quantity of brand-new copies on display here will no doubt prove more titillating to collectors than the 'bikini-clad beauties'.