60 YEARS AGO TODAY:
9/24/66 – Jimi Hendrix arrives in London with manager Chas Chandler on a flight from New York City. At the time, Hendrix only has the clothes on his back, as he had to sell all of his other belongings to pay a hotel bill in New York.
From our Jimi Hendrix series (available here: https://fhjimihendrix.blogspot.com/)
'60's FLASHBACK:
JIMI HENDRIX formed his own group, JIMMY JAMES AND THE BLUE FLAMES and the band settled down in the Greenwich Village section of New York City, building quite a following. LINDA KEITH who, at the time, was KEITH RICHARD's (of THE ROLLING STONES) girlfriend, became a big fan of JIMI's work and suggested that while THE ANIMALS were over here in The States on tour, they should check these guys out.
ANIMALS' bassist CHAS CHANDLER did so ... and, on July 5,
1966, he saw HENDRIX perform at the CAFE WHA? in Greenwich
Village. CHANDLER was bowled over by what he saw, and suggested
that HENDRIX come back with him to London where he felt that he could
make him a big star. (For the record, LINDA KEITH first told ROLLING
STONES' manager ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM to check JIMI out, but OLDHAM
wasn't even the least bit interested in what he saw. Although by that time LINDA
had become a bit smitten with JIMI, OLDHAM found nothing
appealing about his style of music. By the same token, CHAS CHANDLER was
looking to leave THE ANIMALS and get into the management / promoting end
of the music business and, as such, was on the look-out for undiscovered new
talent.)
HENDRIX played out his engagement and, in September of '66, flew back to
London as CHANDLER's guest. (Legend has it that on the flight to London,
HENDRIX ... with promises of becoming a headlining star ... went back to
his real last name and then officially changed his first name from JIMMY
to JIMI ... but that could just be folklore. However, in that they were
billed as JIMMY JAMES AND THE BLUE FLAMES while performing in New York,
it's not totally out of the question!)
EDITOR'S NOTE: As we saw the other day on our 60 YEARS AGO TODAY Calendar Page, Jimmy became "JIMI" on 9/21/66 ... he was on a flight to London three days later.
Once in London, JIMI hired a couple of background players named MITCH
MITCHELL (a drummer who, most recently, had been playing in the house band
on Great Britain's popular READY, STEADY, GO television series) and NOEL REDDING, a bassist who,
incredibly, at one time, had auditioned to replace CHAS CHANDLER in THE
ANIMALS and did a brief stint with THE MODERN JAZZ GROUP. (REDDING was really a
guitar player by trade but auditioned on bass for the "NEW" ANIMALS
that ERIC BURDON was putting together ... in effect, he would have taken
CHAS CHANDLER's place in the reformed band! When he wasn't awarded that
gig, CHANDLER approached him about joining a brand new band ... playing
behind a virtuoso guitarist from America by the name of JIMI HENDRIX.) Once
assembled, the new trio quickly christened themselves THE JIMI HENDRIX
EXPERIENCE, and, using a good chunk of money fronted by CHAS CHANDLER,
performed live for the very first time at the Paris Olympia on October 18,
1966. A week later, they were in the studio cutting their first single, a
slowed-down, bluesier version of THE LEAVES' hit HEY JOE.
Over the next several months, HENDRIX began to make quite a name for
himself in the British press, as much for his on-stage antics as his guitar
prowess ... and the group made several television appearances as well. HEY
JOE ultimately went to #6 on the British Charts and soon a deal was made to
try to break HENDRIX's material here in the States. Incredibly, THE
JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE was signed to the normally very conservatively run REPRISE
RECORDS, Chairman Of the Board FRANK SINATRA's record label! (They
added HENDRIX to a label roster that already included fellow Rat-Packers
DEAN MARTIN and SAMMY DAVIS, JR. along with OLD BLUE EYES
himself!)
