Melvis Remembers: Hendrix at Woburn Abbey 1968

Picture This. July 6th 1968. Just left that pesky Grammar School in Guildford and your Cool Mate drives you up to Woburn Abbey in his Red Ford Anglia - the risible British Motor Industry attempt at American fins. You don't have tickets, but that's a bonus as the ticket holders are in a long queue. You whizz through the cash entrance and take your collapsible wooden seats in the fourth row. You're very excited. 'Are You Experienced' has blown your socks off, 'Axis Bold As Love' singed your bare feet. You're waiting for The Man. We sit through the largely unnecessary support acts. Family are good. Never seen a twin-necked guitar before. Roger Chapman punches out several tambourines. You think 'Hey, Mr Tambourine Man.' You wonder why his head doesn't fall off as he whiplashes it so violently from side to side.

Geno Washington and His Ram Jam Band are the penultimate act. Their 'Hand Clapping Foot Stomping Funky Butt Live' was the de rigeur party album of the previous summer, but right now second-hand soul music is not high on the agenda. We are getting restless. Geno cuts his set short as people are passing collapsible chairs towards the stage in an unwelcoming manner. This activity has already seen a foolish boyband in matching catsuit/roll neck costumes flee the stage in the middle of their ill-judged attempt at 'Maria' from West Side Story.

There's an hour's delay after Geno. It seems longer. But finally...

...The Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Never seen anything, let alone heard anything, like this before. He's attired in a fully flared outfit of white and flame. He apologises for the delay, inserts a jack plug into the white strat, then not even touching the fretboard he smacks the back of the guitar with the palm of his hand. An unearthly unheard of majestic sound of pure cosmic power resonates around the arena as jaws drop and are left to hang. It sounds like a spaceship taking off. The consummate showman, Jimi lets this otherworldly roar sustain just long enough before hitting the intro for Foxy Lady. For Fox Sake. I can't believe it. I still find it hard to believe forty years later.

© Melvis 2009