Mojo - The Music Magazine

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Jimi Hendrix Experience's epoch defining performance at the Monterey Pop Festival, Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox - two of the great man's most trusted musical compadres - were in London last night to attend a huge simulcast screening of the newly restored gig footage. MOJO's Mark Paytress was at The Hippodrome to witness the wild man of rock, once again, tear the place apart

A night out with Jimi Hendrix? Having spent hundreds of thrill-packed nights indoors with him over three decades, this was an experience not to miss.

And there he was, inevitably larger than life, the most beautiful, gifted and intoxicating man ever to grace a rock stage, blasting an unsurpassed set of psychedelicised blues-rock into the rock’n’roll history book. As the St Winifred’s’ School Choir so pleasingly put it, “There’s no one quite like Hendrix”. Or did I hear wrong?

There were no such mistaken hearings at The Hippodrome, London’s most celebrated popular niterie, as the 40th anniversary release (and simulcast) of Hendrix’s Monterey performance played out to an overwhelmingly male audience of 500 or so mainly 40- and 50-somethings. The age range was disappointing. For a new generation, weaned on rehashed Beatles, Clash, post-punk and Britpop styles, performed by a seemingly endless queue of mystifyingly charmless 20-somethings, seeing Hendrix on BBC’s Seven Ages Of Rock series earlier this year gave a rare and fascinating glimpse of something that cast career-option rock in a wholly new light. It’s a pity, then, that few of them could afford the costly privilege of seeing and hearing the remastered, re-edited Monterey footage in its full, big-screen glory. But then who, Microsoft executives aside, would think of forking out £175 for a VIP ticket for a film – even if the promised appearance of two Experience members was dangled as bait?

And, indeed, Gary Moore, the man given the unenviable task of following Hendrix’s inflammatory Monterey climax for the second half of the night’s proceedings. Oddly, judging by the reception he received as he ambled on stage, a sizeable section of the audience was actually here for grimacing Gary. And he didn’t let them down. In three decades of gig-going, never have I seen a man with such a repertoire of “pained guitarist” expressions. Just what is he on? Organic prunes? Close your eyes, though, and there’s no getting away from it: Moore makes a ferociously faithful fist of Hendrix’s catalogue – from the opening Purple Haze and Manic Depression to the Voodoo Chile finale.

As the night drew on, the likelihood of Mitch and Billy replacing Moore’s rhythm section grew increasingly distant. Then veteran journo Keith Altham popped up to introduce  “Jimi’s engine-room”, and the pair were instantly transported back to 1970 by Moore’s introduction to a long and winding Red House. While Cox looked comfortable in his superfly hat and outsized Jimi merchandise shirt, Mitch seemed bemused by the occasion. Now tinier than ever, he sat behind a small kit and took a while before finding his bearings. After 15 minutes, though, as Moore graciously steered the pair towards a tense climax, glorious flashes of Mitchell’s jazz-inflected syncopation began to shine through. The crowd, which you could feel virtually willing him on, responded with the night’s biggest cheer. Two more songs – a blistering Stone Free and a soulful Hey Joe thanks to a bubbling Billy bassline – and the engine room was gone. Not necessarily graceful . . . but, in its way, beautiful.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Monterey Pop Festival - Sunday, June 18, 1967