Readers may find of interest – Brian May and other guitar legends, back then on attending and reacting to early Hendrix gigs, in disbelief.
CLASSIC ROCK
THE BIRTH OF HEAVY
29 April 2024
Article with comments from Brian May:
“There were guitar players weeping. They had to mop the floor up”: How Jimi Hendrix invented everything we love
EXTRACT:
… within weeks of Hendrix being unveiled to London’s goggle-eyed media at the Bag O’Nails club on Friday November 25, 1966, virtually every major British blues guitarist found himself rethinking his musical direction. Inevitably, the purists would continue to recycle the past, and the unimaginative would slavishly emulate Hendrix. But a handful of inspired innovators would choose to instead fashion their own unique styles, and eventually out of that seething maelstrom.
January 29, 1967
The Who headline a gig at the Saville Theatre, London, supported by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Koobas and Thoughts. In the audience are Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce of Cream, plus Brian May.
Brian May (guitarist, Queen): I’d heard the solo on Stone Free, and refused to believe that someone could actually play this. It had to be some kind of studio trickery, the way he talks to the guitar and the guitar talks back to him. I was already playing in a band called Smile, and I thought I was a reasonably good guitarist, so I knew it wasn’t possible. So I went to the Saville, determined to be a disbeliever. But I was swept off my feet. I thought: “This guy is the most astounding thing I’ve ever seen.” And he did the Stone Free solo live, absolutely perfectly. It was back to the drawing board for me.