March 15, 1968 Here’s the voice of Experience — Jimi Hendrix – Jane Scott

Here’s the voice of Experience — Jimi Hendrix – Jane Scott They’re hotter than a Hullabaloo at high noon in Haiti. And it’s only 11 more days (count ’em!) until the big Experience at Public Music Hall. So what will the Jimi Hendrix Experience play at the two WKYC whambangs on March 12? They never know, Jimi admitted in a telephone interview from New York. “SEE, WE get out there and someone says ‘What shall we do”’ and then somehow we do it,” said bass-guitar player Noel Redding, 22. That should go down somewhere as the understatement of ’68. Jimi was voted the world’s top pop musician in Britain’s anual Melody Makers Poll this fall. The trio’s Reprise LP “Axis: Bold as Love” whipped up 116 places on the charts in one week. It’s No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot LP list now. Their first show here sold out in one hour and 45 minutes and the second is a sell-out, too. WELL, YES, they’re a little controversial. Jimi has been known to smash his guitar to smithereens, play it on his stomach or even with his teeth. The San Francisco Daughters of the American Revolution blocked the trio’s appearance with the Monkees last year. And that hair! “They seem to be singing their way to an electrocution,” wrote a Newsweek reporter. Does look a little like old scared Shredded Wheat. “Mine is only to my shoulders so I’m letting it grow,” said Noel. “It’s sort of curly and it kind of sticks out. I have to wash it every other day.” RIGHT now they all have moustaches, but may shave them before Cleveland day. “Right now I’m wearing red boots, pink trousers, a ruffly shirt and a yellow jacket,” reported Noel. “And Jim, he’s over there in green trousers and a blue ruffled shirt and a big black hat with a feather that’s broke off at the top.” The Experience were having their pictures taken for a magazine. But Newsweek hasn’t heard the half of it. “THE OTHER night after our Washington show Mitch (Mitch Mitchell the drummer) poked his head in my room and said he thought he’d like to go to London and we haven’t seen him since,” said Noel. (Mitch is due back today, though.) You know the scoop. Noel and Mitch are 22 and 21-year-old Englishmen and Jimi is a Seattle native, 22, who made it big in Britain. Why do they call themselves the Experience? “Because good, bad or indifferent, it’s an experience.” said Jimi. NOW ABOUT that first name. “My grandmother spelled it that way,” he answered. Jimi, born Nov. 27, 1945, had two big breaks, one of them good. The first was a back injury after a parachute jump that closed his military career at 16. The second was a drop-in visit from Chas Chandler of the Animals at his gig with a combo in the Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village. Chandler talked Hendrix into heading for England. “And that’s where I met him,” said Noel. I came down to audition for the Animals and this guy comes up and asked me if I could play bass. I said ‘I’ll have it a try,’ and I was in.” ONE MONTH later the Jimi Hendrix Experience played their first gig in Paris and the rest is history. You know about their smash success at the Monterey Internationa] Pop Festival in June. Noel, born in Folkstone, Kent on Dec. 25, 1945, started out on the violin at 13, studied art a year at an art college. “Modern art, it was. Lost my touch a bit now, but I could always go back someday,” he said. He borrowed that money for the historic audition. The other member, Mitch, had a fiery career before becoming “Experienced.” He began training in dancing and acting at age three, did TV commercials at 10 and traveled around the world a year with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames. Mitch was also a demand drummer on London recording sessions and played in the orchestra of Britian’s TV show, “Ready, Steady, Go.” MITCH WAS born in London on July 9, 1946. “We all live in London now, but were kind of elusive about where,” said Noel. How would THEY describe a Jimi Hendrix Experience? “I don’t know. We’re wild, I guess. And free. We just play what we want. We’re just us. Well, I’d guess you’d say we’re spontaneous. Once I fell off a stage, in Milwaukee. I got a big scratch on me leg. It’s still there,” said Noel. NOEL DIGS Ray Charles, the Beatles, the small Faces, the Traffic. (“You haven’t heard about them? You will!”) and the Move. Speaking of moves, traveling has kept them from getting married. “Mitch was engaged last year but it broke off. Not enough time,” Noel said. Noel would consider the rings and rice bit in maybe three years. “American girls” They’re different but I can’t tell you how,” he said. The group hopes to have their third album out by May. Noel did three songs on it, but the majority was written by Jimi. “I LIKE the softer songs, like ‘Burn the Midnight Lamp,’ ” said Jimi. That’s on the next album. And this top trio click in off hours, too. Cameras, that is. Mitch has a Nikon. Noel has a Yashica and a movie camera and Jimi has everything from a Polaroid to a Reflex. But Jimi Hendrix had his biggest experience Feb. 33. He went back to Seattle. Back to Garfield High where he’d dropped out when he was 16. And got an honorary diploma. Incidentally, this was one performance where teens didn’t have to have tickets. The principal dismissed the first hour classes to hear him.

tags: Experience live / interview / Jane Scott / Jimi / Media / Mitch / Noel