Jimi Hendrix on Carnaby Street 1967

This candid photo of Jimi Hendrix out shopping emerged as a lot in a sale of Pop Art at Christies last year. In the era of the smartphone we are used to seeing pictures of the famous caught off their guard, in the 1960s they were more unusual. Jimi carries a bag from I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet,  a boutique which specialized in selling retro military costumes. In his right hand Jimi has a cigar, which he has presumably just purchased from Finlay's the tobacconist, just behind him. Playing Sherlock Holmes, we might deduce that the photographer had seen Jimi go into Finlay's and waited for him to come out.
Jimi was left-handed but as child he was put under immense social pressure to use his right-hand and in adult life he wrote as well as smoked right-handed.
What is most striking about this un-posed photograph  is that it shows Jimi's very pronounced stoop. He was also pigeon toed and walked what a shuffle. Like Baudelaire's albatross, out of his element he was maladroit.


My book on amazon.com Jimi Hendrix: London (MusicPlace) and amazon.co.uk Jimi Hendrix: London (Musicplace) (Musicplace Series) by Saunders, William published by Roaring Forties Press (2010)

Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland - the naked truth

Jimi Hendrix takes a bite at the sleeve of the British version of Electric Ladyland in his London flat in early 1969. The playful gesture reflects his true feelings - he disliked it and was frustrated that his own ideas had been overlooked. The previous autumn, while on tour in the States, he had sent a visual of his own design back to Track Records, his London label.
Kit Lambert, co-owner of Track, ignored Jimi's wishes and pursued this characteristically outrageous cover. It must be said that a photograph and design are splendid, whatever Jimi's feelings. The design was the work of David King, art editor of the London Sunday Times' colour magazine supplement. King's vivid yet disciplined graphic imagination, and eye for images which could be both shocking and hauntingly beautiful had established a style of magazine design which was much imitated and has in many ways yet to be bested. King carried his talent for stirring up guilt and desire simultaneously in the eye of the beholder onto the sleeve of Electric Ladyland. Almost half a century later, when images of naked women are commonplace in mainstream media, and in endless supply via the internet, this picture still has the power to burrow into the pysche. The photograph was taken by David Montgomery and the women were recruited from the street, outside Montgomery's studio in Edith Grove, the shabby end of London's Chelsea, where all sorts of interesting things happen.

Addenda: My account of Jimi Hendrix's life and times in pyschedelic London is available here Jimi Hendrix: London (MusicPlace) on amazon.com and here on amazon co.uk. Jimi Hendrix: London (Musicplace) (Musicplace Series)
I would very much like to interview any of the women who posed for the photograph. If you can help please leave a message in the comments.

Eliza Gales Interviews

I talk to Eliza Gales about my book Jimi Hendrix: London (MusicPlace)

I also name check Aristotle: Poetics

I wonder if he'll link to me from his blog?

Interview here

Hear My Train a Comin’: Hendrix Hits London,

I finally made it to Hear My Train a Comin’: Hendrix Hits London, the exhibition at The Hospital Club on Endell Street in Covent Garden. Curated by EMP of Seattle, it celebrates Jimi Hendrix's time in London from September 1966 to June 1967 to mark what would have been the year of his seventieth birthday. On display are some of the best photographs from the time (I know I've seen them all) and artwork in the shape of record sleeves and posters, some of which I had never seen before. There are also videos installed showing interviews with contemporaries such as Robert Wyatt and Chris Squires as well as enthusiasts such as the great Bootsy Collins. Tickets from £5 from here. Residents of the London Borough of Camden are admitted free on Tuesday with proof of address. Until August 31st

My book Jimi Hendrix London is on sale there too. 

Jimi Hendrix: London (MusicPlace)

Granny Takes A Trip

The site of the pyschedelic boutique Granny Takes A Trip on Chelsea's King's Road. When it was opened in 1966 by tailor John Pease and artist Nigel Waymouth this was at the unfashionable or Fulham end of the King's Road. The immediate neighbourhood remained pretty scuzzy for some while. When I used to walk past daily in 1980 the premises had become a fruit and vegetable shop. It still had its Granny Takes A Trip awning, which came down on rainy days.
More on psychedelic London in my book Jimi Hendrix: London (MusicPlace)