From 14 November until 5 December 1967 the Jimi Hendrix Experience toured the UK on a package tour sharing the bill with The Move, Pink Floyd, Amen Corner, The Nice, Outer Limit and Eire Apparent.
31 shows in 16 Cities on a amazing Tour of Theatres after Jimi's steep ascent to fame at the Monterey Pop Festival earlier that year.
On 26 November the Tour plays 2 shows at the Palace Theatre in Manchester.
After the show Noel Redding writes in his diary: 'In Manchester we got stoned in the afternoon and nearly got thrown out of the hotel.”
“In Manchester, a thin three-fan welcoming committee presented me the gift of ‘Please’ written 5,000 times. These days the bands weren’t the only ones sniffing pure methedrine crystal and living off a rainbow of diet pills.”
Not a single eyewitness account of the night's proceedings at the Palace Theatre seems to have surfaced.
Newspaper reviews havent been located. It is unknown whether some local papers published about this night at all.
After the show the Jimi Hendrix Experience spends the night at Excelsior Hotel, Wythenshaw, Manchester
If you or anyone you know attended one of the shows at the Palace Theatre in Manchester on 26 November please drop us a note at novdec1967@yahoo.com
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Whitla Hall, Festival '67, Queen's College, Belfast.
On 27 november 1967 the Tour plays 2 shows at the Whitla Hall as part of their 'Festival '67' program.
Before the shows, Jimi is given a Birthday cake by the Festival organisation. It was Jimi's 25th birthday, and this was the only night the Jimi Hendrix Experience played in Ireland.
Songs - 1st show:
Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Fire
Purple Haze
Hey Joe
Foxy Lady
The Wind Cries Mary
Wild Thing
Songs - 2nd show:
Foxy Lady
Fire
Catfish Blues
The Wind Cries Mary
Purple Haze
Wild Thing
Belfast Telegraph (28 November) ‘Cool Reception At The Whitla’ by George Hamilton: “The noise being blasted out at the Whitla Hall last night during the Jimi Hendrix concert was the loudest I have ever heard. It was so bad you could feel your insides - and even your chair - resonating...in tune, naturally…[the group were] fine on record, and just as good at reproducing a similar sound ‘live’ but the enormous amplification swamped everything. Their performance received a polite but cool reception.”
The Belfast Newsletter (28 November) ‘Hendrix was worth bringing’ by unknown: “Jimi received an enthusiastic response from the two 1,000 strong audiences... were grasped entirely by this way-out brand of music, obviously exceptionally skilful, if you appreciate that sort of thing… With Noel Redding and drummer ‘Mitch’ Mitchell, Hendrix captured his audience.”
Gown (7 December) by Liam and Roisin McAuley: “It is now an acknowledged fact that a Pop Concert should be ear-splitting and kaleidoscopic. Last week’s Jimi Hendrix concert fulfilled both criteria. On stage, amplifiers dwarfed and deafened the performers; in the gallery frenzied amateurs feverishly juggled with six squares of coloured cellophane and two spotlights. Fifteen hundred people sat in the ’Whitla’ and waited for their minds to he blown...
It was Hendrix’ s birthday. The audience sang ‘Happy Birthday’ in a feeble and slightly embarrassed fashion. The compére hurriedly initiated a cry of ‘We want Jimi.’ The lights dimmed and weaved; Hendrix exploded on to the stage; ‘Plug your ears, it’s gonna be LOUD.’ the ensuing welter of noise, confusion and flashing lights could not obscure the fact that Jimi Hendrix is a guitarist of considerable talent and though it is at times difficult to separate sheer gimmickness from genuine musical JHEression. He played the guitar in fifty different positions from the Kama Sutra, made an indecent assault upon the amplifier, and in a final frenetic gesture smashed a Fender Stratacaster [sic] against the wall (having first displayed method in his madness by unplugging it). It was as though he had finally succeeded in identifying the instrument with his own arrogant virility and subsequently frustrated with the latter had involved it in the final act of destruction. It is now as important to smash a guitar as it is to play it. Hendrix did both with admirable expertise.”
Offstage, Hendrix is incongruously mild, affable, and unassuming. He sat in the dressing room, temporarily detached from the bevy of road-managers, and munched birthday cake. He constantly strummed a guitar covered in psychedelic patterns.”
If you or anyone you know attended one of the shows at the Whitla Hall on 27 November 1967 please drop us a note at novdec1967@yahoo.com
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On December 1st 1967 the Tour plays 2 shows at the Central Hall in Chatham.
The ‘Hendrix/Move/Floyd’ tour had landed on High Street in Chatham. The first show of the evening, scheduled for 18.15 hours, started late. While some of the groups were at the “Town Hall” (since that was the venue listed in the tour itinerary by the PR company) looking for the audience, a few hundred yards away the audience at the capacity-packed “Central Hall” wondered where the groups were! After a few changes in the programme order, the Nice kicked off the evening, playing just two songs. Next onstage: the Jimi Hendrix Experience.
Songs played during one of the 2 shows:
Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Hey Joe
Purple Haze
Wild Thing
The Chatham Standard (5th December): “We had to wait for Hendrix himself for another performance as exciting as this one...He opened his act with the Beatles’ number ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,’ and the three-piece group made as much of an impression as a studio full of musicians. Once upon a time this sort of noise could not be reproduced outside a studio. He did several of his own numbers, including unfaultable versions of ‘Hey Joe’ and ‘Purple Haze’ and ‘The Troggs’ ‘Wild Thing.’ ‘The Pink Floyd’ was, for me, the biggest disappointment.”
Backstage shot of the JHE plus 13-year old Barbara Humphries
If you or anyone you know attended one of the shows at the Chatham Central Hall on December 1st 1967, please drop us a note at novdec1967@yahoo.com
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On 2 December 1967 the Tour plays two show at the Dome in Brighton.
Thanks to Mick Coyne who not only attended the 2nd show but also supplied all the newspaper-cuttings and his own memories of the night. Thanks Mick!
The show was advertised at least 3 times in the Brighton Argus.
Songs played at one of the shows that night are:
Foxy Lady
Purple Haze
Hey Joe
Wild Thing
The Dome entrance in 1967
Rory Campbell (just sixteen years old and attending his very first “pop concert”) saw the first show of the evening:
“The package-show at The Dome was very good... Amen Corner who in their movements performed a sort of Irish show band or black ‘soul’ show synchronised routine; Ulster’s Eire Apparent with Henry McCulloch, announced as “Ireland’s most popular act,” though completely unknown in Ireland at that time! and Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett on the verge of insanity, but the band holding together excitingly, and topping the bill, the Hendrix Experience. Jimi emerged onto the stage from the darkness of the circular hall, wearing glimmering pale-blue crushed-velvet flared trousers, and his performance that evening completely surpassed the other acts, both in impact and musically. I quote from a letter I wrote the next day: ‘Lastly was Jimi Hendrix. It was by far the best and most exciting [act] that night. He played really well, forcing the most extraordinary sounds from his guitar... Throughout the programme he sweated profusely, scratched his head, and muttered things to the audience, completely cool and unconcerned at their reaction. While tuning, someone yelled something unintelligible but racist-sounding at him, and he replied, ‘I didn’t catch what you said, mister, but I sure wish the same to you (cheers and applause!). During his numbers be hopped up and down, and his tongue flickered in and out. Among the songs were Foxy Lady, Purple Haze, Hey Joe, and Wild Thing. The drummer, Mitch Mitchell, did a very good solo; bass-guitarist Noel Redding wore a top-hat”
The Dome entrance in 1967
By Mick Coyne:
THE BRIGHTON DOME
SATURDAY 2ND DECEMBER 1967
(As Recalled In February 1995)
Please Remember This Was Nearly 30 Years Ago And I Was Just 17
This Is How I Remember Events – I would welcome additions or
Corrections from anyone who attended these concerts.
There was a limited amount of local publicity before the shows, in the Brighton Evening Argus, and even less about the show after.
I had learned about the tour through the Jimi Hendrix Experience fan club. So in advance I had purchased a 12/6d (62 & a half pence) ticket, which was quite near and centre to the stage.
So to the day and having been dropped off earlier in Brighton by my parents I arrived at The Dome stage door about 4:45 in the evening.
After looking round for a while it was turning dark and as I was standing alone a short distance from the stage door at just after 5 o’clock a car drew up, facing me, across the pavement from the stage door.
The car was a Ford Zodiac Mk 4, metallic silver and an ‘E’ registration (1967).
The passenger door was opposite the stage door and as it opened just one person got out of the car, and I could see it was Jimi Hendrix.
As he shut the car door and walked round the front of the car towards the stage door I walked towards him and called “Jim”. I don’t know why, perhaps because of the excitement of the situation, but I didn’t say Jimi.
Jimi stopped as he got on the pavement and the car pulled away. As I walked towards him he looked stunning and immediately he reminded me of all the old red indian photos I had seen.
Jimi was wearing a headband with lots of beads and necklaces round his neck. He wore a brown fringe jacket; similar to the one Noel is wearing in the photo on page 77 of the book ‘The Hendrix Experience’ by Mitch Mitchell. The boots Jimi had on were also fringed and similar to the ones Mitch is wearing in the photo mentioned above. Lastly I seem to remember green trousers.
I asked Jimi for his autograph and handed him my open Jimi Hendrix Experience fan club membership card and fan club red platignum pen. We were all alone and it was magical, although little was said.
As Jimi went to sign he looked at the card a little oddly but signed it. He then passed the card and pen back but as he did the pen fell to the ground. “Sorry man” he said, I couldn’t believe how polite he was as we both went to pick up the pen. Jimi reached it first and apologised again as he handed it back with those oh so long fingered hands.
Jimi then went in through the stage door and I just stood there for a few moments, stunned, still with no one else around. Eventually when I did come back to earth I cursed to myself several times, and still do today…
Why didn’t I say more? – Why didn’t I ask to go in with Jimi for a while? – Why didn’t I have a camera?
After a while I decided to go and have a look at the car that had dropped Jimi off and was now parked at the back of The Dome.
Looking inside there wasn’t much but on the back shelf there was a poster about 24” x 12” and it appeared to be of stiff cardboard and not paper. The design was quite clear under the street light and it looked great, a brightly coloured drawing of Jimi and the boys in an (Asian) Indian type scene. Of course at that time I didn’t realize it was a copy of the cover of Axis: Bold As Love.
I hung around the car for sometime and went back to it several times that night. I was tempted more than once to break a window and take the poster(!). I also remember writing with my finger in the condensation on the car ‘Hail King Jimi’.
By about 5:45 there were quite a few fans around the stage door and back of The Dome. Did not see any other ‘stars’ arrive but around 6 o’clock a couple of the ground floor windows were open and these turned out to be the dressing rooms and could see Mitch & Noel amongst others.
I couldn’t get very close because of the other fans but the boys were chatting for sometime. I never saw Jimi in the room though.
As I only had a ticket for the second show I stood outside one of the fire exits so I could hear what was going on. The other groups were of no great interest to me but when Jimi took the stage at about 7:40 I stood by the doors for the entire set.
The numbers they played that night seemed to be much the same at both shows. There was, in no particular order, Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, Hey Joe, Purple Haze, Foxy Lady, slow one – possibly Wind Cries Mary, I Don’t Live Today and I think I remember The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp at least at one of the shows. Possibly there could have been other but it was a relatively short set.
Directly the Experience had finished I made my way to the entrance as the first show fans poured out.
Once we were allowed in I brought a programme but I cannot remember how much it cost
I believe the second show kicked off around 8:40. I was only there to see one group and I would guess The Jimi Hendrix Experience too the stage about 10:00-10:15?
By the time Jimi took the stage he looked completely different to when I saw him earlier.
Jimi was wearing a black jacket, dark trousers and the hat, very similar to the picture on page 77 of the book ‘Jimi Hendrix – A Visual Documentary’ by Tony Brown. I cannot remember the shirt or what Mitch and Noel were wearing, although I think Noel was wearing a hat as well.
Jimi played a white right-handed Stratocaster with a rosewood fret board and I don’t remember him changing guitars during the set.
As I have said the songs were about the same at both shows. I remember Jimi took off his hat at one point for a very short time and hung it on the microphone stand, possibly to play the guitar behind his head. But the theatrics were not as physical as when I saw him at Worthing 10 months earlier, the music was just louder.
The show finished about 11:00 and as we left The Dome I reflected on the meeting with Jimi and the chances I had missed.
But I will never forget that meeting – the spectacular vision, the feeling I experienced, the quietness and shyness of Jimi.
I never saw Jimi live in concert again but his music still carried on moving me – perhaps even more now than it did then.
Thank you Jimi – we miss you.
If you or anyone you know attended one of the shows at the Brighton Dome on 2 December 1967 please drop us a note at novdec1967@yahoo.com
On December 3 1967 the Tour plays 2 shows at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham.
Nottingham Evening News And Post (4 December) by Richard Williams: “The audience, older than most, gave a reception which was scarcely more than polite to most of the groups, and it was not until the arrival of Hendrix that they really went wild. Starting off with a deafening ‘Sgt. Pepper’, he built a climax right through his act until, in his hit song ‘Purple Haze’, the theatres sedate foundations threatened to crumble under the weight of his assault. Although he was not quite at the top of his game, an out-of-form Hendrix can still carve any other blues group into ribbons.”
Phil J. Ellis wrote in with his memories of the night, and he supplied a scan of his ticket and the newspaper advert for this night.
Thanks Phil!
I'd been a Jimi fan right back to when I saw him for the first time on TV
performing Hey Joe but didn't start going to gigs until later in 1967. When
the amazing line-up for the winter package tour headlined by Jimi was
announced, I quickly snapped up a ticket for the early show at Nottingham's
Theatre Royal - couldn't do the late show as the last bus home left at 9pm and
having only recently left school, I was a few years off owning a car!
I have a number of very strong memories from the night - Keith Emerson of The
Nice throwing his old Hammond around, The Move's Trev Burton walking out and
kicking over an amp, Syd Barrett failing to show and The Nice's Davey O'List
standing in for him with Pink Floyd, Andy
Fairweather-Low in white suit going
down on his knees to sing Gin House with the totally-out-of-place teenybop band Amen Corner.
But it was The Jimi Hendrix Experience I was there to see. As I faced the
stage, Jimi stood to the left, Noel to the right with Mitch in the middle.
Jimi was wearing a wonderful jacket with horizontal waves of orange, beige and
black which I have never seen in a photo. I think he was also wearing a white
ruffled shirt and orange trousers but it's the jacket that sticks in the mind.
Being an early show, Jimi didn't really pull out the stops. I recall an
entertaining but workmanlike trot through the hits and a couple of album tracks
including some trademark playing with teeth and behind the head. Again, I
Can't be 100% sure but I'd say the set list included Hey Joe, Purple Haze, Wind
Cries Mary, Burning of the Midnight Lamp, Foxey Lady and Spanish Castle Magic.
There was certainly no Killing Floor, Like a Rolling Stone or Wild Thing which
at that time I had read about but never heard.
So that was the first time I saw Jimi live. I spent the next couple of years
waiting in vain for the next UK tour. Sadly, it was never to be.
After the shows the bands drive over 300Km by coach to their accomodation: ‘Royal Station Hotel’, Neville Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
If you or anyone you know attended one of the shows at the Theatre Royal in Nottingham on 3 December 1967, please drop us a note at novdec1967@yahoo.com
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On 4 December the Tour plays 2 shows at the City Hall in Newcastle.
Chas: “He had this guitar shaped like an arrow [Gibson ‘Flying V’]. It was in Newcastle City Hall and it was one of them nights when everything had gone wrong. No matter what happened, an amp was breaking down, there was crackling coming over, and at one point, half-way through the act, he was getting so uptight because like the world was falling down around him out on the stage, and he took this guitar he was playing, shaped like an arrow, and he threw it at the amp. And this is where the good luck comes into it, the guitar went into the amp like that and stuck, it was just like an enormous arrow sticking out of this amplifier. The audience thought it was part of the act, just went ‘rmmm’, rose as a man and from that minute on nothing went wrong. It was just one of them little magic seconds. It just altered the whole balance of the act and he went on to just tear the place apart.” [‘Voxpop: Profiles Of The Pop Process’ 1972 by Michael Wale].
Andy Fairweather Lowe (vocalist of Amen Corner): “Someone was filming [Hendrix] in the dressing room, on video [?] tape.”
Noel Redding: “In Newcastle we met pleasantly intelligent but coldly determined people like bouncer Dave, who beat up eight guys after they had axed his head in and before he walked to hospital. During the show one guy jumped twenty feet from the balcony to the stage only to be lobbed off by a roadie wielding a mic’ stand.“
[‘Are You Experienced’ 1990 by Noel Redding and Carol Appleby]
If you or anyone you know attended one of the shows at the City Hall in Newcastle on 4 December 1967 please drop us a note at novdec1967@yahoo.com
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On 5 December 1967 the Hendrix/Move/Pink Floyd Tour ends at Green's Playhouse in Glasgow.
Noel Redding: “Glasgow was a shithouse, but the audience wasn’t dampened by it - they were great.”
“The audience in Glasgow was wonderful, but the vibes were heavy. This huge bouncer was staggering about nearly legless shouting for the bands autographs. ‘Where are ye?’ We hid. Afterwards, while trying to get the crowds out, he got his finger cut off in the door. He never missed it, only wouldn’t you know it was one of the musicians who eventually said, ‘What’s this? Aauuugh!’”
Gary Brooker: "The gig was an absolute shambles, with Jimi having the curtains closed on him halfway through his set, because he was supposedly doing rude things with his guitar. Then green-clothed, short haircut, cap-and-gloved staff tried to pull him off the stage".
Jimi Hendrix 05.12.1967
Setlist
1 Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
2 Hey Joe
3 Burning of the Midnight Lamp
4 Foxy Lady
5 Purple Haze
6 Wild Thing
Amen Corner 05.12.1967
Setlist
1 Gin House Blues
2 Bend Me
3 Shape Me
Pink Floyd 05.12.1967
Setlist
1 Take up thy stethoscope and walk
2 Interstellar Overdrive
The Move 05.12.1967
Setlist
1 Fire Brigade
2 Something Else
3 Flowers In The Rain
4 Night Of Fear
The Nice 05.12.1967
Setlist
1 The thoughts of Emerlist Davjack
2 Rondo
The Outer Limits 05.12.1967
Setlist
1 Give me one more chance
Green's Playhouse was renamed the Apollo in 1973, and was demolished in 1989.
If you or anyone you know attended either of the 2 shows on 5 December 1967 at Green's playhouse please drop us a note at novdec1967@yahoo.com
