With the summer of love seeming like it was to envelop the whole decade 1966 witnessed creative expression reach new dizzying heights as the JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE were unleashed on the public ear. It cannot be overstated as to the impact Hendrix's guitar sound transformed both musical theory and the till now uniform horizons of guitar playing. In a period when the British charts were back to back sugar-pop and the only real hints of danger coming from THE BEATLES and THE ROLLING STONES Hendrix's debut single 'Hey Joe' tore apart the music scene. A guitar had never dominated a song so masterfully before and a further brace of acid blown singles 'Purple Haze' and the diametrically opposed wistfulness of the BOB DYLAN-esque 'The Wind Cries Mary' set the band up as major contenders.

With the stage name of Jimmy James the young protégé met up with a fellow guitarist in a New York music store named Randall Wolfe. The Californian emigree was invited to join Hendrix's new act JIMMY JAMES & THE BLUE FLAMES, the two musicians working on a dual guitar showcase. With two Randy's in the band Hendrix suggested the two avoid the confusion with pseudonyms for stagework and titled one Randy Texas and the other RANDY CALIFORNIA. After a few months of THE BLUE FLAMES the newly named California journeyed back to Los Angeles to create Psychedelic Rockers SPIRIT.

Jimi's first album 'Are You Experienced' on Polydor subsidiary Track Records was recorded in London at the cusp of 1966-1967 at Olympic and Regent Sound studios. Following on from the ground gained by the singles the album, with it's deliberatly sexually provocative title, saw Hendrix freely exploring a whole gamut of emotions from the supercharged to the sublime. The guitarist's stripped down rawness was represented on cuts such as the lumbering 'Manic Depression' and 'Foxey Lady' whilst the blues of 'Red House' contrasted vividly with the lilting 'Waterfall' and ethereal 'Third Stone From The Sun'. In America the album emerged with a different running order with the three previous British singles elbowing out 'Third Stone From The Sun', 'Remember' and 'Can You See Me.'

THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE were not to rest on their laurels however and within months were re-ensconced in Olympic studios toiling on the follow up. The result, 'Axis Bold As Love' was to firmly establish them as the seminal purveyors of pschedelia. In the studio the band were unhindered by recording preconceptions evidenced by Jimi dabbling with a Leslie rotary tone cabinet enabling him to push his guitar sound into then unreached territories. The album came graced in a sleeve typical of the era of swirling dirvish patterns and hints of oriental mysticism.

The album itself began with a humourous intro that initially fooled many as Jimi narrates a tale told by himself as an alien before launching into 'Spanish Castle Magic'. 'Little Wing', so evocative of the heady times went on to become a firm live favourite. The same year the band went on the road, their first gigs coming as part of an eclectic bill comprising of THE WALKER BROTHERS, ENGLEBERT HUMPERDINCK and CAT STEVENS. These dates were to propel Jimi further into folklore being the initiation of the famous guitar burning onstage rituals. A headlining tour followed, supported by none other than PINK FLOYD and THE NICE, prior to a return to America and the infamous Monterey Pop Festival and an all too brief slot opening for THE MONKEES.

In 1972 both Redding and Mitchell appeared on the debut solo album by Hendrix's old sparring partner RANDY CALIFORNIA 'Kaptain Kopter And The Fabulous Twirly Birds'. The pair went under pseudonyms for legal reasons of Clit McTorius and Henry Manchovitz respectively.

The 1997 'First Rays Of The Rising Sun' album amply displayed Hendrix's undiminishing stature as it debuted in the American album charts at number 49 and in Britain at number 37. Interestingly Hendrix's early guitar partner RANDY CALIFORNIA cut a version of a Hendrix / California co-write 'Look Over Yonder' on their 1997 SPIRIT album 'California Blues' the same year.

In June of 2004 a London Rock n' Roll memorabilia auction sold an original studio reel of 'Burning Of The Midnight Lamp' for over $35,000. The following year the guitarist's reverential status was confirmed once again when a Marshall amplifier, that once belonged to Hendrix and subsequently bought by Richard Dickinson, of Stroud in Gloucestershire for just £65 was given an estimate value of £1 million.