Places to go in London to have a Jimi Hendrix experience

Jimi Hendrix - There is hardly anyone who does not know this name and as soon as hears this name does not associate it with his music and his guitar playing skills. More than fifty years ago, Jimi Hendrix arrived in London intending to create rock 'n' roll history. Since then his fans and many other people try to visit some of the places in London where they can see a little bit of Jimi Hendrix. A great place as an example is Handel & Hendrix Museum. But now we can take a few steps back.

Jimi went to the balcony of his room at the Hotel Samarkand in Notting Hill. He needed that fresh night air to get better sleep. Insomnia was something that haunted him more often than he wanted. And then, Hendrix returned to the bedroom to write music.

In the late sixtyish Jimi arrived in London from Seattle. On his first day in London, Hendrix met Kathy Etchingham, and they embarked on what would become a two-and-a-half-year relationship.

A fight with Chandler caused Hendrix and Etchingham to be evicted from the apartment they shared with the businessman. That brought them to live on Brook Street. As today, Brook Street was a busy street in 1968, full of small offices and luxurious shops.

Although part of Mayfair, the upscale neighbourhood in central London, the area around 23 Brook Street (especially the backyard patio) was a bit grubby and abandoned. The number 23 was occupied by a restaurant called Mr. Love, and the upper floors were offices. A key attraction of Brook Street was its central location.

Property owners in more residential areas had refused to rent one of the properties to Hendrix for fear of the disturbances it might cause. This refusal was probably reasonably fair: Ringo Starr (whose apartment Hendrix had borrowed from Montagu Square) was at that time battling five injunctions from dissatisfied neighbours.

Although not particularly sophisticated, Brook Street was in vogue. Mr. Love was popular with musicians before Hendrix moved there, amid the neighbours were the Bee Gees.

Photos reveal that haute couture and street fashion in Brook Street blended with everyday shoppers and people in the business - just as they still are today.

By 1968, the house with number 25 had already hung on its facade the blue plaque that informs that the composer George Handel lived there. Hendrix had fun with the sight and said, "To be honest, I've never heard much from this guy. But I enjoy Bach a little now and then." However, he was inspired to buy records with the recordings of Messiah and Belshazzar at the HMV store on Oxford Street.

“This is my first real home of my own,” wrote Hendrix of the £30-a-week Mayfair flat he moved into in July 1968. A 2-million-pound restoration later, the flat is now a museum, complete with a blue plaque – the first to be given upon a Rockstar.

I have been a fan of his music for most of my life, and I felt as I was about to meet Jimi from the second I entered the museum. And a few minutes later I meet Tiger Taylor that was friends with Hendrix. They played together in the last Jimi Hendrix tour. I had the chance to see the space where Jimi lived not only through my eyes but also through Taylor's eyes and that was one of those experiences that you usually take some time to realize even happened.

Tiger Taylor remembers how happy Jimi was living there, he said “Jimi loved London, he loved this house. He was accepted in London. It didn't matter that he was black. People in London didn't think like that... In London, people accepted him the way he was, and he was accepted straight away here in London.”

Tiger remembers what he actually thought about Jimi when he first meets him, he said "He impressed me very much by the way he looked for the start. His guitar playing was really impressive. But I know about him anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. I know that he could play really well. I know that he was the best guitar player in the world.”

Hendrix did not usually wake up until the late afternoon, especially after a night of musical improvisations and parties with friends.

Hendrix would be out most nights. Once the club closed, the party moved back to Brook Street, where he would hang out with friends and fellow musicians into the early hours.

“Jimi was a really shy and a really quiet guy. The fame and attention I suppose when he was doing concerts was great, but when he wasn't playing, he liked to be left alone basically.

Hendrix was not interested in the Rock Starr lifestyle - he just wanted to play his music. He always found time to talk to fans and give autographs at the stage door and on the way home.”

Here are some other places where Jimi played music or spent some with friends:

- Ronnie Scott's

London jazz joint Ronnie Scott's was the site of Jimi Hendrix's last ever public appearance on September 16 1970. 'Hendrix made his entrance during the second set. There was a crack in the air the typical London jazz crowd tried to show indifference as he took the stage. Still, a ripple of applause acknowledged the greatest guitar player in the world,' noted Eric Burdon in his autobiography.

- The Scotch of St James, SW1

On September 24 1966, having touched down from the US that very morning, Hendrix sweet-talked his way on stage, turned up the amps and proceeded to shock (and impress) his audience with a unique rendition of 'Wild Thing' by The Troggs.

- Bag O'Nails, W1

The Bag O'Nails club was the environment for Jimi Hendrix's official London debut. Witnessed by a group of musical greats including Pete Townshend (The Who), Eric Clapton (Cream) and Jeff Beck, Hendrix created showmanship, cementing his tradition of playing the guitar with his teeth.

- The Troubadour, SW5

Despite the odds, The Troubadour is still going strong after 60 years in business. Warmly welcoming musical greats like Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, The Strokes and (more importantly) Jimi Hendrix to its stage, the venue continues to host live music most nights of the week.

"A lot of people that visit these places do not know anything about him, but they want to know and they always great questions. I was here in 69' when he was here. I do not know everything. But I know quite a bit about what happened when we were here, and I know it was all fun, and we had a great time. It was good to be with Jimi. It was fifty years ago this year, and I'm still here to tell the story." Concluded Tiger Taylor before showing me a picture of him with Jimi and some other friend sitting around Hendrix's bed. He is the only one from that picture that is still alive to tell the story.

Jimi could not sleep. So later on, he took a large portion of sleeping tablets. He did not wake up the next afternoon. That afternoon the news was already spreading fast: Jimi Hendrix, the best guitar player in the world, was dead. His music, by contrast, will live forever.