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Fact #118305

When:

Short story:

The Jimi Hendrix Experience plays at The Ambassador Theatre, Washington D.C., USA, supported by San Francisco band Natty Bumpo. In the audience are Pete Townshend of The Who, and Nils Lofgren.

Full article:

Nils Lofgren : First night I saw him we were just kids, and we'd just gone to see The Who. In fact, there was a huge show with the Blues Magoos, Herman's Hermits and The Who. This was the original Who with Keith Moon, and they were just spectacular. Then we all rushed over to the Ambassador Theatre - our psychedelic ballroom - to see Jimi. And Pete Townshend was in the audience - he had come over.

And Hendrix came out and none of us really knew anything about him apart from he was supposed to be this magical guitarist. And he only had three people in his band which of course we'd never seen and then... It was funny `cause we were so naive - he announced he was gonna play `Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band'. And all of us are like, `Well, how can he play that? Where's the horns? Where's the strings? Where's all the extra guitars? What's he talking...' We were so oblivious to where Jimi was coming from and he was just such a... I mean, he was just so amazing to look at. He was just so, you know, gorgeous. Just like this animal athlete kind of thing. And he counted off the song and I'll never forget, you know... Everyone was just kind of sitting down wondering what the hell is going to happen.

And he had these huge stacks of Marshall amps and, you know, you didn't really know how loud it was going to be and at the end of the count he literally just disappeared, you know. He dropped back with his ass on his heels, guitar between his legs, and just kinda went out of vision, and the whole audience just leapt up to their feet and he's down there, you know, bumping and grinding doing Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band a la Purple Haze - you know, that kind of rhythm, a little bit slowed down. And it was just completely mesmerising and overwhelming and inspiring.
(Source : http://www.djnoble.demon.co.uk/ints/NILSLOF.GR2.html)

Pete Townshend (The Who) : I hadn't touched psychedelic drugs for a year when I saw him at some concert in Washington or somewhere in the States, and he was pulling those old psychedelic stunts again. And you have to see him to know what I'm talking about. He did things which were magical. I don't think he knew he was doing them or that he could do them, but he'd do things with his body that were very, very beautiful to look at, yet accompanied by these incredibly wild noises. It was some kind of strange alchemy. He took the drug culture and made it into something by demonstrating that there was actually such a thing as physical poetry in rock, something that was very close to ballet. I'm not saying he danced 'cause he didn't, but he was very beautiful to look at, and you felt pain in his presence and in the presence of that music. You felt small and you realised how far you had to go. What was also painful was to meet him afterwards and realise he didn't know what he was doing. He had no idea of his greatness. There was also a feeling that he was going to burn out very, very quickly. He was so insecure and shy. Sweet guy. Really nice guy.

Nils Lofgren : When I saw Jimi Hendrix I just was possessed. I realised, "Oh my God, this is what I want to do. It's going to be my career." And there was no turning back. Just about a month later I was in Greenwich Village trying to sneak into record companies and get deals! It was pretty funny - I was pretty pathetic! But I was trying anyway. That really was a huge turning point for me. I followed Jimi around - he was, I think, probably the biggest inspiration to me of all as a guitarist.
(Source : http://www.djnoble.demon.co.uk/ints/NILSLOF.GR2.html)