Fact #129234
When:
Short story:
Roadie Neville Chesters joins the Jimi Hendrix Experience crew. In the evening, Jimi Hendrix Experience play at The Saville Theatre, London, England, UK, with The Denny Laine Electric String Band, The Chiffons and Procol Harum. Later, Hendrix goes to see The Turtles at The Speakeasy. Paul McCartney and George Harrison of The Beatles attend the show and the post-gig party is held at McCartney's home.
Full article:
Noel Redding (bassist, JHE) : Sgt Pepper had just come out. All The Beatles were there so we came on stage and started with Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band We'd only learned the song in the dressing room.
Paul McCartney [The Beatles] : The curtains flew back and Jimi came walking forward playing Sgt Pepper.
Graham Nash (The Hollies) : Hendrix came out in this flame orange velvet suit, playing Sgt Pepper, and we were just blown away.
Denny Laine : When we opened that show for Hendrix in 1967, there were a lot of celebrities there. It was pretty high-end. Hendrix opened his set with a version of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," which had just been released. Hendrix came up to me after the show and told me how much he enjoyed my guitar playing. And I told him how much I enjoyed his playing, and then we proceeded to get drunk [laughs]. He was a good guy. I was very upset when he died.
(Source : http://www.thestranger.com/music/sound-check/2015/03/04/21817542/denny-laine-of-wings-and-the-moody-blues-talks-rock-n-roll-longevity)
Keith Reid [Procol Harum] : We did a night with him at The Saville Theatre. He came on and played Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and blew out the sound system. This was his first number! So they fixed it and then he went and did the same thing again.
Hugh Nolan (reviewer, Disc and Music Echo) : Despite the amplifier hang-up he refused to be flustered, telling the audience, 'This is our last gig here for a long time, so we're gonna make it nice.'
Paul McCartney : The biggest single tribute for me was that it (Sgt Pepper album) was released on the Thursday and, on the Sunday, we went to The Saville Theatre and Jimi Hendrix opened with Sgt Pepper and he'd only had since Thursday to learn it.
Hugh Nolan : It was Jimi's audience and Jimi's night. He started his set with a driving version of Sgt Pepper's, then blasted out Like A Rolling Stone, Hey Joe, Purple Haze and The Wind Cries Mary. Throughout the whole set, Jimi kept up a constant stream of happy talk, achieving a fantastic sense of communication with the star-studded audience. Then, to a smashing, ear-splitting Are You Experienced, Jimi was handed a guitar from the wings - a guitar he'd painted in glorious swirling colours and written a poem on the back dedicated to Britain and its audience - and, bathed in a flickering strobe light, crashed the guitar about the stage and hurled what was left to eager souvenir-hunters.
Denny Laine : He wasn't handling his sudden stardom too well - he tended to be a bit curt with people who weren't close to him. Yet we became great friends after my Electric String Band supported him at The Saville Theatre. He watched us from the wings and, during a conversation at The Speakeasy afterwards, praised my choice of guitarist. "Hang on Jimi," says I, "I was the guitarist."
Steve Howe : Backstage at The Saville Theatre one night I witnessed his reckless guitar throwing. I knew one of his road managers, and he used to stand behind the stacks of Marshalls and wait, and generally this white Strat would come over the amps. Of course, the idea was that he caught it. And usually he did.
Eric Andersen (folk singer and songwriter) : Brian Epstein was brought to a show of mine at Steve Paul's Scene in New York. We met and Brian loved my songs, and we talked and he was very humble, told beautiful stories about things like how he never had a contract with The Beatles, it was all done on a handshake.
His whole idea was that the artist should just do what they want to do. He was beautiful. I loved Brian Epstein, loved him as a person, as a soul … and he never tried to hit on me or anything.
He got on well with my wife at the time, came to visit us in our loft, and he invited me over to London the week Sgt Pepper came out, so I got to hang out with The Beatles. I was all dressed in denim but they were going through their little Edwardian phase, wearing the velvet suits and smokin’ dope out on the street. Coming from New York I was wary of getting too close to them, because I was sure they were all going to get busted, and they did. From a New York standpoint that was very uncool.
We went to The Speakeasy and John was passing hash under the table. It was weird. He’d be drinking soft drinks and eating chunks of hash, horrible tasting stuff, and all the girls would be running around looking like mannequins, blonde hair and miniskirts like they’d all been stamped out of the same mould.
They were going through big problems with Cynthia, she was crying a lot. Hendrix was there in a back room, I saw him a couple of times.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Rock'nReel magazine, 2008)
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Paul McCartney [The Beatles] : The curtains flew back and Jimi came walking forward playing Sgt Pepper.
Graham Nash (The Hollies) : Hendrix came out in this flame orange velvet suit, playing Sgt Pepper, and we were just blown away.
Denny Laine : When we opened that show for Hendrix in 1967, there were a lot of celebrities there. It was pretty high-end. Hendrix opened his set with a version of the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," which had just been released. Hendrix came up to me after the show and told me how much he enjoyed my guitar playing. And I told him how much I enjoyed his playing, and then we proceeded to get drunk [laughs]. He was a good guy. I was very upset when he died.
(Source : http://www.thestranger.com/music/sound-check/2015/03/04/21817542/denny-laine-of-wings-and-the-moody-blues-talks-rock-n-roll-longevity)
Keith Reid [Procol Harum] : We did a night with him at The Saville Theatre. He came on and played Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and blew out the sound system. This was his first number! So they fixed it and then he went and did the same thing again.
Hugh Nolan (reviewer, Disc and Music Echo) : Despite the amplifier hang-up he refused to be flustered, telling the audience, 'This is our last gig here for a long time, so we're gonna make it nice.'
Paul McCartney : The biggest single tribute for me was that it (Sgt Pepper album) was released on the Thursday and, on the Sunday, we went to The Saville Theatre and Jimi Hendrix opened with Sgt Pepper and he'd only had since Thursday to learn it.
Hugh Nolan : It was Jimi's audience and Jimi's night. He started his set with a driving version of Sgt Pepper's, then blasted out Like A Rolling Stone, Hey Joe, Purple Haze and The Wind Cries Mary. Throughout the whole set, Jimi kept up a constant stream of happy talk, achieving a fantastic sense of communication with the star-studded audience. Then, to a smashing, ear-splitting Are You Experienced, Jimi was handed a guitar from the wings - a guitar he'd painted in glorious swirling colours and written a poem on the back dedicated to Britain and its audience - and, bathed in a flickering strobe light, crashed the guitar about the stage and hurled what was left to eager souvenir-hunters.
Denny Laine : He wasn't handling his sudden stardom too well - he tended to be a bit curt with people who weren't close to him. Yet we became great friends after my Electric String Band supported him at The Saville Theatre. He watched us from the wings and, during a conversation at The Speakeasy afterwards, praised my choice of guitarist. "Hang on Jimi," says I, "I was the guitarist."
Steve Howe : Backstage at The Saville Theatre one night I witnessed his reckless guitar throwing. I knew one of his road managers, and he used to stand behind the stacks of Marshalls and wait, and generally this white Strat would come over the amps. Of course, the idea was that he caught it. And usually he did.
Eric Andersen (folk singer and songwriter) : Brian Epstein was brought to a show of mine at Steve Paul's Scene in New York. We met and Brian loved my songs, and we talked and he was very humble, told beautiful stories about things like how he never had a contract with The Beatles, it was all done on a handshake.
His whole idea was that the artist should just do what they want to do. He was beautiful. I loved Brian Epstein, loved him as a person, as a soul … and he never tried to hit on me or anything.
He got on well with my wife at the time, came to visit us in our loft, and he invited me over to London the week Sgt Pepper came out, so I got to hang out with The Beatles. I was all dressed in denim but they were going through their little Edwardian phase, wearing the velvet suits and smokin’ dope out on the street. Coming from New York I was wary of getting too close to them, because I was sure they were all going to get busted, and they did. From a New York standpoint that was very uncool.
We went to The Speakeasy and John was passing hash under the table. It was weird. He’d be drinking soft drinks and eating chunks of hash, horrible tasting stuff, and all the girls would be running around looking like mannequins, blonde hair and miniskirts like they’d all been stamped out of the same mould.
They were going through big problems with Cynthia, she was crying a lot. Hendrix was there in a back room, I saw him a couple of times.
(Source : interview with Johnny Black for Rock'nReel magazine, 2008)