(Credits: Bent Rej)
Sun 4 January 2026 20:00, UK
It seems wrong for someone like Jimi Hendrix to have a final performance. It’s like looking at the last images of the sun seconds before it explodes. Inevitable? Sure. But something that can be truly observed and understood? Not so much.
Word of mouth has always existed throughout music and is still a big part of discovering new artists today. How many times have you started listening to a new band because one of your friends has suggested you do so? Nothing really goes as far as a recommendation from someone close to you, which I suppose, when you think about it, often brings the relevance of music journalists like me into question… anyway… what was my point?
Back in the ’60s, if you were hanging about the London music scene, one name kept cropping up in every pub, club, and sweaty basement gig: Jimi Hendrix. Word of mouth was everything back then, and Hendrix had it in spades. When it came to musicians who amassed fans based solely on the power of their live shows, there was no one who captured the hearts and minds of people across the world more effectively than Hendrix did. When he flew over to London, the entire city was rocked by the fast-fingered American redefining what a guitar player could be.
Another musician who was changing the way that people viewed the guitar was Jeff Beck. He conveyed a great deal of emotion with every note he played and was able to bring the guitarist from the back of the stage to the front, making them stand out as players in rock bands. However, even someone as pivotal to guitar music as Jeff Beck knew upon seeing Jimi Hendrix live for the first time that he was playing in another league. For a moment during that first gig, Beck thought his career could well have been over.
“It was probably one of the first shows he did (in London). It was in a tiny downstairs club in Queensgate. It was a fashion club – mostly girls, 18 to 25, all dolled up, hats and all,” said Beck, recalling the first time he watched Hendrix live, “Jimi wasn’t known then. He came on, and I went, ‘Oh, my God.’ He had the military outfit on and hair that stuck out all over the place. They kicked off with (Bob Dylan’s) ‘Like a Rolling Stone’, and I thought, ‘Well, I used to be a guitarist’.”
Jimi Hendrix performing live. (Credits: Far Out / Sony Music Entertainment)
We all love sticking on a Jimi Hendrix record, but it was his live shows that really cemented him as a proper guitar legend. That’s why, when people talk about his final gig, you’d expect it to be something massive – an appropriate send-off for one of the greats. But the truth is, no one saw his death coming, and as a result, his last performance was pretty low-key. In fact, some reckon it was a bit of a disaster.
Hendrix found himself in the midst of a mob of Hell’s Angels at the Isle of Fehmarn Festival. The festival had been a logistical nightmare, as the weather was torrential, and as a result, bands continued to pull out, to the extent that the line-up was stripped to its bare bones. The organisers moved shows around to try and compensate, which led to Hendrix’s set getting rearranged time and time again. When he eventually took to the stage, he was met with a literal storm thanks to the weather, and a storm of boos thanks to poor organisation.
Hendrix cared more about live performance than anything else. While a lot of musicians would have been greeted with these circumstances and opt to walk off the stage rather than brace the slating that was coming their way, Hendrix stood firm and took it upon himself to change the moods of the crowd. Before playing his first note, he told the audience, “I don’t give a fuck if you boo, as long as you boo in tune…” After that, he proceeded to show the unassuming crowd why he was the best guitarist in the world.
How do you win over the entire music industry with your live shows? There is no set answer, if there was then every one would do it, but Hendrix had something built into him which allowed him to win people over with his gigs. It made him one of the most famous musicians to ever walk the Earth, and it meant that upon reeling out the hits like ‘All Along the Watchtower’, ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Voodoo Child’, he turned the onslaught of boos into cheers.
This was a crowd ready to tear him to shreds, but instead, they applauded. Despite being ripped off by going to a festival where half of the acts they wanted to see weren’t there, they still managed a smile and a cheer at the sight of a Jimi Hendrix show. Shortly after leaving the stage, the Hell’s Angels decided enough was enough, and set fire to it. Hendrix’s final show remains akin to the sun exploding, with those last seconds becoming engulfed in a sea of flames.
While the gig certainly won’t have been Hendrix’s best and was instead the byproduct of a logistical disaster, it could be one of the greatest final shows of all time, as it represents why he achieved the status of musician that he did. There has never been a live performer like Jimi Hendrix, and had anybody else taken to the stage that day, those enraged Hell’s Angels would have set it alight while they were still playing on it.
Trust someone like Hendrix to momentarily change the mind of an angry mob. Chances are, the enraged spectators held off on setting the stage on fire because they thought that with the speed and ferocity of his musicianship, Hendrix would wind up doing it himself.
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