{"id":522754,"date":"2026-04-10T05:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T05:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/522754\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T05:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T05:00:16","slug":"the-true-story-of-how-jimi-hendrix-assembled-the-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/522754\/","title":{"rendered":"The true story of how Jimi Hendrix assembled The Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/p>\n

(Credits: Bent Rej)<\/p>\n

Thu 9 April 2026 19:00, UK <\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the great \u2018fun facts\u2019 of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll history that Jimi Hendrix<\/a> not only went on tour with The Monkees, but did so as the second or sometimes third banana on the bill. <\/p>\n

This was the \u2018Summer of Love\u2019, 1967, just before the Jimi Hendrix Experience\u2019s debut album came out in America, so while Jimi might have already been the greatest guitarist on earth, he was still a clear tier below a cuddly slapstick pop group with their own TV show<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As anyone aside from Hendrix\u2019s manager, Mike Jeffrey, might have predicted, The Monkees + Experience pairing went over like cod and cabernet. Young audiences desperate to see their new favourite mop-tops were not eager or willing to step into Hendrix\u2019s groove, and in some cases, those who did observe that groove found it entirely inappropriate for their kids.<\/p>\n

At one point, representatives from the conservative group known as the Daughters of the American Revolution organised a protest of Hendrix\u2019s inclusion on The Monkees\u2019 US tour, calling his music \u201ctoo erotic\u201d. Hendrix wasn\u2019t exactly having a great time anyway, so when the mounting pressure led to the Experience getting jettisoned from the schedule, he took it in stride, telling the NME, \u201cWe decided it was just the wrong audience. I think they\u2019re replacing me with Mickey Mouse\u201d.<\/p>\n

For all the comedic implications of an emerging musical genius finding himself stuck on the undercard beneath a manufactured pop band, it\u2019s worth remembering that the Jimi Hendrix Experience didn\u2019t exactly come together in the most organic of ways either. No, they weren\u2019t cobbled together by television producers to create a fictional version of The Beatles, but they weren\u2019t school buddies who earned their stripes in the clubs of Hamburg<\/a> either.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ The Monkees)<\/p>\n

In fact, before joining the Experience in 1966, Hendrix\u2019s drummer had more acting credits than Micky Dolenz, having starred in the BBC series Jennings At School at age 11, and continuing to play various bit parts on shows like Redcap and Emergency Ward 10 right up into the mid 1960s. As a TV actor, he went by the name John Mitchell, but in his nighttime gig as a rock drummer, he was, of course, the legendary Mitch Mitchell<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mitchell was a member of a few different London bands before ever meeting Jimi, including the Riot Squad and Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, where he began developing his unique fusion of jazz drumming techniques with the new blues rock sound of the era. As it turned out, his path to joining the Experience wasn\u2019t all that different from auditioning for a TV role. In 1966, around the same time Mitchell was on the outs with the Blue Flames, he got a phone call from Chas Chandler, the bassist for The Animals. He had decided to leave his band, as well, and had shifted his attention to management, with one very specific new client in mind. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d seen Hendrix before the last Animals tour started, and I knew what I was going to do when the final tour ended,\u201d Chandler told Guitar Player<\/a> magazine in 1984, noting that Hendrix\u2019s obscurity in America<\/a> had boggled his mind, \u201cWhen we finished the last show, I just flew right to New York, picked up Jimi Hendrix, went back to England and formed the Hendrix Experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several try-outs were held to build Hendrix\u2019s new British backing band in 1966, and not unlike The Monkees, fashion and looks were very important recruitment factors, albeit complementary ones to actual musicianship. Chandler\u2019s strategy was still borrowing from the old Brian Epstein playbook<\/a>, as he felt like a group needed to have a uniform, marketable look, the same sort that had been required of The Animals when he was coming up.<\/p>\n

\"Jimi<\/a>(Credits: Bent Rej)<\/p>\n

\u201c[Chandler\u2019s] idea was to have a back-up band for Jimi, with patent-leather shoes, white jackets, and so on,\u201d Mitch Mitchell recalled to Modern Drummer in 1981, adding that Hendrix was far less interested in such concepts. According to Mitchell, Chandler hadn\u2019t envisioned the Jimi Hendrix Experience as a three-piece, either. During the audition and early rehearsal process, the natural chemistry between the initial trio had simply forced a change of plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Noel Redding had entered the fold almost accidentally. He showed up for an audition at the Birdland club in London with hopes of becoming the lead guitarist for a second iteration of Eric Burdon\u2019s band, dubbed the \u2018New Animals\u2019. Instead, Burdon tipped off his old bandmate Chandler to Redding\u2019s potential, and Noel was essentially pawned off onto him that same night, given an impromptu second audition for the Hendrix project. Chandler handed Redding a bass guitar, an instrument he didn\u2019t even play at that point.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Noel] had the same haircut as Jimi, and it looked right, you know,\u201d Chandler said, \u201cSo he borrowed my bass and did a little audition with Jimi, and that\u2019s how he came to be in the band\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe went through three tunes with no vocals,\u201d Redding said, as quoted in Sean Egan\u2019s 2014 book, Jimi Hendrix and the Making of Are You Experienced, \u201cAs far as I can recall, it was \u2018Have Mercy\u2019, \u2018Land of 1,000 Dances\u2019 and \u2018Hey Joe<\/a>\u2018. We just played it through\u2026 [Jimi] wasn\u2019t really playing lead. He was just playing rhythm, basically. I think he was trying to suss out people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of Hendrix\u2019s restraint that night and the absence of Mitchell, Redding wasn\u2019t even all that impressed or aware of what he was signing up for when he agreed to be a founding member of the Experience. It was only when proper rehearsals started that the band\u2019s unique power became apparent, and any further searches for keyboardists or extra guitarists were deemed unnecessary.<\/p>\n

\"Mitch<\/a>(Credits: Bent Rej)<\/p>\n

\u201cTo give credit where it\u2019s due,\u201d Mitchell said, \u201c[Chandler] went out and he got a couple of amplifiers. He brought in these little Burns 20 Watt amplifiers, and at the second rehearsal, we tried to break the bloody things by throwing them down flights of stairs, and they didn\u2019t break! But we knew what we wanted, which was big clout, you know, big amplifiers, and to make it as dramatic as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Mitchell and Redding were only 21 years old. In a matter of a few months, they\u2019d be finishing up the first Jimi Hendrix Experience album, Are You Experienced?, and playing soon-to-be canonised rock classics like \u2018Purple Haze\u2019, \u2018Fire\u2019, and \u2018Foxy Lady\u2019 to stunned audiences. For his part, Mitch Mitchell claimed to maintain a very workmanlike approach to the sudden superstardom. He saw himself as a hired gun and a collaborator with Hendrix, rather than as a member of a band under anyone\u2019s specific leadership. If the Experience weren\u2019t a tight trio of childhood friends with a shared goal, however, they still cast a mighty long shadow as a newly unified force.<\/p>\n

Even on that ill-fated tour with The Monkees, most musically-minded people over the age of 14 realised they were in the presence of something special, including Monkee Mike Nesmith, who had a vivid memory or walking down a hotel hallway during the tour, and seeing a door suddenly open to reveal an \u201ceerie blue-red light\u201d created by a neon sign on the outside of the building. \u201cHendrix appeared in silhouette with this light behind him,\u201d Nesmith said in a 1988 interview<\/a>, \u201cAnd of course his hair was out to here, and he had on what had become his famous ribbon shirt. And he took a step forward, and it was like it was choreographed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He expanded further on the aura of the moment as well as his awe, adding, \u201cNoel and Mitch both came up on either side of him, and they made this perfect trio; it looked like the cover of Axis: Bold As Love<\/a>\u2026 It was really pretty spectacular, wall-to-wall hair brushing against the pot bellies of these cops [on security]. Jimi was in absolute control. He had such a command of himself and his circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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