A MOVING EXPERIENCE
I would like to thank all involved for the fantastic night at the Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival recreating the Are You Experienced album by Jimi Hendrix. I started playing guitar in the early ’60s and played with lots of bands during the ’60s and ’70s. I played mainly a Gibson Les Paul through a 100-watt Marshall stack, both of which I still own. I was lucky to experience many incredible gigs during that period including Hendrix, Cream, Pink Floyd and The Move plus others together at Spalding; the Jeff Beck band with Rod Stewart; one of Free’s first gigs at the London Blues Convention and compered by Alexis Korner; one of Fleetwood Mac’s first gigs; John Mayall with Mick Taylor; Freddie and Albert King, etc.
What I remember of the gigs during that period was the energy, excitement and innovation pouring from the bands. I believe the difference between a good band and an incredible band is that energy.
I have been teaching guitar for over 20 years and gig with a blues-rock band, a function band and a classical guitar ensemble. GT helps a lot with my teaching.
I want to thank all involved with Are You Experienced for taking me back to the energy of those days. What a fantastic night! How about Axis Bold as Love next?
Roger Coombs
For those who have no idea what Roger is talking about, I’ll explain. Jamie Dickson (Guitarist editor), Mick Taylor (ex-Guitarist editor and now That Pedal Show host) and I, along with a great bassist and drummer, were asked to recreate the whole of Are You Experienced, live at the Bristol Jazz & Blues Festival in honour of the album’s 50th anniversary. It was great fun and really rewarding. If it came across as ‘energy’, Roger, it was probably just fear! What a great bunch of bands you saw back then – and you still have your original gear. Fantastic! Actually, it would be great for readers to let us know the best gigs they’ve ever seen, including where, and what made them so good. Did you see them before they were famous, etc, etc? I look forward to passing them on! Actually, we may do Wheels Of Fire!