The love note from Hendrix that played on my heartstrings
IT was a moment that would leave any music-mad teenage girl awestruck.
As Anthea Rogers watched Jimi Hendrix on stage in 1967, the guitar legend leapt down, ran over – and wrote her a love note.
He scribbled: ‘To Anthea. Love and kisses to you forever – I wish I could really talk to you. Stay sweet. Jimi Hendrix.’
Anthea, then 19, was at the gig with her boyfriend Eddie Cooke. His band Sons & Lovers were supporting The Jimi Hendrix Experience, whose second hit, Purple Haze, was high in the charts.
But she still treasured her encounter with Hendrix and kept the note, plus the autographs of his bandmates Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, safe for 50 years.
This week, the 69-year-old mother of two, now Anthea Connell, sold the memento at auction for £5,700.
Mrs Connell still vividly recalls the concert, at the Starlight Room in Boston, Lincolnshire, on March 25, 1967. She was sitting alone watching the bands do their sound checks when American Hendrix spotted her.
‘He started talking to me and I was so shocked I can’t even remember what we said’, Mrs Connell said. ‘I must have mumbled something but have no recollection of it. I was totally awestruck. Jimi Hendrix was a complete icon.
‘He turned to his band members on the stage and asked one of the guys to give him something to write on.
‘He came back with a guitar string packet, which may well have been his, and he proceeded to write me this wonderful message on the back. I think it was because, at the time, I was the only girl in the ballroom.’
Mrs Connell, from West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, added: ‘Afterwards, when I told Eddie about the note from Jimi, he said, “You ought to hang on to it” – and I did.’
The note went up for auction with an estimate of £3,000 but sold for £5,700 at Hansons Auctioneers in Derbyshire on Monday. Including fees, the buyer paid £7,239.
Mrs Connell said: ‘I’d really like to thank Jimi for the memories of meeting him all those years ago and for his very lucrative signature.
‘The money will go towards air tickets for a trip to New Zealand. I hope Jimi would approve. It’s certainly a bit more rock ’n’ roll than buying a new boiler or double glazing. I told my dad, who is 102, about the sale and he said, “You always liked to be the centre of attention”.’
Auctioneer Charles Hanson, a regular on BBC1’s Bargain Hunt, said: ‘This is a rare and precious piece of music memorabilia that many fans and collectors would love to own.
‘Jimi Hendrix, a rock legend, created a special memory that has lasted a lifetime for Anthea.’
Hendrix, whose best known songs included Foxy Lady, Hey Joe, Crosstown Traffic and Voodoo Chile, was to die from an overdose of sleeping pills only three years after writing the note. He was 27.