Today, 50 years ago, The Jimi Hendrix Experience appeared live on The Lulu Show in the UK. The band was booked to perform two songs, ‘Voodoo Child’ and ‘Hey Joe’, but Hendrix stopped in the middle of their second song to launch into a version of ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’ from Cream to pay tribute to the band who broke up just days earlier. With Hendrix proceeding with his performance, the band exceeded their allocated time slot on the live show. This prevented Lulu, the host of the show from closing properly.
Bassist, Noel Redding, wrote in his memoir, “We cringed.” He described Hendrix, and drummer Mitch Mitchell walked into that day as being “so straight it was only natural that we would try to combat that atmosphere by having a smoke in our dressing room. In our haste, the lump of hash got away and slipped down the sink drainpipe. Panic! We just couldn’t do this show straight–Lulu didn’t approve of smoking! She was then married to Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, whom I’d visited and shared a smoke with. I could always tell Lulu was due home when Maurice started throwing open all the windows. Anyway, I found a maintenance man and begged tools from him with the story of a lost ring. He was too helpful, offering to dismantle the drain for us. It took ages to dissuade him, but we succeeded in our task and had a great smoke.”
Hendrix, although making rock and roll history, was reportedly banned from the BBC.
