Touched by the hand of...Hendrix.
Jimi Hendrix’ burnt 1965 Fender Stratocaster is expected to fetch $1million in an auction sale on September 4 2008 at London’s Idea Generation Gallery.
It was in March 1967, at the Finsbury Astoria, London that Jimi Hendrix blitzed a UK audience with a landmark live performance. Then the emerging icon of a generation set his Fender Stratocaster guitar alight, and live music would never be the same again...
Hendrix's 1965 Fender Stratocaster was recently found in Hove, Sussex, and now forms the centrepiece of a memorabilia auction, at London's Idea Generation Gallery, of musical artefacts that helped define the history of rock and roll.
When Hendrix played Finsbury on the opening night of the Walker Brothers tour in March 1967, he'd only been allowed into the country on a temporary visa.
He was, however, determined to leave an indelible impact on all who witnessed the performance. Before the show the guitar genius instructed his friend and press officer Tony Garland to buy lighter fluid from a local hardware store, and, as the gig reached the final climax, Hendrix set fire to the base of his Strat.
Photo above - famously, Hendrix carved out those incredible sounds left handed - here's the proof.
The astonished audience looked on as the renegade guitarist was rushed off by petrified venue staff and taken to hospital with minor hand injuries.
As the fuss died down his guitar was retrieved by roadies and eventually returned to Garland's London offices. The frazzled guitar was then kept at the home of Noel Redding (bass player with the Jimi Hendrix Experience) before Garland collected the guitar and stored it at his parent's garage in Hove - and only unearthed by Garland's nephew in 2007.
Of course, Hendrix repeated the stunt at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, but the Astoria guitar remains the only surviving burnt guitar fully intact - with burns still visible along the neck and scratch plate.
Idea Generation Managing Director Hector Proud said: "The sale of Hendrix's guitar marks such a fascinating time in his story, when he was on the cusp of major success and recognition in the UK."
"When he burnt his guitar at the Astoria, it signified a new era in self-promotion, in what was effectively one of the first - and most successful - publicity stunts by a musician."
"Idea Generation Gallery will provide a fitting auction venue, as the sale follows our retrospective of Robert Altman - the chief staff photographer for Rolling Stone magazine in the 1960s - and someone whose workvividly documents the period in which Hendrix was such an important figure."
Read more about the September 4 sale, and the guitar, on the Fame Bureau website
