Bill Jenkin
I remember (or like to think I do) Jimi Hendrix in Pres B sometime in the late 1960s. I was not in the studio but was working in the building and we knew all about it as you could hear it three floors below.
The problem is I can find no mention of it in any of the archives – obvious contenders (“Colour Me Pop”, “Disco 2” etc). It would have been before OGWT started). Could it have been in a normal “Line Up” I wonder?
Derek Martin
I worked with Jimi Hendrix doing “Purple Haze” (I think) in pres B, late 1960s. Can’t remember the date but I thought it was OGWT; Colin Strong directing. He asked the floor manager to ask Jimi how many bars intro he was going to play to which Jimi replied, “bars, what’s bars, man?”!
David Brunt
It wouldn’t be “Whistle Test”, that didn’t start until September 1971, a year after Hendrix died.
Hendrix appeared on LNLU on 17th May 1967.
Derek Martin
“Line Up” May 1967 sounds like the one I recall but maybe wasn’t “Purple Haze” which had been released 8 weeks earlier. Might have been “The Wind Cries Mary” released on May 5.
I was doing the camera stage left and remember having the neck of Jimi’s guitar almost stuck in my lens hood – he played left handed. Seem to also remember having CU of him playing with his teeth!
Derek Martin, Barry Bonner
The Floor Manager was quite a small chap – slim and short with a rather sardonic sense of humour. Home counties accent.: Bob Thornton!
Bill Jenkin
I gather from a Facebook page reply to the same question that Joan Bakewell remembers it as follows:
“… (Joan Bakewell)….says she was ‘terrible’ at interviewing in the beginning,
but looks back fondly on those freewheeling times when the likes of
Jimi Hendrix played live in the studio and everyone smoked joints.
It got so bad that David Attenborough, then the BBC2 Controller of Programmes,
complained about the “Late Night Line-Up” drug-taking.
He said to the editor: “Every time I walk past
your studio, there is a distinct smell of weed. Can you possibly
get it under control? Because people are going to
notice and I don’t want to have trouble.”…”
As with most of these memories by celebs they always seem to over-embellish them.
Geoff Fletcher
Jimi Hendrix is listed as performing “Hey Joe” on “Top Of The Pops” on 5th January 1967. I remember, or thought I did, working on this performance for TOTP, and like Derek, having a shot of his guitar and panning up with it as he lifted it to play it with his teeth. It was extremely noisy and a couple of the guys who happened to be doing their cameras directly in front of the stage speakers felt a bit unwell afterwards as I recall. You could feel the vibration in your innards as the sound waves went through you, especially the base notes. I thought it was a pre recording done on the first day of the usual two day epic. When I checked my 1967 diary I found that the TOTP recording/TX(?) that January week was on Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th (Studio G – Crew 11 – Johnny Lintern Senior Cameraman). As the dates don’t tally, have I got my wires crossed on this? Am I recalling another Hendrix appearance on TOTP? Does anyone else on Crew 11 at that time (66/67) recall doing TOTP with Jimi Hendrix?
David Brunt
Hendrix wasn’t on the 5th January show. He did do “Hey Joe” on the 29th December 1966 edition (hosted by Simon Dee). That performance was replayed on 19 January and 2nd February.
”Purple Haze” on 30-03-67 (film repeated on 06-04-67 and 20-04-67). In studio again on 04-05-67 and 25-12-67.
”The Wind Cries Mary” in studio on 18-05-67. Savile.
”The Burning of the Midnight Lamp” in studio on 24-08-67 [Pete Murray] (film repeat on 07-09-67).
Geoff Fletcher
After more diary checking I’ve found that I worked on 17 TOTPs from June 1966 to March 1967 – 8 doing Inlay, 9 with Crew 11. On 21 Dec 1966 I did Camera 5 on the recordings, and then Camera 3 on the TX next day. I definitely remember that the Jimi Hendrix I worked on was on a recording day. Could the performance transmitted on 29 Dec 1966 have been recorded on 21 Dec 1966? If so, it would tie things up neatly as far as my personal memories are concerned.
I noted in my diary that after TOTP on 16 Feb 1967 there was a big party as Jim Kinally was leaving Crew 11 and Director Stan Dorfman was leaving TOTP. This jogged my memory some more, as I now recall Jim was one of the cameramen feeling ill after the Hendrix recording.
Alec Bray
[Ed: this section edited 15 November 2017 as more information has now become available]
I worked on at least two TOTPs that included songs by Jimi Hendrix, but not with crew 11.
The first one was for his first appearance on TOTP on 29 December 1966 – and he was at least half an hour late (possibly more – nearer an hour) into the studio. I had this confirmed much later when a neighbour of ours had a party at which, coincidentally, a former BBC Studio Engineer (“Racks”) was present, and he had been racks on that recording in G.
This was a live performance of “Hey Joe” (query a pre-record insert for TOTP?). I was on a ped with a 12” lens, right next to the drum kit, which was placed at the front of the rostrum. Exactly as Geoff says, “… You could feel the vibration in your innards as the sound waves went through you…” My chest was being heaved in and out by the drum beat: well can I recall that! As I was in the midst of the drum kit, I had to keep craning down so other cameras could get a clean shot, then crane up, get my shot, and then down again. As I had a 12” on the turret, and I was close to the cymbals, I have always had the feeling that I might have added to the beat as I went up and down.
And here is a picture of me (or rather, of my back) getting those shots through the drum kit. The photos were taken by someone in Jimi Hendrix’ entourage during rehearsals:
(Click on the pictures below to see larger versions:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)
Here you can see the long focus lens on the EMI 203 peering though the drum kit – bottom right.
A second time was Jimi Hendrix’ performance of “The Wind Cries Mary”) on 18th May 1967. This was a prerecorded insert, done on the 4th May.
Both of these were (if I recall correctly) with Ron Green as senior cameraman.
Checking around on the Web, in the course of all this, I found a series of photos, all (obviously) taken from a VTR recording of some sort (although nothing in the way of this TOTP appearance seems to be on YouTube):
(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)
This is the 18th May 1967 edition of TOTP (which was my last working day at the Beeb). Once again I had a 12” lens on the turret, because my last shot ever was on the Tremoloes at the end of the show. However, this performance of Hendrix does not quite ring a bell with me… I don’t think I was involved with the prerecord.
Here is another shot (query from the same camera?)
(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)
The photo itself has a tag of 5th May (er, the prerecord was in 4th May) but the caption underneath reads:
“…★ London W12, “BBC Lime Grove Studios”, Lime GroveTV rehearsals and tele-recording for the ‘Top Of The Pops’ edition of 18 May.
…
The Experience occupied dressing room 66 and rehearsed around 16:30. Between 20:15 and 21:30 the JHE recorded “The Wind Cries Mary” (3:27 – studio version with live vocals). TOTP chart position for “The Wind Cries Mary”: 13. The Experience were introduced by DJ Jimmy Savile. TOTP producer: Johnny Stewart. JHE fee: £78.75…”
Seventy eight pounds!
Finding the *true* information about Hendrix’ performances is very difficult! But perhaps this is how myths arise…
Alan Stokes
I believe I was there too, as Sound Supervisor (of what? One may ask).
Bill Jenkin
I seem to remember Jimi Hendrix in G on TOTP when they played the wrong backing track. “Gee I don’t know the words to this song”. I was watching at home not working on the show.
[Ed: Believed to be TOTP 24th August 1967]
Dave Mundy
Quite right! Richard Partridge – the only ‘Direct Entry Grade C’ sound man – was on grams for that show. The story was that production changed the running order and didn’t tell him, and as all the backing-tracks were on tape the inevitable happened! It didn’t do Richard any harm though, he still ended up as Sound Supervisor, as promised when he was recruited!
Bob Auger
I worked on the floor for that TOTP. Hendrix was quite relaxed about it, as I remember.
John Howell (Hibou)
We heard The Alan Price Set: “The House That Jack Built”, it reached No. 4 in the charts in August 1967. For once I wasn’t on Grams: I was in the audience!
Here are some TOTP dates from my diary:
TC2 2nd June 1966
LGG 21/22 September, 19/20 October, 16/17 November, 7/8 December 1966.
Here is the script front page for the September show.
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use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)
Alasdair Lawrance
Those were the days, indeed! TWO lunches in one day!
John Howell (Hibou)
Re performances in Pres B: I remember a “Whistle Test” with the Doobie Brothers in Pres B, it must have been early 1970s. They were to perform “Listen to the Music” from the ‘Toulouse Street’ album (I think), and they requested a vocal monitor speaker. Now such things were quite rare in those days and I propped up the resident LS1/1 on a stage weight at the base of the vocal mic stand. Things went well but afterwards I saw the lead singer making a bee line for me and wondered what was coming. He wanted to know where to buy one of those ‘great little speakers’ and what power were they? I hardly dare tell him they were 3 Watts and you couldn’t buy them.
Alec Bray
I must admit I enjoyed working on TOTP. As far as I know, I did TOTP for the first appearances of
Sonny and Cher
The Beatles
Jimi Hendrix
Procul Harum
And of course I was a “dolly operator” (as per Roger’s “Cameraman – the Movie”), leaping off the Heron to move ladies out of the way …
———-
Editor’s Note
Where appropriate, references in all these “Conversations” are checked against other sources on the Internet.
However, not all websites are reliable, and in the case of Jimi Hendrix and “Top of the Pops”, the site at http://www.worldcharts.co.uk/musictv/totp/totp.htm is absolutely NOT correct or reliable!
For example, it says this:
“…one of the most memorable being in March 1967 when, in his first appearance on TOTP, Jimi Hendrix was announced by Pete Murray and was quite bemused when he started his ‘mime’ to the sound of an Alan Price record…”
Ho Hum… It is the wrong date, and it was not Jimi’s first appearance on the show.
The site also says:
“… by mid 1967 the Manchester studio had become too small for the increasingly complex production and it was moved to Lime Grove studios in London. From there it went to Studio 2 at Television Centre and, eventually, to the huge Studio 5 back at Lime Grove. …”
Absolute rubbish. It went: Manchester, TC2, LG G, then to TC 8, Elstree, Riverside (following “TFI Friday”, while TOTP’s new TC home was being readied!) and finally, back to TC. The ever-moving program!
There was no 5 at LG. The old Gainsborough/Gaumont British stage 5 became LG Studio D – home of “Doctor Who” – and to describe D as ‘huge’ means it must have got infected with “Tardisitis” !
(with thanks to Dave Mundy, Pat Heigham, Graeme Wall, John Wardle, and a proper, well-researched website: http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/old%20bbc%20studios.htm#lime).
There does not seem to be an easy accessible chronology of the Jimi Hendrix Experience – the nearest found to date is this:
http://www.jimihendrix-lifelines.net/photos-11/photos-86/photos-88/files/page338-1011-full.html
Generally, some photos have been removed from Hendrix websites, and some material removed for copyright reasons: DMCA (Copyright) Complaint to Google – https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/11350339#
There are also disagreements between sources:
“… Note: The date of 10 June given in Tony Brown’s book seems a wild guess. Although there is no direct information in the published Disc & Music Echo article on which date this interview actually took place, there are good clues: ….The interview matches 4 May date better: Top Of The Pops, followed by recording at Olympic….”
There is reportedly a VT of Jimi Hendrix performing “The Wind Cries Mary” – and one which looks like it might be the TOTP version – at:
http://vk.com/video175913562_163623758?list=17befe82144845fbff
but this does not download.
No wonder we are confused!
