Post by Kiwithrottlejockey on May 18, 2010 12:50:40 GMT 12
Jimi Hendrix and Handel: Housemates separated by time
London building that was home to both guitarist and composer to be opened up for exhibition.
By MAEV KENNEDY - Guardian.co.uk | 5:27PM BST - Sunday, 16 May 2010
GUITAR GURU: Jimi Hendrix in 1967. — Photo: Marc Sharratt/Rex Features.
Long before a narrow Georgian home in London became the Handel House Museum, a steady stream of pilgrims came to the building in search of the other giant of music who lived there: Jimi Hendrix.
The curators and administrators of the Handel museum in Mayfair are now preparing to pack up their files, dismantle their desks and open up the rooms where Hendrix lived to visitors to mark the 40th anniversary of his death.
Twin blue plaques on the outside wall pay tribute to the extraordinary flatmates, separated by two centuries, who lived in 23 and 25 Brook Street, once separate buildings but long since interconnected.
George Frideric Handel lived there for almost 40 years, wrote The Messiah there and died in his first-floor bedroom in 1759. Hendrix, regularly voted the greatest rock guitarist, lived there with his English girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham, for two years from 1968, before he died under still debated circumstances in a Notting Hill hotel in 1970, aged 27 – probably by choking in his sleep after an accidental drugs overdose, though some have claimed suicide or even foul play.
Handel paid £60 a year rent for the whole house in the 1700s, Hendrix and his girlfriend £30 a week for their attic flat. Touchingly, Hendrix wrote in 1968: "This is my first real home of my own."
Many assume that Hendrix knew nothing of the Handel connection: in fact he was charmed when he learned of it, and bought recordings including The Messiah and The Water Music. Some have even claimed to detect Handel riffs in the thunderous guitar chords of later Hendrix recordings.
HENDRIX PAD: The 23 Brook Street flat as it is now, the former home of Jimi Hendrix,
used as an office of Handel House Museum. — Photo: Handel House Museum.
The building became the Handel House Museum in 2001, with the rooms meticulously restored to their Georgian paint finishes and furnishings. To the disappointment of many, the Hendrix rooms became administration space and have never been on the visitor route. However, many VIPs — including distinguished visiting musicians — have often begged to see them and been taken up the steep stairs to see the rooms (any historic character is buried under decades of office redecoration, except for a few Hendrix posters put up by staff).
The museum has now bowed to pressure and is preparing to mount the exhibition Hendrix in Britain, which will run from August to November, with special events marking the anniversary of his death on 18 September 1970.
Not a plectrum remains from his days in the building, despite the ardent hopes that something might be found in the extensive restoration work before it opened as a museum, so the museum is busy collecting memorabilia, archive photographs and film from rock museums and private collectors.
Sarah Bardwell, the museum director, said: "After moving to Brook Street in 1968, Hendrix learned of the Handel connection with the building and headed to One Stop Records in South Molton Street and HMV in Oxford Street to pick up whichever records of Handel music he could find.
"Clearly, he was intrigued by the connection and we're pleased to be celebrating his own legacy today. We are delighted to be opening up the flat, which was a true home base to Hendrix during his seemingly endless schedule of touring in the UK and elsewhere."
Already, the museum has secured a soft broad-brimmed black felt hat instantly recognisable to Hendrix fans, a wildly patterned orange velvet jacket — which was part of the colourful costumes which were as much a part of his stage act as the splintered and scorched guitars — film clips and early recordings and a few lines of lyrics from Third Stone from the Sun scribbled on a tattered sheet of notepaper from the Hyde Park Towers hotel.
London helped make Hendrix's reputation. He was a rising star when he came in 1966. He became famous for spectacular live performances and was soon attracting crowds to clubs including the Speakeasy, the Bag o'Nails and the Marquee. His first two singles, Hey Joe in December 1966 and Purple Haze in March 1967, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience album Are You Experienced later that year, were big hits, and he was much more famous by the time he returned to the US later that year.
The office staff will be camping out in backrooms and odd corners of the building for the duration. They get their rooms back in December — but even then the exhibition is certain to increase the number of fans knocking at their door and pleading to be allowed a glimpse of a rock music shrine.
• Handel House Museum, London, Hendrix in Britain 25 August to 07 November 2010.
______________________________________
Handel and Hendrix's greatest hits
George Frideric Handel
Born: Germany, 23 February 1685.
• Messiah (1742)
• Water Music (1717)
• Zadok the Priest (1727)
• Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749)
Died: London, 14 April 1759.
Jimi Hendrix
Born: US, 27 November 1942.
• Hey Joe (1966)
• Purple Haze (1966)
• The Wind Cries Mary (1966)
• Are You Experienced (1967)
Died: London, 18 September 1970.
www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/may/16/jimi-hendrix-handel-museum-exhibition
Baroque 'n' roll: Jimi Hendrix and the Handel connection
Forty years after the guitarist's death, a new exhibition reveals how he found
unlikely inspiration in the life and works of England's master composer.
By JONATHAN BROWN - The Independent | Monday, 17 May 2010
STRINGING ALONG: George Frideric Handel, left, circa 1750; Jimi Hendrix, right, circa 1969. — Getty Images.
One was the psychedelic king of the electric guitar; the other the harpsichord virtuoso whose choral works thrilled the court of George I. And for just a few months at the height of the swinging 60s their lives — separated by more than two centuries in time — became briefly linked in the unassuming environs of a top- floor flat above a Chinese restaurant in London's Mayfair.
When Jimi Hendrix moved into 23 Brook Street in 1968 with his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham one of the first things he noticed was the blue English Heritage plaque marking the house next door as the former abode of composer George Frideric Handel. So intrigued was Hendrix by the historical connection with the late German genius of baroque that he set out to discover his works, buying them at local record shops.
Today Hendrix's old flat, which now boasts its own blue plaque, is the administrative headquarters of the Handel House Museum and for 12 days in September office staff will vacate their desks to turn over the premises to a unique exhibition celebrating the life of the guitarist in Britain and his unlikely association with Handel.
Hendrix was first brought to the UK by Chas Chandler after the former Animal helped him form the Experience the famous line-up of drums and bass. It was on this side of the Atlantic that the guitarist was to emerge as a successful talent in his own right, rather than the jobbing sideman that he had been since leaving the US military in the Sixties.
While he was to achieve success in his homeland, most notably at the Monterey and Woodstock festivals, it was here that he was to thrive and feel most at home — just as Handel did before him, explained Martin Wyatt, deputy director of the Handel House Museum who has spent the last three years working in Hendrix's spare bedroom. "There is an interesting double story here. These are two songwriters. Both are virtuoso musicians in their own worlds. Both are foreign and come to London at a time when it is becoming the centre of world music," he said.
When he died in 1970, aged just 27, works including Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks, were found in Hendrix's record collection. Hendrixologists have long sought to track down a lost out-take from Abbey Road featuring the guitarist jamming on harpsichord left around from the recording of the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour, in apparent homage to his long dead neighbour.
Like Hendrix, Handel was also a showman, said Mr Wyatt. The German had once famously staged a keyboard show down with the Italian Domenico Scarlatti. Hendrix was best known for setting fire to his Fender Stratocaster and playing it behind his head. Both men were also prolific, with Hendrix completing a punishing schedule of performances.
But in one aspect of their lives they fundamentally differed. Handel, who lived at 25 Brook Street for 36 years where he wrote Messiah, never married and never spoke of his relationships keeping his private life to himself. The American was one of the summer of love's most energetic lotharios, readily availing himself to the easy temptations of sex and drugs that surrounded him.
Yet despite his wild man image, Hendrix's life at the flat was homely — a place to relax away from the pressures of stardom. He had been forced to move from nearby Montagu Square amid complaints over noise and because locals there did not appreciate the presence of a black man in their wealthy neighbourhood. Hendrix paid the then-princely sum of £30 a month for the new flat. "It is the only place after his family that he ever considered home. Everywhere else he lived he was just crashing on the floor," said Mr Wyatt. "They would go shopping as a couple up to Oxford Street to buy soft furnishings. This was his attempt to settle down."
In Kathy Etchingham's book Through Gypsy Eyes, she recalls happy times they spent together in the four-room flat surrounded by drapes and Indian hippy rugs.
Most of the domestic items were eventually sold at an auction in 2004. The location of the flat was also important to Hendrix as it was close to many of the venues which he helped make famous, clubs such as the Speakeasy, the Bag O'Nails and the Marquee.
Hendrix in Britain, timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of his death this year will feature images, film and music taken from his time in this country. It will include handwritten lyrics and the distinctive westerner hat he wore. Another intriguing exhibit will be scrawled directions to the Isle of Wight Festival where he made one of his last and most revered performances. Fans will also be able to visit the flat on 18 September anniversary of his death as part of the Open House Weekend. The Handel House Museum, which will host Hendrix in Britain from 25 August to 07 November, is also hosting a series of workshops exploring his musical legacy.
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/baroque-n-roll-jimi-hendrix-and-the-handel-connection-1975080.html