‘This guy is just unbelievable.’ Jimi Hendrix: Guitar Hero, Sky Arts 2012
Jimi arrives in London Saturday 24th September 1966. ibid.
‘The most incredible blues guitar I’d ever heard.’ ibid.
‘And played it with his teeth.’ ibid.
‘He used colours: colours corresponding with notes.’ ibid.
Jimi’s problems seemed to get worse. ibid.
Hendrix was like a one-off. You’ll never see anything like him again. You’ll never see anyone have that much control of his instrument. ibid. Lemmy of Motorhead
‘It was the first festival [Monterey] of its kind, the first pop festival … there really hadn’t been a rock festival.’ The Jimi Hendrix Experience: American Landing, Sky Arts 2017
1966 London: ‘Chas came in with this guy … we were just totally enamoured.’ ibid. Chris Stamp
‘What were they doing when they had time off? They were tracking Jimi Hendrix.’ ibid. Andrew Oldham
‘I was shocked. I had never seen anything like this in my life.’ ibid. witness
‘Jimi Hendrix – it goes without saying – changed the face of the Earth.’ Reputations s6e6: Jimi Hendrix: The Man They Made God, BBC 1999
Jimi Hendrix was made and died in Britain … In a basement room in west London he’d taken barbiturates and amphetamines. ibid.
The night he arrived Hendrix played at a club in London. ibid.
The [London] buzz was all about Hendrix: he was said to be so good he was frightening. The Beatles and The Who went to see him play. ibid.
They played working-men’s clubs and seaside towns. ibid.
The tabloids called him the Wild Man of Borneo. ibid.
To the anti-war movement Hendrix became a hero. ibid.
Hendrix floated back to America on a tide of acid. ibid.
He was swamped with adulation. ibid.
He sent money to Martin Luther King. ibid.
The great Hendrix tour rolled on across America. ibid.
He was now their God whether he liked it or not. ibid.
Hendrix flew on to the Isle of Wight pop festival. ibid.
Jimi Hendrix, electric guitar virtuoso, was one of the highest paid musicians in the world … After his death on 18th September 1970 when he was just 27 years old the coroner concluded that he died after he breathed in his own vomit, but stating insufficient evidence of the circumstances he recorded an open verdict. Autopsy s6e1: Last Days of Jimi Hendrix, Channel 5 2018
He’s been complaining of a cough he can’t shake off … exhausted and feverish. ibid.
Jimi had been drinking alcohol prior to his death … A quantity of amphetamine identified in his urine … Quinalbarbitone identified in the blood … a very high level … he lapses into a coma and dies. ibid.
‘We were called to the Casualty. We were confronted by someone who had been brought in by ambulance. He was not breathing. We pumped his chest to try to do cardiac massage resuscitation but there was no response at all. We tried to turn him over but he was very stiff. And I think the rigor mortis had already settled in. I couldn’t believe the amount of fluid that was in his lungs and in his pharynx. Couldn’t believe it.’ Hendrix & the Spook, Dr John Banister, St Mary Abbot’s Hospital 1970, BBC 2020
At 12:45 p.m. on September 18th 1970 Jimi Hendrix was pronounced dead. The guitar legend was only 27. The post mortem shows he died by choking on his own vomit while under the effect of sleeping pills. But a troubling question remains: with so much win in his body, why was there hardly in his blood. The Inquest declares his death suspicious, but who would want to harm Jimi Hendrix? ibid.
He is drained and depressed, and suffering from a chronic lack of sleep. He is using barbiturates to rest and amphetamines to remover. Jimi needs to rest and recover but he doesn’t like being alone. So he takes comfort in the company of fans. ibid.
17 September 1970: ‘I thought he looked awful. His hair seemed to be a mess and broken off. Tired and not himself.’ ibid. Kathy Etchingham, Jimi’s ex-girlfriend
As he would later do with Jimi Hendrix, [Michael] Jeffery exposed The Animals for all they were worth … Jeffery was ripping them off … Jeffery and Chandler … take him [Hendrix] to London to launch his career … Jeffery signs Jimi to an exclusive four-year management deal that gives him 40% of Jimi’s gross performance earnings. ibid.
The quantity of sleeping pills suggests a worrying possibility: did Jimi take his own life? ibid.
In 1968 Jimi spends a quarter of a million dollars on recording studios … but the project goes way over budget. ibid.
‘There comes a point when it’s too much, you know. And it’s non-stop. There’s no let up.’ ibid. Trixi Sullivan de Linick, PA to Mike Jefferey
The Jimi Hendrix Experience breaks up. ibid.
Unlike other artists of his generation, Jimi didn’t write protest songs. ibid.
The studios are in Mob-controlled territory, so he [Jeffery] goes to them for a loan. ibid.
He [Jimi] was kidnapped by the Mob … With Jimi refusing to go on the road, relations between him and Jeffery are at rock bottom. ibid.
Their contract expires in three months’ time on December 1st 1970. In debt to the Mob, the IRS and the record company, Jeffery really can’t afford for Jimi to leave him. ibid.
Monika’s fantasies about her relationship with Jimi are of much less concern than her many discrepancies in her various accounts of his last hours. In the years following Jimi’s death, these differences begin to trouble Kathy Etchingham. ibid.
‘Did Jimi have a proper Inquest? It just didn’t add up. The whole story was bizarre … It’s what I’d do for any friend.’ ibid. Kathy
Monika’s apartment was never forensically analysed. The only clue that remains is the condition Jimi was found in. ibid.
This shows that Jimi died very soon after the wine entered his body. It had no time to be absorbed into his blood stream. Who would do that to Jimi, and why? Rumours that have been persistent since his death point to one suspect: his manager, Mike Jeffery. ibid. Tappy
‘Mike was quite clever: his got Jimi to sign an insurance policy for him also. Jimi Hendrix was worth two million to Jeffery dead … It was kill or be killed.’ ibid. Tappy
‘If Jimi died, Mike Jeffery gets the lot … in the ballpark of around $30,000,000.’ ibid. investigator
Much of Jimi’s last day was spent at the receiving end of Monika’s jealousy. ibid.
‘These tablets were exceptionally strong … And each one was a double dose … He must have drunk red wine at the party.’ ibid. Kathy
Jimi may have died around 5 a.m. when Monika was trying to track down his doctor. ibid.
‘She panicked. Young girl, world’s most famous musician, dead.’ ibid. Kathy
At 11.18 a.m. they finally call the ambulance. Then they leave the apartment. Although he died long before that, at 12.45 Jimi is officially pronounced dead. ibid.
‘She [Monika] was an obsessed fan. A stalker.’ ibid. Kathy
When no-one question’s Monika’s wildly different statements about the circumstances of Jimi’s death, she boldly begins to rewrite history. ibid.
‘I knew she was a complete fraud.’ ibid. Kathy
Kathy’s request to reopen the Inquest into his death is denied. It is not thought to be in the public interest. ibid.
Monika takes her own life. Her body is found in her fuel-filled car in her garage. ibid.
‘Remarkable. She chooses to take her life rather than give evidence or speak about what happened that night in a court under oath.’ ibid. Kathy
You either have the magic or you don’t. There’s no way you can work up to it. Freddie Mercury, re Jimi Hendrix