Hendrix’s 1965 Fender Stratocaster expected to fetch $1million
Posted by Hayden Allen on Tue 22nd July 2008 at 04:40 PM, Filed in Rich And Famous
Liying undiscovered for 40 years, Hendrix’s legendary 1965 Fender Stratocaster now faces auction on September 4th 2008.
In March 1967, Finsbury Astoria, London Hendrix announced his arrival to UK audiences with a memorable live performance where he set his trusty Fender.
The sale also includes the last surviving drum-kit of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham (£20,000), Jim Morrison’s final notebook of poetry (£80,000 - £100,000) and musings before his death from Paris in 1971; and the song-sheet for Band Aid’s ‘We are the World’ – signed by the likes of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan (£5,000 – £6,000).
Only allowed into the UK on a temporary VISA, Hendrix was determined to leave an indelible impact on all who witnessed the performance. He instructed close confidante and press officer Tony Garland to buy lighter fluid from a local hardware store, and at the end of his show Hendrix re-defined the limits of live performance forever.
Flames flew into the air as Hendrix set fire to the base of his Fender Stratocaster – and the astonished audience looked on as the American renegade was ushered off-stage by petrified venue staff – and taken to hospital with minor hand injuries.
Whilst Hendrix was being treated, his guitar was retrieved by his roadies, and eventually returned to Garland’s London offices. The 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.
Although Hendrix famously repeated the stunt at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, the Astoria guitar remains the only surviving burnt guitar fully intact - with burns still visible along the neck and pickboard.
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