A rare auction of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia takes place at Bonhams & Brooks auction house in London on June 21st. It includes a second-hand guitar Hendrix bought for $25, which is expected to fetch between £50,000 sterling (€63,530) and £60,000. Hendrix is an incredibly influential musician on people today, says Mr Alexander Crum Ewing, a specialist at the auction house.
"If you think of a band like U2, who used to perform All Along the Watchtower in their sets. The version they did was Jimi Hendrix's arrangement, not the Bob Dylan version. Jimi's arrangement of All Along the Watchtower was so good that even Bob Dylan used to play it in the Jimi Hendrix style when he did it on tour. We've got the guitar that he worked out that arrangement on."
A vintage Epiphone that Hendrix bought second-hand in New York in the summer of 1969 for about $25 is estimated between £50,000 and £60,000.
The sale comprises three main consignments of property: material from Kathy Etchingham, who was Jimi's girlfriend; a collection of gold discs by Ireland-based Noel Redding, one of the three band members of the Jimi Hendrix Experience; and items from Tony Brown, well-known biographer of Jimi Hendrix who died recently.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience comprised Jimi Hendrix, guitarist and singer, Noel Redding, base player, backing vocalist and songwriter, and drummer Mitch Mitchell. "There were only three members of the band so if you're looking to get a gold disc for one of their records presented to the band, there are only three people's to get." Noel Redding has submitted his collection of gold discs for auction. They include gold discs for the four albums released in Jimi's lifetime: Are You Exper- ienced? (released 1967, a platinum award, estimated at £1,500 to £2,000); Axis: Bold as Love (released end 1967, platinum, estimated at £1,500 to £2,000); Electric Ladyland (released 1968, platinum, estimated at £1,500 to £2,500); and Smash Hits (also released 1968, estimated at £4,000 to £5,000).
There are also gold discs for releases after Jimi died "when people were trawling through the vaults and putting out outtakes".
Noel Redding has also put in some rare posters, handbills and mementoes of his time in the band. Kathy Etchingham put Jimi's necklaces and his lucky silver dollar, which he used to carry around, into the auction. "When Jimi was touring as a backing musician for Little Richard in the United States in the 1960s, he overslept one morning. Little Richard left without him. And he lost his place in the band. He said: `If I'd had a dollar I'd have been able to get a bus to the next town and get in the show'. So ever since then he used to keep a dollar in his shoe or in his hat band." The coin is estimated at £500.
Tony Brown, who wrote four books on Hendrix, put in the flight case for Jimi's stratocaster guitars. "Jimi used that probably from 1968 though to the time of his death in September 1970. It's a very well-known thing. You can see it on film footage of Jimi playing at the Royal Albert Hall in 1969 and the Isle of Wight festival in 1970." It's estimated at £4,000 to £6,000. Brown also put in Jimi's guitar synthesiser, which he bought in New York on November 7th, 1969. "It cost him $480 because we've actually got a photocopy of the receipt of the sale, which is nice because that matches up the serial number." (Estimate: £1,000-£1,500.)
Posters, autographs and photographs are included in the auction, while a stars and stripes stage shirt that he wore in 1970 is estimated at £15,000 to £25,000. Web: www.bonhams.com
jmarms@irish-times.ie
