Press
Academy 2 (Main Debating Hall)
8th November 1967

Fresh from putting the finishing touches to Axis: Bold As Love, Jimi Hendrix arrived at the Union raring to go with bandmates Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell. News of his performance at the Monterey Festival in March had cemented his live reputation and the band had enjoyed three UK top ten in singles in 1966: Hey Joe, Purple Haze and The Wind Cries Mary. All three featured in the set in Manchester, (according to a trusted fan site).

A review of the gig by Jill Nicholls in the Manchester Independent states:

“On stage backed by a wall of equipment, Jimi Hendrix produced some of the weirdest sounds a guitar can make, laced with majestic sweeping chords of a thundering density. Occasionally, he leaped up and down, as the music—or the audience—demanded. After the first number, Noel's P.A. system broke down. Jimi announced "This is very embarrassing". Although it was obviously not one of his best nights, he showed a consummate ease in playing, giving the impression that anything, but anything, was possible. He went through all his hits, because the audience roared for them. Purple Haze was easily the best, in which he deliberately changed all the lyrics, and in dealing with the packed crowd of heads and waving arms, he was astute and unworried. Towards the end, he generated some sort of excitement by rubbing his guitar all over his body, with a grin of ecstasy on his face. And on the final number, started mashing the instrument into the massive set of amplifiers, creating crashing sound waves. In the end, in desperation, he threw the whole guitar at the back wall of the stage, and walked off."

1. Stone Free
2. Hey Joe
3. The Wind Cries Mary
4. Foxy Lady
5. The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp
6. Purple Haze
7. Wild Thing

Also advertised is a '13 piece all-coloured rave act', playing on November 11th at MDH, with jazz and blues in the Open Lounge. At this time, the Open Lounge was being used quite successfully for more esoteric musics, whilst pop, rock and R'n'B sounds dominated the line-up at MDH.

Taken from the Manchester Independent newspaper, written and edited by University of Manchester students. With thanks to James Peters at the University of Manchester Archives and Ben Ward at University of Manchester Students' Union.