How David Gilmour became Jimi Hendrix's sound engineer for one iconic show

Jimi Hendrix - legendary guitar virtuoso, singer and composer. He's often referred to "God of Play.", а Time magazine Hendrix remains to this day one of the most daring and inventive virtuosos in the history of rock music. He passed away very early in life, and his name joins a list of infamous "Club 27."but even in his lifetime Jimi was a real phenomenon and a genius... Another guitar guru, David Gilmore is a living legend Pink Floyd! He has built a dazzling career, and has maintained a cult status outside of the band, working as a record producer for various artists. What do these two geniuses have in common besides the guitar? "Isle of Wight" - music festival 1970held on the island White in England! This particular festival was the biggest of the first three: it surpassed Woodstock in terms of audience numbers... This was due to the appearance of such stars as The Who, The Doorsand, of course, Jimi Hendrix…

How David Gilmour got behind the scenes of Isle of Wight 1970

Impressive career David Gilmore of Pink Floyd. - one of the most respected characters in the world of rock 'n' roll - counts almost 60 years! The singer and guitarist became one of the most important members of the music scene when he replaced the Sid Barrett as a person Floyd in the late sixties. Gilmour had been a respected guitarist before that, and after the collapse of the prog rock giants, he continued to produce extensive and artistically quality music. One thing that can also be added to his CV is, as it turns out, his association with the Jimi Hendrix…

In the golden age of rock 'n' roll in the late sixties and early seventies, there was only one man that absolutely everyone was talking about: and that was the Jimi Hendrix. The guitarist quickly became a paragon of the counterculture movement, and with each virtuoso performance he seemed more and more intent on becoming the de facto saviour of the flower power generation... He promoted world peace, championed creativity and did it all with intimidating confidence and powerful guitar solos... And one of the places where he really left a giant mark was the festival on the Isle of Wight в 1970 year.

Many years later, the legend Pink Floyd David Gilmour shared that not only did he attend the landmark show. Isle of Wightbut also, for some inexplicable reason, turned out to be Hendrix's soundman at this landmark performance! On that day, the crowd exceeded 600,000 peopleand we're willing to bet that 99% of them came to watch the game Jimi Hendrix... It just so happens that Gilmour was one of them. In fact, I'll give him the floor:

"I got to the venue and camped out on the pitch, just being a punter. Later I went backstage where our head roadie Peter Watts was trying to manage all this chaos with Charlie Watkins from WEM (the amp company). They were very nervous: they had to mix the Hendrix sound. I was doing the mixing in those days, and they said, "Help! We really need help!" So I agreed..."

Hendrix's performance

Festival "Isle of Wight" was memorable for two disturbing reasons. Firstly, the show itself was largely ruined by technical errors... Secondly, and much more tragically, the performance together with the Mitch Mitchell and Billy Cox.which took place in the early hours of this morning 31 Aug.was Hendrix's last in the territory. UK... Gilmour may have been in one of the brightest and most promising bands at the moment - the Pink Floydbut he knew when the story was unfolding and he wanted in on the action. So! We're watching the performance for which David Gilmore became a sound engineer Jimi Hendrix:

It's worth noting that this was far from the first time that the paths of two prominent guitarists, Gilmore and Hendrixwe crossed paths.

Early encounters between two legendary guitarists

Already after the tragic death Jimi, David Gilmore gave an interview in which he said:

"I had met him before. I didn't know him, but I witnessed his power and skill first-hand: I saw him play live at the Blaises club in South Kensington. He was jamming with Brian Auger and the Trinity with Julie Driscoll on vocals... That little venue was filled with people like the Beatles and the Stones, so you know immediately when something's going wrong. And this guy came out and misplaced his right-handed guitar! He was an absolute phenomenon from the start!"

https://youtu.be/fe82eYRjiBU

Their meetings didn't end there! Gilmore and Hendrix met again on the other side of the canal, when the guitarist arrived in the French capital of

"Later I was living in Paris, and one of my jobs, besides playing with my little pop band Jokers Wild, was that I was hired to drive Jimi around Paris all evening, to show him a good time... He seemed very nice. Cute, shy..."

One last thing...

Unfortunately, the two powerful guitarists never shared the stage, or at least the melody... Instead, fans will have to settle for small snippets of their relationship that never came to fruition. As for the festival, it was caught on film by the director of the festival Murray Lernerhowever... only came out as a film. in 2003.