Southend On Sea (Cliffs Pavillion) : 26 février 1967

Southend On Sea (Cliffs Pavillion) : 26 février 1967


"‘Every Ounce Of Energy’ by Richard Baker [Review: 26 February]

“Mantovani is obviously more popular in Southend than Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich. Tickets for the Mantovani concert at the Cliffs Pavilion sold out a few days ago but the Dave Dee show on Sunday was pretty sparsely attended. This did not prevent the group giving every ounce of their energies to their young fans. Dave Dee, as if determined to be mobbed, came down into the audience and the whole stage show was colourful and exciting. Jimi Hendrix, whom the rest of the audience had come to see, manipulated his guitar rather than played it. Dressed in orange velvet, he threw the instrument over the rest of the equipment, played it behind his back, between his legs and with his tongue! At the end of his act, as if in contempt of the whole business, he kicked over the amplifiers and walked off stage! Peter Murray compered the show very slickly, giving the whole proceedings a really professional air. The bill was completed by The Koobas, who featured a vaudeville version of “Sally,” The Nashville Teens and local group Force Five."


Source inconnue

When he played at the Cliffs Pavilion, Westcliff, in February that year he was on the bill below the British pop headliners David Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich.
“It was one of those bigger shows, like a package tour,” explains Malcolm Pounds, of Harewood Avenue, Rochford, who dipped into his first pay packet to pay for his ticket, which cost him an unbelievable 18 shillings and sixpence, the equivalent of about £12 in today's money.

“Halfway through the show Hendrix said, ‘Put the lights up’ and the place was half empty. It was that bad, so he asked to all the people at the back to come down the front to make it look like it was full.

“After a couple of months of him playing though you couldn’t get tickets for love or money.”

Despite the quiet audience, Malcolm says the music was anything but. In fact, Hendrix rocked so hard the show had to be paused for the amps to be dragged back up the stage as they were about to fall off.

He says: “The gig was really, really loud – it seemed loud at the time. Probably now it would be quite tame. He had these great big amps, two stacks and they literally were vibrating and moving off the stage.
I didn’t realise it at the time, but they had to stop because the drum kit was going to fall off the riser. I remember the roadies picking them up and moving them back up the stage because they were walking down.”

“He had on one of those military jackets and he had the hair – all wild and frizzy – a lot of people copied that look later. It was pretty special really. Even the Beatles were quite conventional in comparison to the likes of Jimi Hendrix. It was a gig not to be forgotten, that’s for sure."


https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/8723973.seeing-stars-in-the-making/