Sue Topham Interview: General Memories of 1967 Hendrix Concert, including Setting Fire to His Guitar
Title
Sue Topham Interview: General Memories of 1967 Hendrix Concert, including Setting Fire to His Guitar
Date
18 April 2018
Description
Oral history interview with Sue Topham, an audience member at the famous Theatre Royal concert by Jimi Hendrix in December 1967.
What's the story?
Jimi Hendrix (1942 – 1970) is regarded as one of the most influential rock performers and guitarists from the 1960s, creating such influential songs such as Hey Joe, The Wind Cries Mary, Purple Haze and his cover of Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower.
His live performances were equally influential and powerful and with his band The Jimi Hendrix Experience, comprising himself plus bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, Hendrix played two legendary shows at the Theatre Royal on 3 December 1967 at 5.30pm and 8pm.
This was a touring show to a number of venues and also featured such iconic rock bands as The Pink Floyd, Amen Corner, The Move and The Nice.
In 1967 Sue Topham was a 16-year-old Jimi Hendrix fan living in Carlton in Nottingham and along with some friends got second row tickets to see the 5.30pm show at the Theatre Royal.
In this interview Sue gives her general memories of the concert, as well as talking about Hendrix’s legendary climax to his show of setting fire to his Fender Stratocaster on stage:
Well, I mainly arrived to see Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd, but there were lots of other acts appearing as well. There was The Nice, a band called The Heir Apparent, who I can’t remember much about. Someone else called The Outer Limits, also who I can’t remember much about, and The Move, who I obviously knew quite well. So there were a lot of people on the bill and there were two sittings, so you either went early, or you went late. Thinking about it, I thought they all played for ages, but they didn’t because there was such a small period of time. Some of these people only played for five minutes. I arrived for the 5.30 performance. And there was one at 8.30. It was a Sunday, so I must have come on the bus, I think. Probably the 39 from Carlton. I wanted to see Jimi Hendrix, mainly, and also Pink Floyd. He was top of the bill. He got to play 40 minutes. Pink Floyd only played about 15 minutes. They didn’t actually even close the first half. The Move closed the first half. So Pink Floyd were only just becoming famous.
Jimi’d had some Number One records by then. He’d had Hey Joe, he’d had Purple Haze, he’d had The Wind Cries Mary, he’d had Burning of the Midnight Lamp. So he was quite well known. I think everyone had come to see actually what he was going to do on the stage because people had heard so much about him setting fire to his guitar and stuff.
When Jimi came on, I remember he had velvet trousers on. I think he had a collared jacket, and he had a hat on. He came on and the first thing he did was, he burst into Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, as a tribute to The Beatles and he said something like “This is much better than my music”. We thought “Wow!” So that was pretty good and then he went through his hits and towards the end, he did kneel down on stage, he’d got some lighter fluid, put it on the guitar and set fire to it. He started his hands sort of conjuring up the flames, like this, and people were astonished and amazed. He had a white Stratocaster guitar, very,
very famous and very recognisable, and he played it left-handed. It was strung left handed. So it wasn’t a left-handed guitar. It was a right handed guitar, strung left-handed. And he played it with his teeth. I remember he played it behind his neck. Just amazing. And he poured the lighter fluid on it and it burns quite low temperature, so it just, sort of, makes flames. And then, that was it.
His live performances were equally influential and powerful and with his band The Jimi Hendrix Experience, comprising himself plus bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, Hendrix played two legendary shows at the Theatre Royal on 3 December 1967 at 5.30pm and 8pm.
This was a touring show to a number of venues and also featured such iconic rock bands as The Pink Floyd, Amen Corner, The Move and The Nice.
In 1967 Sue Topham was a 16-year-old Jimi Hendrix fan living in Carlton in Nottingham and along with some friends got second row tickets to see the 5.30pm show at the Theatre Royal.
In this interview Sue gives her general memories of the concert, as well as talking about Hendrix’s legendary climax to his show of setting fire to his Fender Stratocaster on stage:
Well, I mainly arrived to see Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd, but there were lots of other acts appearing as well. There was The Nice, a band called The Heir Apparent, who I can’t remember much about. Someone else called The Outer Limits, also who I can’t remember much about, and The Move, who I obviously knew quite well. So there were a lot of people on the bill and there were two sittings, so you either went early, or you went late. Thinking about it, I thought they all played for ages, but they didn’t because there was such a small period of time. Some of these people only played for five minutes. I arrived for the 5.30 performance. And there was one at 8.30. It was a Sunday, so I must have come on the bus, I think. Probably the 39 from Carlton. I wanted to see Jimi Hendrix, mainly, and also Pink Floyd. He was top of the bill. He got to play 40 minutes. Pink Floyd only played about 15 minutes. They didn’t actually even close the first half. The Move closed the first half. So Pink Floyd were only just becoming famous.
Jimi’d had some Number One records by then. He’d had Hey Joe, he’d had Purple Haze, he’d had The Wind Cries Mary, he’d had Burning of the Midnight Lamp. So he was quite well known. I think everyone had come to see actually what he was going to do on the stage because people had heard so much about him setting fire to his guitar and stuff.
When Jimi came on, I remember he had velvet trousers on. I think he had a collared jacket, and he had a hat on. He came on and the first thing he did was, he burst into Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, as a tribute to The Beatles and he said something like “This is much better than my music”. We thought “Wow!” So that was pretty good and then he went through his hits and towards the end, he did kneel down on stage, he’d got some lighter fluid, put it on the guitar and set fire to it. He started his hands sort of conjuring up the flames, like this, and people were astonished and amazed. He had a white Stratocaster guitar, very,
very famous and very recognisable, and he played it left-handed. It was strung left handed. So it wasn’t a left-handed guitar. It was a right handed guitar, strung left-handed. And he played it with his teeth. I remember he played it behind his neck. Just amazing. And he poured the lighter fluid on it and it burns quite low temperature, so it just, sort of, makes flames. And then, that was it.
Type
Oral interview
Location of item
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Rights
Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall Nottingham
Contributor
Interviewers: Diane Jones & Jennifer Sherwood
Transcriber: David Chilton
Transcriber: David Chilton
