MERICAN ROCK legend Jimi Hendrix and German-British composer George Frideric Handel would not have much in common at first glance.
Hendrix, the rock icon who revolutionised music in 1960s, died at a very young age of 27 and his peripatetic lifestyle meant that he kept moving for music gigs and concerts, never calling a place home for long.
Handel lived and worked for 36 years in a Mayfair townhouse and it is this house that is the unifying point for the two musician-composers. Handel wrote his most popular music, including Messiah, in the house and died there in 1759. Hendrix moved in 1968 into the top floor flat of 23 Brook Street, next to the house Handel lived in, with his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham. This flat became his home during long periods of playing venues across London.
“Jimi and Kathy paid £30 a week as rent for the flat, which was quite expensive, but it had a great location and best of all they didn’t have people living downstairs and the flat was close to clubs in Soho,” said Claire Parker, a learning and events officer, at Handel House Museum, which is hosting an exhibition on Hendrix to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his death, on September 18, 1970. When Handel lived in the building, he paid rent of £60 per year. Now the flat would go for £300 per week.
The flat, where Hendrix lived is now used as the offices of the Handel museum and it will be opened to the public in September.
“We would ideally like to recreate the flat as it was during Hendrix’s time,” Martin Wyatt, curator of the Hendrix exhibition, and deputy director of the Handel Museum, told this newspaper. Hendrix in Britain will explore the London life, music, performances and enduring legacy of Hendrix, who died mysteriously in a Notting Hill hotel in 1970.
Hendrix’s Gibson Flying V Guitar, his wide-brimmed “Westerner” hat and orange velvet jacket, handwritten lyrics to the song Love or Confusion with a sketched self-portrait by Hendrix, his scrawled travel directions to the Isle of Wight Festival, and his British work permit are among memorabilia on display at the museum.