What are your thoughts on a Jimi Hendrix tribute show? Are they the same as mine: ‘someone must be brave’. Considering Jimi Hendrix is widely regarded as the greatest guitarist in the history of popular music anyone who wants to emulate him must at least be confident on the guitar, right?
Well, John Campbell who is the star of ‘Jimi – The Legend Lives On’ is certainly that.
Replicating band The Jimi Hendrix Experience, John Campbell is the man himself, more on him later, comprising the rest of the trio are the talented bassist Tim Gregory and on drums is Phil Carter who did a fabulous job of fusing the jazz and rock sounds of the era.
The show began with a couple of minutes video footage of the early days of Jimi and how it all began: picking up a guitar at 15 and being part of the Isley Brothers’ backing band. And then the music started and we kicked off with ‘Foxy Lady’ – it was good and the audience cheered with approval.
The format of the show was having a short video piece interspersed with the music. It moved the show along and gave a history of his rise to fame. It included photos and snippets of footage from his life, plus interview snippets with other famous musicians recollecting their experiences of hearing or knowing Jimi. It was a nice touch as it linked the sections of music to each album.
Tracks in the performance included: ‘Hey Joe’, ‘Purple Haze’ and Manic Depression’ from the Are You Experienced 1967 album. Moving onto his more experimental album: Axis: Bold as Love and then from 1968 and the album Electric Ladyland the band played many songs from both which included ‘All Along the Watchtower’ the Bob Dylan cover, ‘Crosstown Traffic’, ‘Burning of the Midnight Lamp’ and of course ‘Voodoo Child’.
The fans in the audience were totally loving this experience, you could tell by the shouts of joy at the recognition of each track, and during the song as the guitar playing was extraordinary. Cheering continued as each track seemed to be getting longer and longer just as you would imagine if you were at a Jimi Hendrix gig as he gets carried away in the music, then the claps and cheers at the end of each track to show huge admiration.
John Campbell portrayed Jimi as close as you can possibly get, it’s clear he takes this role seriously, not only the dress code, but the overall look – he really did look like Jimi – he also had his white guitar upside down, was chewing gum and was including mannerisms as best he could, considering there isn’t a lot of footage of Jimi due to his short career and the obvious lack of social media. Plus of course John is an exceptional guitarist and blew the crowd away with his talent. He was able to engage the crowd with a bit of singing back which was fun until he pushed our limits with some ‘shidiiyshishyddiyshiddydiddydiddyshiddy’ which we only slightly managed a couple of times. The crowd were happy to sing along, some to all the lyrics as they basked in the atmosphere. Half the audience shot up for a standing ovation at the end as it was so good as they were totally emersed into the amazing music.
Jimi: The Legend Lives On – it’s really true, he does. If you are a Jimi Hendrix fan you do not have to fear anything about going to see this show.
On tour around the country click here for dates.
With thanks to Spa Pavilion, Felixstowe