Director
Murray Lerner

Featured songs
Message to Love
God Save the Queen
Sergeant Pepper
Spanish Castle Magic
All Along the Watchtower
Voodoo Chile
Freedom
Machine Gun
Dolly Dagger
Red House
In From the Storm


To commemorate the 30th anniversary of the death of the legendary rocker Jimi Hendrix, this is a fully re-mastered version of one of his last concerts, featuring previously unseen footage recently unearthed by the Hendrix Estate.

With introductory footage from Murray Lerner, this new version features Hendrix classics including All Along The Watchtower, Freedom, Dolly Dagger and In From The Storm which Hendrix rarely performed.

The film is directed by Academy Award winning director Murray Lerner, with a soundtrack remixed by Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's original recording engineer; this is a dazzling vision of Jimi at the very peak of his performing career.

Filmed at the Isle of Wight festival in August 1970, this two-o-clock in the morning performance by Jimi Hendrix unwittingly captures the end of a decade. The Woodstock festival had been the last hurrah of the Love Generation and after Altamont - the Rolling Stones gig where a black concert-goer was killed by the Hells Angels - the movement was definitely on its last legs. By August 1970 the atmosphere had become yet more militant. Those people angry that the festival wasn't 'free' had tried to destroy the site even while it was still being built. Murray Lerner's film documents this perfectly. By the time Hendrix came on stage, the crowd realised that this wasn't Woodstock and that the peace-and-love vibe which had turned them on over the last few years was at an end.

In order to play this gig, Hendrix had been wrenched from recording sessions in New York against his will, and the footage clearly shows the pressure he was under - forced to deliver a performance to over half a million people while his mind was clearly in another place. In a tangerine jumpsuit, Jimi looks kinda misplaced amongst the drab British longhairs, but while the set itself veers from the sublime to the soporific, he is never less than mesmerising.

Backed by bassist Billy Cox and drummer Mitch Mitchell, the set-list contains an adaptation of God Save the Queen and a cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's which in turn leads into an amazing version of Spanish Castle Magic. Also note the 22-minute version of Machine Gun which includes walkie-talkie voice-traffic feeding through the P.A., a mishap which no doubt inspired the makers of Spinal Tap.

Despite its flaws, the film is an extraordinary portrayal of a genius on the ropes; lethargic, distracted, yet still able to produce moments of magic. However, such pressure would take its toll. Three weeks after this documentary was filmed, Jimi Hendrix was dead. He was 27 years old.