My Experience With the Experience, 1968

My friends Dave Farmin, Larry LeGrand and I were 15/16 years old and we were big Jimi Hendrix fans, but we’d missed him on his first US tour (in the summer of 1967). He was out again in the summer of ‘68, however, supporting his second album, Axis: Bold As Love, and we were not going to pass up the chance to see him live, so we got tickets for his August 24th show at Bushnell Memorial Hall in Hartford, Connecticut.

We were all living in the town of Granby in Western Massachusetts, so we decided to make a day of it, making the 40-minute trip down to Hartford and parking near the theatre. We could see that some local bands were doing a “love-in” type of gig in a park a few blocks away and we “hung out” there for a little while. Antsy to see the Hendrix show, we soon decided to head over to the Bushnell early in the hope that we could catch some roadies loading in gear. Yes, we were that excited.

THE ERRAND

We arrived at the back of theatre in time for the 5:30 soundcheck and saw a British guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth carrying some mic stands. He turned out to be none other than Jimi’s road manager, Eric Barrette, and my friends and I took the opportunity to chat with him for a few minutes. “Hey, can you kids do me a favor?” he asked suddenly. “Sure!” we replied. He handed me two $20 bills (which was a lot of money back in ‘68, especially for teenagers) and asked, “Can you find a music store and buy a couple of pairs of drum sticks and a Vox wah-wah pedal? I need them as backups.” Once again, our response was an enthusiastic “Sure!”

The three of us headed out to find a music store somewhere in this foreign city. We found a phone booth with a phone book and discovered that LaSalle Music (which we’d actually heard of) was just a few blocks away, so we walked over. Damn! It was 6pm and the store has just closed. Arrgghhh! Frustrated, we went back to the “love in” freak fest at the park and hit up some of the musicians for help. “We’re doing an errand for Hendrix’s road manager and wondered if you could sell us some drum sticks and/or a wah-wah pedal,” we explained. All of them were pretty hammered on weed and other refreshments of the day, however, and they didn’t believe us for as second. “No,” was the unanimous response.

THE SOUND CHECK

Even more frustrated than before, we walked back to the theatre and pounded on the stage door. To our surprise, Eric opened it. “How did you guys do?” he asked. “We failed,” I said, telling him of our venture. Then, without warning he asked a question that shocked us all: “Do you guys wanna meet Jimi?” Stunned, I managed to choke out, “Seriously?” Before we knew quite what was happening, Eric welcomed us into the theatre. We followed him down a short hall and then directly onto the stage, where Jimi, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell were plugging in and adjusting their gear for the sound check. Amazing! We were standing onstage with The Jimi Hendrix Experience! (Tech note: This was 1968, so there were no road crews, monitors, or elaborate PA systems. Eric was setting up a small PA head with a couple of mics for vocals and a speaker cab on each side of the stage.)

As I stared out at the empty theatre, I quickly realized that the only people in the building were Eric, Jimi, Mitch, Noel, two girls (Noel’s and Jimi’s girlfriends, I believe) and the three of us. But we’re in our mid-teens and trying to be as cool as possible, so we approached each member of the band to say “hi” as they were fiddling with their gear. Noel Redding was polite, smiled and said, “hi, but I don’t recall what we said to him. Since two of us were drummers, we approached Mitch Mitchell, who was sitting behind a maple kit. “How long have you been playing Ludwigs?” I asked. He replied without looking up in his thick English accent, “Not now boys. I’m tunin’ me drums.” We got it: Mitch was “focusing.” We moved on.

Jimi was standing in front of the opening act’s gear with his back to us, plugged into a Marshall stack while riffing on a white ‘68 Fender Strat. We realized that we were now approaching a rock-‘n’-roll god and one of us (I don’t remember who) blurted out, “Hi, Jimi!” He turned quickly, looked right at us and said, “How’s it going guys?” (“How is it going?” I thought to myself. “Are you freaking kidding me?”). We thanked him for his muse, shook his hand and asked him about his gear and other stuff. He was kind and generous with his time (about ten minutes) and when I asked him if I could take a few pictures, he said “Sure.”

I took three photos. I was too nervous, shy, starstruck and apparently too stupid to get one of me standing next to him. I did get a shot of him with my friends Larry and Dave, however, just as he was signing their autographs. In setting up one of the shots – the one in which he was resting his left hand on the bottom of the guitar – I asked, “Could you pose for me, Mr. Hendrix?” (since I didn’t feel comfortable calling him “Jimi”). I also took a picture of Noel’s (maybe) girlfriend. After the impromptu photo shoot, Eric reminded us that the trio needed to get ready for the show. We thanked him and exited stage right; no, we didn’t get to hear them play backstage together. Still in shock after leaving the Bushnell, we found a place to eat where we rambled endlessly on about the unbelievable thing that had just happened.

THE CONCERT

We returned to the theatre for the show immediately after dinner. While in line, we heard someone say that last year Jimi had technical troubles at this venue and that he’d thrown his guitar down and walked off stage after about 40 minutes. We were fervently hoping this show would be better and reminded ourselves that, no matter what else happened that night, we really did meet the band as they were preparing their gear. The Jimi Hendrix Experience took the stage around 8:30 and quickly blew the room away with a set of tunes from their first two albums, Are You Experienced and Axis: Bold as Love. As a treat, Jimi introduced two new tunes from an album they were working on. I think the first was “Crosstown Traffic” but I’m sure the second was “Voodoo Child” because they did it as an encore, jamming out for around 20 minutes.

Near the end of the set, Jimi walked over to the PA cab on his side of the stage, took the Confederate flag that was draped in front of it and used it to wipe the sweat off of his face. The crowd cheered the beauty of the glaring irony. All of us had watched a two-hour show laced with pop tunes and extended jams that climaxed with Jimi smashing his white Strat into one of his Marshall stacks.

THE PHOTOS, THE MEMORIES

After returning to Granby, we immediately submitted the photos for development at John’s Center Pharmacy. We went crazy waiting the three days required for “rush development” but some of the photos were really good. We are thrilled, and we put in orders for a few dozen 8×10 copies of what we thought were the best ones. All three of us were high on the “experience” for another two weeks, and when school started back up in early September we spent hours retelling the story – and selling lots of the pictures!

For me and my friends, meeting Jimi and his bandmates in August of ’68 was one of “those” moments in life. All of us have some wonderful times that are etched in our memories forever and I’ve been blessed with many. I will never forget, and always treasure, my personal Jimi Hendrix “Experience.” If anyone should happen to run into Larry LeGrand or Dave Farmin, please direct them to this page because I’d love to hear what they remember from that truly magical day. I came across a web page recently that details the Bushnell concert and includes some excellent photos, all of which you can see by clicking the “Henry McNulty Photographs” link below.

(by Fritz Jung)

Fritz Jung was vice president of E.U. Wurlitzer. He died in May 2021 at age 68 in Nashua, New Hampshire.