Jimi Hendrix: a history in photos and videos

See the first film clip, hear his last recording

Michael Leonard, Thu 17 Sep 2009, 1:47 pm UTC

Late 1969: Hendrix forms the more funk/soul influenced Band Of Gypsys and plays Bill Graham's Fillmore East in New York on 31 December 1969 and 1 Jan 1970. Graham calls the shows "the most brilliant, emotional display of virtuosic electric guitar playing I have ever heard."

Video: The Band Of Gypsys play Machine Gun, 1 January 1970

Summer 1970: The Band Of Gypsys begin work on a new double-album, First Rays Of The New Rising Sun. It gets a full-release only in 1997.

August 1970: A lavish opening party is held at Electric Lady Studios in New York, which Jimi has designed for himself. A few days later Hendrix performs at the Isle of Wight Festival in England.

Jimi hendrix isle of fehmarn

Hendrix on 6 September 1970 at the Love And Peace Festival on the Isle Of Fehmarn, Germany. This was his final show. IMAGE Dieter Klar/dpa/Corbis

6 September 1970: Hendrix, Cox and Mitchell play the Love And Peace Festival in Puttgarden, Isle of Fehmarn, Germany. Hendrix then returns to London, after what turned out to be his last proper show.