The life of a guitar tech is not all glamour. They get to travel but there’s too much going on to go sightseeing. They hang out with the band but there’s too much going wrong to goof off. And the job has only grown over the years as live rigs grow more complicated, stage shows more professional.
But back in the day it was a riot. You did not know what might happen next – especially when Jimi Hendrix was your client.
In an extract from his forthcoming book, Experienced: On the Road with Jimi Hendrix and Beyond, published in The Times, the legendary tour manager Eric Barrett remembers his time as Hendrix’s guitar tech and the adventures – and misadventures – that this entailed.
There are are drug stories, tales of when Hendrix met Paul McCartney, and what the world’s greatest player was like when he was away from the stage, his generosity and humour, and how uncomfortable he was with his burgeoning star status. The Hendrix Barrett knew is the Hendrix we imagine; he was most happy when he had an electric guitar in his hands.
Not that this did not come without the occasional near-disaster, and one incident at the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s incendiary performance at the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival stands out – when Barrett not only saved the set, but well… We’ll let him tell the story. It is one of the few times the tech gets the glory, when a few songs into his set, Hendrix found himself in need of some help.
“He looked over and gestured at me. It wasn’t a gesture I recognised, not part of the wordless lexicon we’d developed,” recalled Barrett. “Jimi moved over to the side of the stage as he played and said, ‘Can you get me a safety pin and a towel?’ I raised an eyebrow. ‘I’ve split my pants. And I’m not wearing any underwear.’”
Hendrix was playing in front of a phalanx of Marshall Super Leads, full stacks, head, and stacked 4x12s. That would give him enough cover to fix his trousers. Hendrix, writes Barrett, wore his velvet bellbottoms everywhere, even on the beach.
Hendrix was still playing when Barrett got to him, towel and pin in hand, and he had no intention of stopping the song. Barrett would have to step up.
“He was in the middle of a song, so he placed my fingers on the fretboard and shouted in my ear: ‘Grab the whammy bar, vibrate it back and forth,’” writes Barrett. “With his hands free, Jimi wrapped the towel I’d given him around his waist and dropped his trousers.”
What an image. The audience were blissfully unaware. But Hendrix and Barrett did have an audience. There was the crew, the other bands looking on. Pete Townshend from The Who was one of those at the side of the stage, buckled with laughter at the scene in front of them.
“With his trousers around his knees, Jimi paused repairs to take over playing the guitar for a few moments,” continues Barrett. “Then he placed my fingers back on the frets to shape a new chord and let me go to town on the whammy bar again. I got so into the feedback coming out of the amps, I started smacking the guitar with my fist.”
Hendrix got his trousers back together, got back out front, finished the show. Barrett could sit back and bask in the afterglow.
“For a few glorious moments I’d played lead guitar for the Jimi Hendrix Experience at the largest music festival yet staged,” he writes.
Three weeks later it all came crashing down. Hendrix was dead, aged 27.
Experienced: On The Road With Jimi Hendrix And Beyond is out August 4 via Diversion Books.
