The first guitar that Jimi Hendrix ever set light to onstage has been sold for £280,000 in a London auction yesterday.
Jimi flambéed the 1965 Fender Stratocaster at the end of his show at the Astoria in Finsbury Park, north London, in March 1967.
His press officer, Tony Garland, recovered it after roadies put the flames out and stored it in his parents' garage in Hove, East Sussex.
There it remained undiscovered until last year when it was unearthed by Garland's nephew.
Unsuprisingly it was the star lot at the Fame Bureau's It's More Than Rock And Roll auction at the Idea Generation Gallery in east London. After fierce bidding - well, as fierce as bidding can be - the guitar was snapped up for just over the estimated price by American collector Daniel Boucher.
Boucher said: "I thought I'd have to pay a little bit more for it, actually. I am going to play it, I hope some of it rubs off on me."
Does he mean stains from the charred wood?
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