Jimi Hendrix.

On the 27^th November 1942, a God was born.

James Marshall Hendrix, is recognised the world over as the greatest rock musician ever to have graced the planet. From the day Hendrix first touched a guitar; rock and roll would never be the same again.

Legend has it that the first seeds of guitar inspiration to be planted into the young Jimis head came from watching the cartoon character, Felix the cat, playing a guitar during a television advert. Hendrixs father recalls watching his son imitating guitar playing on a tennis racket. It was at this point that Hendrixs father bought Jimi his first guitar. Having done badly at school, Jimi left to join the army for a short spell, but decided that military life was not for him. Hendrix left home and started to hitchhike across the states, taking his guitar with him. Playing in bars and nightclubs, Hendrix soon picked up a reputation as a pretty talented blues guitarist, playing a repertoire built up of old blues legends such as Robert Johnson and Led belly.

Hendrix left the states to try and make his big break in London, where he was introduced to bassist Noel Redding, and drumming virtuoso Mitch Mitchell. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was born.

Throughout the 60s/70s the experience took hold of the UK with their unique mix of blues formation and phsycadelic, improvisational, experimental, legendary solos. They had hits ranging from the fast moving, drum frenzy, of voodoo Chile slight return, to the slow, melodic Hey Joe to the amazing 12 bar blues of Red House.

Jimi Hendrixs playing developed at an outstanding rate and for a time it seemed like it had no boundaries to his musical genius.

Unfortunately, the excessive usage of drugs which fuelled his guitar playing was also his downfall. In 1970, Hendrix was found lying dead in a London hotel room, having overdosed on a cocktail of drugs, and subsequently suffocated on his own vomit.

The greatest guitar player on earth had been lost in an instant, but his legacy remains in the form of all guitarists today. He has inspired millions of people to pick up a guitar, to try to play it behind their head, or with their teeth, and had he lived on..well there is no telling what else he could have achieved.