Spotlight: Screening the Restored Jimi Hendrix Albert Hall Performance

The long-awaited and extensively debated fully restored film of Jimi Hendrix at the Albert Hall was finally premiered at the venue on October 21, 2019.

The meticulously restored, highly anticipated, and much-debated film of Jimi HENDRIX Live at the Albert Hall in 1969 was finally presented for the first time at the original location on October 21, 2019.

According to Yazid Manou, a French music publicist who tracked me down after many years and identified me as the child who dashed onto the stage and whispered something into the guitar legend’s ear.

One of the reasons for the public screening was that to prevent the copyright from expiring, the owners needed to have exhibited the property commercially within fifty years of the original claim. The opportunity to view this high-resolution film – which appears excellent with a slightly blue tint, likely due to the original green cast – is incredible and a significant celebration for Hendrix fans, music enthusiasts, and admirers of this iconic film, often dubbed the Holy Grail of lost music films.

Albert Hall – Estimated schedule: 5:30 pm restaurants and bars open. 6:30 pm Boxes open. 6:45 pm Auditorium doors open. 7:30 pm The Jimi Hendrix Experience: The Royal Albert Hall. Event concludes at 9:35 pm.

My father, Tommy, knew Jimi personally and filmed a multi-camera concert documentary titled ‘Watch Out For Your Ears’ about a year before the Albert Hall concert. It featured Jimi, The Animals, and Traffic (who replaced The Who for the gig). Watching Jimi’s electrifying performance in that film sparked my fascination with Hendrix. All the musicians in that circle were interconnected, and half of Traffic performed onstage at the Albert Hall, including Chris Wood, Dave Mason, and Rocky, the percussionist. I believe this is how we ended up visiting Traffic’s home in Buckinghamshire, where I was completely starstruck seeing a young Wood playing frisbee on the lawn surrounded by all the eccentric characters.

I didn’t meet Hendrix until the Albert Hall in ’69, when my father Tommy introduced my brother and me to him backstage before the show. Jimi lifted me onto his shoulders and ran around the dressing room with me. Then, presumably too excited to contain myself, at some point during the performance, I ran onto the stage and whispered something in his ear. What I said remains a mystery—it could have been a song request or perhaps I asked for his tailor’s address.

The black and white photo of that backstage encounter only surfaced for me at Christmas of 2013 when Yazid Manou, a French music publicist for Sony Music and a photo investigator, reached out to me on Facebook. Naturally, I was amazed. The picture is now housed in the Handel and Hendrix Museum at 23 Brook Street in Mayfair, along with a note about my father.