November 22, 1967 Guildhall, Portsmouth, ENG

Portsmouth Evening News (23 November) by ‘Spinner’: “Pop music is a horrible noise - a cacophony of over-amplified guitars and tone-deaf singers. So might a critic picked at random say. Last night at Portsmouth Guildhall four of Britain’s leading groups went a long way to persuading 3,000 youngsters that such an anti-pop opinion could be right after all... Never has a pop show been so deafening and so lacking in variety and good presentations. The exception was the start of the show Jimmy Hendrix, as loud as any of the others but twice as talented and a superb showman. He crouched, he leapt, he did a somersault - but still he played that guitar with one hand, two hands, his teeth, his forearm and his hips! The remorseless roar of his guitar, coupled with bass player Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell, formed a crude and earthy blues style which made the other groups seem dull.”

From someone who attended the 1st show:  “I can’t exactly remember in what order Jimi played his set, but he started with ‘Fire’ and went through ‘Stone Free,’ ‘Hey Joe,’ ‘Purple Haze,’ ‘Foxy Lady,’ maybe ‘The Burning Of The Midnight Lamp’ but definitely ending with ‘Wild Thing.’ Jimi also played ‘The Wind Cries Mary’ which Mitch Mitchell came forward [to introduce]. I remember Jimi saying in between one number, ‘We don’t want no clowning around out there - we’re the only ones allowed to clown around.’ His guitar was mainly a white Stratocaster with rosewood neck and a multicoloured [scratch plate]. A really smart looking guitar, the other guitar on stage was a battered red Strat which he only used for ‘Wild Thing.’ He completed his set by throwing the guitar over the top of the Marshall stacks, where it was duly caught by a roadie standing behind. Obviously, it was intended to do quite a few more concerts before finally becoming un-useable. And there you have it. It was a good performance and it will always remain a treasured memory of my teenage years.”