1967.
🌈 The Jimi Hendrix Experience perform at The Orford Cellar in Norwich with support from The Orford Discotheque System.
Norwich, "The Orford Cellar", Norfolk - Concert (60 minutes - 20:00).
Although a small basement club it was part of the ‘bread-&-butter’ circuit that many well known R&B/ ‘rock’ acts of the day played.
Noel was probably using a 4-string Fender Telecaster bass
Support: The Orford Discotheque System.
Audience: 300 plus
JHE fee: £39
Songs: unknown
Variety: "Hendrix is now being readied for his American debut. Michael Jeffery plans to make the preliminary arrangements on his trip to the U.S., scheduled for early February."
Noel: “Smallest, hottest place I’ve ever played in. Terrible sound.”
Dick Meadows of ‘Sounds’: “I FIRST SAW the Jimi Hendrix Experience in a cramped Norfolk cellar club. Then the colored guy with the frizzed-out hair was a nobody in rock. He proceeded to play his guitar with his teeth and on the amplifier and we were all aghast and amazed. There was also a new song. It was called 'Hey Joe'.”
Derek James [Editor, Norwich Evening News, Nostalgia page]: More than 300 people squeezed into the cellar in its heyday and the doorman had a reputation for being one of the hardest men in Norfolk - Levi McCarthy. No-one messed with him, with Levi. Even the juke box upstairs was special - playing records brought over from America by the GI's before they were officially released in this country. Jimi Hendrix charged £39 for appearing at the Orford and said he would always come back to Norwich to play the cellar for £39 because it gave him his first big break."
Andy Field [kybds The Continentals, local band that regularly played the Orford]: “It was the kind of place which makes you shudder now. There was just one rickety staircase and once you were downstairs you couldn't move. It was solid. The best place to be was on the stage and that wasn't very big either."
Douro Potter: [manager of the Orford Cellar]: “It used to get so hot that the labels came off the bottles that takes a bit of doing.”
Second Air Division Memorial Library: “There was a big picture of Al Capone. A jukebox. Fluorescent lights picked up the vivid DayGlo wall coverings. Tickets were seven shillings, sixpence."
Fred Agombar: “The Orford was like The Cavern for East Anglia. Groups always used to come here first and they would often try out a new name or a new line-up before they went on tour”.
Lucas: “It's an honour to be here as one of the original people that actually played here. I used to play here mostly every other week in those days. I'm an adopted son of Norwich and this was my second home. This was one of the first places I performed and it's a special place for me. It was hot and crowded all the time. The walls were sweaty but we used to go in and have a good time.”
John Bailey [fan]: “I visited every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday night and I remember seeing Hendrix at the venue on January 25, 1967. I was queuing up from near the Bell Hotel. When I got there it was full but because I was a regular, the bouncer Levi McCarthy lifted someone out so I could get in.”
Ian Vargeson [fan]: “I saw the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Great atmosphere in the Orford Cellar, but uncomfortable, to put it mildly, when packed, as it was.”
Boudica [fan?]: “My first night out clubbing when I was 15 (no poxy age restrictions then), Geno Washington & Ram Jam Band was the warm-up, blasting out in that tiny cellar, fantastic. Hendrix not due on stage till 10.30, no good to me as I had to catch last bus at 10.25 (or never be allowed out again). I bumped into him on the stairs as I was leaving, I think he looked down my cleavage but he was so stoned it was hard to tell.”
1968.
🌈 The Experience rehearse at Middle Earth in Covent Garden from 14.00 to 16.30.
🌈 Interview at Jimi's flat.
🌈 A High Court injunction is granted against Decca Records for having released the Curtis Knight album.
