The story of Jimi Hendrix’s biblical final performance
How do you put a full stop to a life where the story doesn’t end at death? Despite Jimi Hendrix passing away in 1970, his influence can be felt just as much now as it could when he was alive and gigging. Trying to capture the things he did in his life and adequately explain how he has influenced music is a task too big for words alone. It has to be seen and heard, both on the radio and by the artists who followed him, in style, substance, and everything that contributes to music creation. How do you properly end such a prolific career? Well, with the biblical performance to end all biblical performances.
A lot of people will hear this story about Hendrix’s final show and be saddened by it, arguing that such a shit performance was no way for the skilled shredder from Seattle to go out on, but it actually embodies him as a performer and personality better than any other gig he could do. The Isle of Fehmarn Festival was a nightmare; it was a culmination of restless gig-goers, apocalyptic weather, and arson. It was also the last performance Jimi Hendrix would ever do.
In September 1970, artists continuously pulled out of the Isle of Fehmarn festival as the weather conditions worsened and the risk of playing outweighed the reward. Among the cancellations was a crowd of drenched music lovers watching the event they were attending crumble right before their very eyes. Many Hell’s Angels were among the crowd, revelling in the chaos and using it as a backdrop to cause even more havoc.
Hendrix’s set was pushed back repeatedly while organisers tried to calm down the borderline rioting crowds and gauge how feasible a performance was in the weather. When Hendrix finally went on stage, rather than the cheers he was used to at the height of his career, he was greeted with a wall of boos.
This gig is already an excellent representation of who Hendrix was. His love was music, pure and simple. The accolades, the whispers of being the best guitarist in the world, the money, it was all second to the music he made. A little bad weather in Germany was never going to stop him from playing, and neither were the boos, as he took to the mic once he got on stage and said, “I don’t give a fuck if you boo, as long you boo in tune…”
A Hendrix performance earlier in his career was so good it made Eric Clapton leave the room. When asked later where he went, Clapton said he had gone home to practice. Hendrix’s ability as a guitarist stopped his peers in their tracks and made them second guess their own ability; as such, a crowd of punters had no choice but to stand in awe as they watched him play. He opened with ‘Howlin’ Wolf’s Killing Floor’, and the booing stopped.
The rest of the set was met with adoration for Hendrix, who played tracks such as ‘Hey Joe’, ‘All Along the Watchtower’, and ‘Voodoo Child’ to an audience who previously were ready to start rioting. A fight broke out during his performance, but it wasn’t enough to disband the crowd or stop the gig. He finished the final note on the last song on what would be his final gig.
It’s fitting, perhaps, that given such a monumental performer had just left the stage, the next band were not permitted to finish their set. Instead, similar to what Hendrix did to his guitars at other gigs, the Hell’s Angels set the stage on fire.
Jimi Hendrix passed away on September 18th, 1970. The gig at the Isle of Fehmarn Festival was his last one. And while it might not have been how the guitarist wanted to finish, it did embody what made him so special. His music could unite, regardless of the circumstances, and his commitment to his craft always triumphed over everything else.
