Jimi Hendrix spent his first night time in London in September 1966 ensconced in a resort, courtesy of his supervisor, Animals bassist Chas Chandler. However the strategy of settling Hendrix into someplace extra everlasting shortly turned a precedence for Chandler.
Earlier than The Animals left on their last US tour in July 1966, a number of the band had lived within the basement flat at 24 Cranley Gardens, South Kensington. Whereas they have been away, it turned residence to their associates, two members of Les Fleur De Lys, a band that gigged frequently on the London membership circuit.
“It was an incredible floor flooring set of rooms and we moved in lease free,” says Les Fleur De Lys’ former bassist Gordon Haskell. “Our supervisor mentioned The Animals wouldn’t thoughts and that they’d be happy we have been taking care of the place for them.”
In response to the band’s ex-drummer Keith Guster, the pair initially shared the three-bedroom basement flat with a “bizarre Dutch artist”, who lived within the entrance room, however shortly moved out. The 2 musicians shared a big bed room looking on to the backyard space.
As The Animals’ US tour got here to an finish, Haskell and Guster anticipated to be requested to go away. As an alternative, Chandler turned up and defined that he had simply returned from the US with a brand new buddy in tow. “He instructed us we have been alright to remain for a bit longer,” says Guster. “Then he mentioned, ‘I’m going to deliver a man spherical and he’s going to remain within the different room.’ We mentioned, ‘Okay’ and requested what his identify was and Chas simply mentioned, ‘Oh it’s Jimi.’”
When ‘Jimi’ arrived the subsequent day he shortly disappeared into the room on the entrance of the home. “We rarely noticed him,” remembers Guster. “On odd events he’d sit on the ground in his room drawing footage and choosing on an acoustic guitar. We have been out more often than not making an attempt to get extra work whereas Jimi was out with Chas engaged on getting their band collectively.”
Talking in 2011, Hendrix’s former girlfriend Kathy Etchingham recalled the flat in Cranley Gardens, however is adamant that “Jimi by no means lived there as a result of he was within the Hyde Park Towers Resort with me from the primary night time he arrived. He might have gone spherical there and met these guys and he would possibly even have fallen asleep on the couch.”
Nonetheless, throughout one in all his visits to the flat the place Jimi “might need fallen asleep”, Chandler started to inform the 2 bandmates what he had deliberate for his protégé. “Chas defined that he was planning to place collectively a three- piece – Jimi with a drummer and a bass participant,” says Guster. “Gordon and I checked out one another and thought, ‘Nicely, one in all us performs bass and the opposite performs drums….’ I believe we talked about this to Chas and he mentioned, ‘Nicely thanks boys, however we’ll see.”
“I by no means thought that Chas ought to have employed us to be with Jimi,” provides Haskell. “We have been very loyal to Les Fleur and we most likely wouldn’t have gotten into the showmanship stuff of the Expertise.”
In the course of the summer season of 2011, 24 Cranley Gardens was restored as a chic 5 bed-roomed home with employees quarters, a spa and swimming pool, and now has an estimated worth of over £7,000,000.
Initially printed in Basic Rock Presents Jimi Hendrix: Folks, Hell And Angels
Supply hyperlink