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When The Animals bass player Chas Chandler was recommended a brilliant young Seattle-born guitarist in 1966, a legend was soon born. Chandler took Jimi Hendrix from New York's Café Wha? club to swinging London, introduced him to Cream and set him up with jazz drummer Mitch Mitchell and guitarist-turned-bass-player Noel Redding, whom he wanted in the band because he liked his hairstyle. Setting the rock scene alight with his outrageous talent, Hendrix's mix of distortion, psychedelia, blues and showmanship sent classic debut Are You Experienced? (1967) to Number 2 in the UK charts with singles Hey Joe, Purple Haze and The Wind Cries Mary all making the Top 10 and becoming classics of the era. Its follow-up Axis: Bold As Love (1967) created an even trippier, free-form, psych-jazz style, but it was third album Electric Ladyland (1968) that is regarded as the band's finest work, with their version of Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower becoming one of rock's greatest moments. The band split after Noel Redding left in 1969, with Hendrix going on to make an iconic performance at the Woodstock Festival before his death in 1970.
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