Jimi Hendrix played at the Blue Pad Club in the Imperial Hotel – the most famous night in Darlington’s rock history. The gig ended with an enduring mystery: what happened to his Fender Stratocaster guitar?
Hendrix was booked for a fee of £90 when he was an unknown, but as the gig drew near, his first single, ‘Hey Joe’, burst into the Top Ten. His record company offered £300 to cancel the show, but his manager, Geordie Chaz Chandler from The Animals, insisted it should go ahead.
The Evening Despatch’s Allene James commented:
About 200 young people stopped dancing and crowded around the platform to see the man himself at work. One couldn’t deny that this artiste is a colourful one, both in his dress and comments, and in an interview after his performance he told me: ‘The group and I have only been together since September and, yeah man, we’re pretty happy about our present position in the charts.’
Perhaps while she was speaking to him, Hendrix’s black guitar was stolen. It was said to have been whisked down the Imperial fire escape, and sprayed cream overnight. Some sources say that when Hendrix discovered the theft, he stormed into the downstairs Bolivar bar in a rage; others that he was phlegmatic and said: ‘I hope the dude can play.’
(‘Memories’, The Northern Echo, 2005)