Ö÷²¥´óÐã

The Jimi Hendrix Experience had played earlier in the year at Cardiff's Capitol Theatre, low down on a bill featuring The Walker Brothers, Cat Stevens and Engelbert Humperdinck. In the intervening months they had played at the , which had brought the Seattle guitarist wide recognition.

Now Hendrix was at the head of a bill at the Cardiff Sophia Gardens Pavilion which featured (a rock band who metamorphosed into the Electric Light Orchestra), (still with Syd Barrett), (a prog rock band who would become Emerson Lake And Palmer), Cardiff's own Amen Corner and two other, smaller bands called Eire Apparent and The Outer Limits.

The event took the form of two shows, one at 6.15pm and another at 8.35pm - with all the bands squeezed into a time slot that headline bands would take for themselves these days.

Amen Corner had had a couple of hits in the year before this show, but were yet to have their smash hits Bend Me, Shape Me and (If Paradise Is) Half As Nice. The band's Allan Jones, now a venue owner in Cardiff, recalls: "I reckon the first two bands would have got 10 minutes each - can you believe that? Then The Nice would have been 15, then us with 20 minutes, then The Move. Then there's a break for another 20 minutes and Hendrix would have got half an hour, that's all.

"There were a lot of good bands on there; it was a great, diverse bill. The Floyd were very cool, The Nice were also very cool, there was us and The Move and then Hendrix at the top. It was a heck of a bill. It appealed to a lot of people, not just Hendrix fans. He was the star, there's no question about that, but as a bill it's surprising it worked so well."

The gig was sold out, with up to 4,000 rock fans crammed into the venue. Among the crowd were young ladies who got a little more than they paid for. Renowned journalist Nick Kent, in his biography Apathy For The Devil, says, "The best bill I've ever witnessed. Four mind-boggling performances... There was a sexual bravado about Hendrix live that night that was so palpable it made my jaw drop."

One local girl in the audience was Pat Mills. "I remember the tickets were 12 shillings and sixpence which for as a schoolgirl was really expensive. There was the local band Amen Corner, and we also wanted to see the other bands like Pink Floyd and The Nice, but in the end it was Hendrix that everyone went for.

"We were all intrigued by this guy who played his guitar with his teeth. He played Wild Thing, Purple Haze and Hey Joe among others. The venue was packed with a great atmosphere. I remember getting a load of autographs and meeting Keith Emerson after the show."

Allan Jones remembers that there was something about Hendrix. "He was definitely the star. You'd only have to see him once and you'd know; he was phenomenal. He had this persona about him that had never been seen before. He was a mixture of Little Richard, Otis Redding and as a guitar player... as a package he had all his roots sorted; everything from blues to jazz to psychedelia."

Jones was part of a tour that was epoch-making in musical terms. He looks back on the time with great fondness: "It was all brilliant. I don't think we had a bad night on that tour. It was just a privilege to be on the bill, and to get the chance to finish playing and watch Hendrix twice a night for 30 dates. That's pretty awesome, something to be thought about and relished."