Smash Hits - The Jimi Hendrix Experience

As anyone who knows me will know, I took school work seriously. Very seriously. So it it will come as no surprise then, that preparations for my 'O' Levels were planned with military precision; revision timetables were drawn up, exams plotted on calendars and study plans accumulated. Nothing was going to get in the way of my plans to ensure that I was prepared as possible for the biggest test of my academic career......

So how on earth did we end up arsing about with a video camera in the run up to the exams? Classes had stopped for a reason and that was and that was to ensure that maximum time was available for the students to prepare. I don't think that the break had been put there so we could spend hours in our front room or in the garden recreating music videos and creating spoof chat shows. But that is what we did.

And so, over the period of about a week, we created chat show characters; a rally driver who had just won the 'Lombard Tricity Cup', whatever that was, a movie star going through a tabloid scandal, a magician who could make studio objects and personnel disappear and 'Cumbrian' farmer who was having problems with birth abnormalities in his sheep due to nuclear waste from Chernobyl. All topical stuff I'm sure you'll agree. If it had been aired, 'Chatty Chat' would've been a huge hit I'm sure. In fact, thinking about it now, it looks like a primitive version of The Fast Show but with less swearing.

Not content with mastering the art of the chat show, we went on to make our own versions of popular music videos. Now bearing in mind that we didn't have any editing equipment we relied upon precision use of the pause button on both the camera and the stereo that was playing the music. No mean feat.

In between the clips of TV history that never were, was footage of me playing air guitar to Jimi. Dressed in my finest rock garb; pastel green jumper with fake shirt insert, stone washed jeans and white terry toweling socks, I sure looked the part. Judging my my actions though, Jimi's guitar must've had a very flexible neck - it might explain how he managed to get such notes from his instrument. No-one can say that my rendition of 'Highway Chile' wasn't accurate!

But if you are going to bother to go to the lengths of learning air guitar you might as well copy one of the original rock guitarists. The 'Smash Hits' album covers only a fraction of The Experience's output but contains most of their best known songs. And what songs they are; 'Purple Haze', 'Fire', 'Hey Joe'.....and all backed by arguably one of rock's best three pieces and certainly one of the greatest guitarists. In a little over four years Jimi and the band pretty much reinvented rock music and paved the way for heavy rock and metal...but you already knew that didn't you?

Thankfully I have preserved the video tape in a digital format for future posterity (or collateral in a law suit) but if the price is right I might just be persuaded to upload it onto certain social network site.......or should that be to keep it off?