Saturday 07 September 1968
Vancouver, Pacific Coliseum, Renfrew Street, British Columbia, Canada
Backstage interview for Canadian TV - CBC

CBC : We’re gonna talk to the Jimi Hendrix Experience for a minute. I’m sure everybody 
knows it by now, but we’ll run it down – Mitch Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix and Noel Redding. Ah, do, you haven’t been to Vancouver before, but you have been to Canada. Did you play-uh Montreal on the coast at one time?
Jimi  : Yeah, we did. We played Montreal on this-uh tour that we’re on now.
CBC : Right
Jimi  : It’s a really nice town. Did you know it was gonna play Toronto?
Mitch: Yeah, right on
CBC: Just wondered…
Mitch: …Not too bad…
Noel : Yeah and northern Ontario…
Mitch: Ontario…
Noel : We saw a great deal, three places…
CBC : Did you notice that, that was-uh anything different from the audiences you’ve been 
           used to
Jimi  : Not necessarily. There was more, ah, raving, like, you know, there was more of 
adults, than at somebody else’s, you know, but, that’s because we probably haven’t played there before
Mitch: Yeah
CBC : What about the music though? Did they know the music?
Jimi  : Hell, yeah
CGC : Did they-uh seem to appreciate it
Jimi  : Yeah
Noel : Seems English to me here…
CBC : Really?
Mitch: Yeah it’s rather like… 
Noel : …tellin’ ya
Mitch: …going out maybe if he goes to the depths of England - up North – like, you know 
           they haven’t seen you before and they’re really quite wild
Jimi  :  Life’s amusing hah
CBC : They were, eh, a-as far as Canada is concerned they were almost the last to pick 
           up on your music, it seems they were almost hesitant to do it
Jimi  : That’s probably because they didn’t hear it, they was probably the last ones to hear 
           it, probably. 
CBC : Mh-hmm
Jimi  : Canada’s always the last, they don’t get the records up here as quick as some    
           peoples…
CBC : Right
Jimi  :… certain types of records
CBC : Yeah
Jimi  : Do they still have Dawson Annexe School here?
CBC : Do they still have what?
Jimi  : Dawson’s School, Dawson Annexe 
CBC : Yes, yes
Jimi  : Right, I used to go there… 
CBC : We, who-ha-ha
Jimi  : …ha-ha in the good old days
CBC : D’you have relatives up here, do you not?
Jimi  : Yeah, they’re outside now
CBC : Is there still a family thing going on?
Jimi  : What do you mean by that?
CBC: Ah, well [all laughing] do you not know? All right, okay
Jimi  : What do you mean by that? Do you mean, do I still have a family here
CBC : No, do you, do you, eh. I know you don’t get back here often, or if it’s come back to 
          you at all, but do you recognise most of these people from the, from the 
Jimi : Well, like I know what my family looks like , quite naturally, I just don’t get a chance 
to see them, until, maybe we play here, you know, this is only the second time in about eight years I seen, you know, My dad, mother and sisters and so forth 
CBC : Right
Jimi  : And like my grandmother and ah, her boyfriend and-uh…
Noel : uh-heh-heh
Jimi  : …my cousins are out there now, you know and I’d like to see- I haven’t seen them, 
          they’re out there. I’ll see ’em later on tonight though
CBC : Does anything change when the family’s in front of you, for any one of you?
Noel : I don’t know, really. We’ve all done, we did-um a tour of, once in England an’ we did 
           a show in London and we had the same thing-eh, my parents came up and Mitch’s  
           parents came up, you know, heh-heh, an’ hello mum! [Laughs]

[Tape cut]

CBC : I know that you don’t get back to England that much, as much as you’d like 
to possibly, but-eh the current thing that’s happening over there, where they started 
a rock revival and then they did something else. Do you find that they’re starting to 
sway, like your home based music, that’s coming out of there, are they sort of uncertain as to what they’re doing over there, or do they, is there definitely happening with underground music
Jimi  : Not Necessarily
Noel : There’s always something happening in England, like
Mitch: Oh, yeah, yeah there’s always something happening, but I mean “underground 
           music”, you know, music’s music, we don’t know, it’s the same all over the world
Noel : Unless you go on the underground… busses an’ things
Jimi  : Turns out in some strange ways though
Mitch: Right
Jimi  : Because, like, after The Beatles, like, took a back seat, and after they sat down for a 
while. Then it got really mixed up, like, you know, there’s different things comin’ out, they got The Traffic an’ The Family, all these groups that you don’t hear about all the time, you know, they’re happening, far as music wise, but far as, you know, they’re-they’re really stuck up on-uh, like, ballads an’ Po’, you know, Pop
All    : Mh-hmm
Jimi  : They’re all screwed up right now, so
CBC : Do you think it’ll straighten out?
Jimi  : Yeah, as soon as we get over there it’ll straighten out
Noel : Ha-ha-eah
CBC : What are you, are, what are you gonna do, you have another LP comin’ out?...
Jimi  : Yeah, a double LP
CBC : … are you workin’ on it?
Jimi  : It’s finished, completely finished, it’ll be out in about ten days
Mitch: So there
Noel : Yeah, cuh-uh
Jimi  : It’s called Electric Ladyland
CBC : Electric Lady?
Jimi  : Yeah
Noel : Land
Mitch: Land
Jimi  : Don’t worry about it
CBC: Noel, did you do anything?
Noel : Sorry?
CBC : Did you do anything? 
Noel : E-eh?
CBC : On the LP, did e-eh?
Noel : A song - Little Miss…before I could say he’s a song period
CBC : Did you get a chance to sing?
Noel : Yeah
CBC : Did you sing anything?...
Jimi  : [under his breath] Beautiful. Yeah he has a song called Little Miss Strange…
CBC : …you all got a piece?
Jimi  : It’s th’-it’s the beginning track on-uh one of the sides, it’s the fourth side of the LP, 
          he has beginning track on this sides. [Jimi blows his nose]
CBC : Doesn’t…
Jimi  : He’ll have Mitchell singin’ the um [in a muffled voice through handkerchief] Is Carol 
          not the drummer?[blows nose]
All     : [laughter]
Jimi  : Excuse me, heh, yeah
CBC : Is that a cold, or hay fever?
Mitch: No it’s not it’s..
Jimi  : No it’s just a change of climate…
CBC : Yeah
Jimi  :… you know, comin’ from-uh what is it, Salt Lake all the way to Denver and then to 
           Los Angeles…
Noel : Phoenix, San Diego…
Jimi  : …y’know, an’ all his mess you know…
Noel : …and LA, bluh-bluh-bluh
Jimi  : But, like-uh Mi’-him an’-ah Mitchell singing this ‘English Rock’ type thing, it’s called 
          ‘Little Strange’ it’s a good song though
CBC : This revival in the blues, an’ this there’s meant to be, I mean …
Jimi  : There’s no such thing as revival…
CBC : All right, all right, all right, blues then
Jimi  : I mean, you know, all or no, you know, I’m just playin’ the way I feel an’ if it sounds 
like blues, well then, you know, call it anything you want, but it’s no revival gig, because ah why go back into the past, you know, why go back there and drag out ‘Blue Suede Shoes’ Just because it’s supposed to be hip to revive Rock you know, which is a drag in the first place, because those people have done their thing an’ they’re, you know, they’re ol’-they’re not offerin’ you anything that’s very instant are they? There’s so many musicians, right now, play twenty times better than any Chuck Berry or any-uh Fat’s Domino or anybody-I’m not puttin’ these people down, I’m just sayin’ that the music’s better now an’ people just don’t even know it, it’s right in their faces, everybody accept it, because it’s, you know, it’s  just so much better an’ they have to gimmicks and imagery to go by, i-if they don’t have these things, otherwise then they don’t know nothing about music, that’s the way some people think, which is a big fat drag maybe sometimes
CBC : Do you ever surprise yourself in some of the things you’ve come out with when 
           you’re playing? 
Jimi  : Yeah, but…it’s the …just saying man
CBC : Do you find yourself in a completely different, classic set up, yeah. Do you find 
           yourself playing things that you’ve heard before, long time, or does it come 
           naturally…?
Mitch: I don’t even know, because I don’t wanna even think about what I’m actually 
playing, or what I can play, that’s why I listen to what Noel and Jimi are playing an’ just dig that, like I hope they listen to me, because actually we never know what we’re doing on stage, maybe in sort of, you might record it one night and listen to it and then you might actually get some enjoyment from it, maybe, you might think it’s a big fat drag, y’know
CBC : Seem like you were embarrassed
Jimi  : Mean like, we’ve been together for about two solid years…
Mitch: Yeah
Jimi  : …and we’ve been playin’ Purple Haze, The Wind Cries Mary, ah, what is it, Hey 
Joe, Foxy Lady, we been playin’ all these songs, which I really think are groovy songs, but we’ve been playing all these songs for two years, so, quite naturally we start improvising, here and there and there’s other things we want to turn on to the people, you know, long as they’re aware that, that we’re trying to be a music group, regardless of what we might look like, or, you know
CBC : Do you….

[tape cut]

Jimi  : …relaxing, maybe If I’m dead
?       : …?
?       : …Huggy saved her, an’ she saved him
CBC : This one particularly, because we have strong English ties with radio, you know, 
like, Radio Caroline etcetera. Those jocks were sending us, ahm, things over. I got my first copy of the first LP from ah Pete Townsend and he laid it on, we listened to it at his place and we’re watching his home movies and-uh, and we had this on in the background and it really got into my head the first time I heard it. The second time I went over he-eh gave me the second one, so, he’s been, sort of, my contact for you people. Do you find that your music gets up close to-eh other English groups at times
Jimi  : I don’-know, I don’t think about it, we just record what we wanna play, you know
 Mich: We’re never there anyway, I don’t know what’s going on there
CBC : There’s a cut called Red House on the first LP, which was not here right…
Jimi  : Yeah
CBC : … which was not here on our LP. We didn’t get it. We didn’t get to hear it, til 
somebody laid an English copy on us and-uh it’s become a minor hit here, simply because people..
Jimi  : We’ll do it tonight an’ ball
CBC : Will you really?
Mitch: Yeah
CBC : For real? Oh that would make, like…
Jimi  : Yeah man
CBC : …a lot of people happy

[tape cut]

Mitch: Very nice, yeah
Jimi  : For the woman I love  
Noel : Heh-heh, no, not really, it doesn’t change much, it’s nice Holland
CBC : Jimi eh we were talking to-eh last night to eh, to The Young Rascals, talking with 
Felix and he was talking about, at one time playing with Joey Dee and the Starlighters, you happened to cross paths, I don’t know if you remember the meeting, but you did play a couple of gigs apparently, together
Jimi  : Yeah I used to play with Joey Dee…four, an’ I used to play the fourth, you know an’ 
           a lot of other groups in the same old scene, you know
CBC : Right, but then you got into your own thing
Jimi  : Oh, it was about time. Wasn’t it? You know
CBC : Yes heh-heh
Jimi  : After-uh six years of travellin’ all over ‘The States’, all over the place
CBC : Little Richard
Jimi  : Yeah
CBC : I was asking you Mitch if you had eh a change of drum set and you’ve had, ‘cause 
           the last time I saw you was in Seattle an’ had, all I was watching, was the sticks and 
           the cymbals and I couldn’t see you and I knew there was a lot of drums
Noel : Heh-heh
Mitch: Well I don’t know what to say, ‘cause I hide away, that’s all, man
All     : [talking over each other]
CBC : Are you still there, the whole time?
Mitch: Well, actually, if the truths known, I’ve got a little robot, I sneak off for a crafty beer 
behind the amplifiers…
CBC : Yea-heh-heh
Mitch: … no one can see me anyway, so, you know, just mess about, thoroughly 
Jimi  : [laughter]
CBC : Um, your speaker systems, eh, that you have behind you are very, very, important. 
           How did you come about picking those an-and  getting them over here?
Jimi  : Well, like, for instance, about, unh you know, a while back, before I went over to 
England I had this really good sound, but I didn’t wanna lose that, like, i-in case we play big places an’ like, over in England the best things, well, like, Marshall’s are starting off to be very good, so, quite naturally  I wanted the loudest and biggest amp possible, as long as you have the loudest and the biggest then you can, like, bring it down to whatever level you want, or either keep it that, you know, ultimately, so, we just use Marshall amps, yeah
CBC : Do you find that if you’re in the bigger 
Noel  : Jimi playing Sunn [amplification] in here
Mitch? : Sun-k yeah
CBC : And you’re selling them
?       : Yeah
CBC : Do you… [All: laughter]
Jimi  : Hey Noel
CBC : I’m not gonna get into that
Jimi  : Yeah
CBC : It’s a lot of money, aah. Do you find that the bigger the building, the harder it is to 
           play? ‘cause you play an awful lot of wingers
Jimi  : It doesn’t make any difference
CBC : No?
Jimi  : No, because, like…
CBC : No, it’s in your own head
Jimi  : … you know, why try to break down, according to the building, you know, some-
some of these people don’t care what kind of building they put you in anyway, the promoters, you know, as long as they ca’-uh get the money out of you and get the money out of the people, so, therefore you don’t even worry about the building, you can just go on and play your gig and-uh, quite naturally you try to set up the best s-sound possible, but you don’t have to sit up here and spend a hour on working out, just because their building might be rectangular, or some mess like that 
CBC : When, I-I know that people talk about, as might right to have been, overworked, the 
           word jamming, but do you find you’d go back to blues, if you’d have time to sit  
           down and play amongst yourselves
Jimi  : We, like, I wouldn’t call it blues, I’d probably do a few Muddy Waters tunes an’ do 
           this, you know… 
Noel : Yeah…We’ve all got different scenes, you know
Jimi  : …’cause I dig, you know, I dig Muddy Waters solo an’ he digs, you know, roughly, 
the Rock cast an’ he digs all the Jazz people, but, like, when we jam all these things come about, you know, they all come out into a into another music that you haven’t even named yet, you know, which you-the only thing you can go by now is called a jam, like you say it 
Noel : Yeah
Mitch: Yeah, so, won’t be lack’-musicians of different qualities and categories, or so called, 
categories, you know, I mean, like, would you expect the-eh Louis Armstrong to playing, maybe, with John Coltrane, [Noel : Ha-ha] you know, who knows, perhaps, one day. So, like the cats that we’ve been playing with lately have been on different music scenes entirely
CBC : Yeah
Mitch : So, like, you know, there’s some little journalist is gonna go an’ put a word on it, so, 
            he just is, right it off
Jimi  : Or he’ll try to psyche it out…
Mitch: Yeah, right
Jimi  : … and it’s nothing but Free Form anyway, in other words, if you’re gonna get your 
Free Form and then your Jam, if you’re gonna get that psyched out an’ analyzed and dissected, then what else, you know, what you-they gonna do? crawl into a hole or something, you know
CBC : Where were you when, when all of this happened in Chicago, about three weeks 
           ago? Were you got into the city in time?
Noel : We were In New York weren’t we
Jimi  : Hard to tell, I think we was, yeah, playin’ somewhere I don’-know
Noel : Maybe New York
CBC : Have you a thought on that? What’s it like?
Jimi  : Well I wish we could have been out there, I have a camera, I could have filmed it, 
           you know, looked okay
Noel : I don’-know, what happened, what happened?
CBC : In Chicago, they had a lot of riots there
?       : Had riots there
Jimi  : Yeah, but, you know, it’s the past
Noel : People just keep saying ‘Chicago’ I don’-know

[tape cut]

Jimi  : What was the question you asked? [All:  laugh]
CBC : It doesn’t matter, it’s all right
Jimi  : But what did you say there, if you’re down it’s…
Noel : Now I can do insults
CBC : D’you-d’you like the young people, or are young peoples lives they’re just [numbers?]
Jimi  : Oh, definitely, man, we like anybody who’d dig our sound though
Noel : Yeah
Jimi  : An’ anybody who could, you know, who cou-who could don’t even have to like it as long as they…
Noel : Listen to it
Jimi  : … ah, as long as they-uh give their own self a chance to find, getting’ into it, if they 
          paid four, or five dollars to get inside the concert
CBC : Thank you… Jimi Hendrix Experience
Noel : ….Cheers
Crew?: Turn it bloody round!
CBC?: Cheers…Thank you very much again

[Tape cut]

Mitch?: I think you should play him some sounds
Jimi : [in funny voice] Thank you too