David Gilmour calls one guitarist an ‘absolute phenomenon’ and recalls first encounter

Follow Cult Following

Get more of our coverage in Google.

A guitarist was called an “absolute phenomenon” by Pink Floyd‘s David Gilmour, who still remembers his first encounter with the instrumentalist.

The High Hopes songwriter recalls seeing the much-loved guitarist performing in South Kensington, London, and the experience has stuck with him ever since. Speaking to MOJO Magazine, Gilmour would heap praise onto Jimi Hendrix, the Voodoo Child hitmaker, who played a set to a room “packed with Beatles and Stones type people”. It appears Gilmour was in good company, then, and soon after that show, he would bump into Hendrix. Not only was the Foxy Lady mastermind an incredible guitar player, but also a “likeable, shy” person whom Gilmour met briefly in Paris, France.

Speaking to MOJO Magazine, Gilmour said: “I saw him playing live at this club called Blaises in South Kensington. He jammed with the Brian Auger Trinity with Julie Driscoll singing. This little place was packed with Beatles and Stones type of people, so you think, ‘Something’s going on.’

“And this kid came in and strapped a right-handed guitar on the wrong way round. He was an absolute phenomenon from the beginning.” Following that gig, Gilmour found himself in Paris and would bump into Hendrix, where the Pink Floyd member was tasked with showing the Fire sensation around.

Gilmour added: “Later, I was living in Paris and one of the jobs outside of just playing with my little pop group [Jokers Wild] there was that I was employed to take him round Paris for an evening, show him a good time. And he seemed very nice. Likeable, shy.”

Along with those two encounters, Gilmour accidentally wound up being Hendrix’s sound man for the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970. The bizarre overlap occurred when the sound team were “very nervous” and asked Gilmour for help in mixing Hendrix’s legendary set.

Speaking to Prog Magazine, Gilmour said: “I went down [to the festival] to go to it, and I was camping in a tent, just being a punter. I went backstage where our main roadie guy, Peter Watts, was trying to deal with all the mayhem, with Charlie Watkins of [amplifier company] WEM. They were very nervous; they were going to have to mix Hendrix’s sound. I did some mixing stuff in those days, and they said, ‘Help! Help!’ So I did.”

While the pair would never work together outside of this accidental overlap, Gilmour’s love for the guitarist’s work is clear. Later recalling his encounter with Hendrix in South Kensington, he says the entire place was left in awe of the guitarist’s skills.

Gilmour confirmed he had not known Hendrix, but did have the chance to see him perform. He said: “Myself, and the whole place, were with their jaws hanging open.”