Jimi Hendrix: London

Describing how the city of London helped transform a little-known musician named Jimmy James into rock legend Jimi Hendrix, this revealing volume details how Hendrix helped transform London into a dynamo of popular music and social rebellion. The book examines Hendrix's impact on London's leading musicians—including the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Eric Clapton—and follows Hendrix as he acquires a savvy manager, a tight band, and a forgiving girlfriend and launches himself into a breakneck career that whisked him from dingy clubs to Woodstock and recording and television studios. Each chapter introduces unforgettable characters and takes readers on a trip through the psychedelic era, concluding with Hendrix's tragic death in a London apartment. It explores the public as well as the private man, capturing the contrast between the wild showman on stage and the unassuming guy behind the scenes.

William Saunders is a journalist and poet and a regular contributor to the Guardian and the Independent. He has also written for the Daily Express, Just Seventeen, the London Evening Standard, Men's Health, the Observer, the Times, and the Times Literary Review. He is based in London.