...

Handel and Hendrix in the same building – Messiah to Machine Gun – two centuries apart: it’s one of the great stories in music. For years now, the Handel half of the premises in Brook Street, London W1, has been a museum and recital space. And from next month the third floor, occupied by Hendrix in 1969, will be opened for the first time as a permanent exhibit – not a museum so much as a “historic home”, insists the director of the Handel & Hendrix in London project, Michelle Aland.

The Observer was granted an exclusive preview of the work in progress – wonderful work, done with thoroughgoing care and manifest love by Aland’s team in conjunction with Etchingham and others from Hendrix’s inner circle. I declare my interest to them: a devoted fan born in the street on which Hendrix died 18 days after I’d seen him play at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970.

<snip>

On the floor by the bed, a BOAC airline bag containing Hendrix’s guitar repair kit, a period TV and a pair of specially made replica Chelsea boots. On a low bedside table: an ashtray and lamp, all reproduced as per the photos. Also a half-bottle of Mateus Rosé – “they drank that – there are pictures of him swigging from the bottle – and whisky,” says Aland. Atop a glass-fronted Victorian cupboard stands an art nouveau Grecian statue, probably Aphrodite, and a spherical papier-maché lamp in bright colours – there are colours everywhere, “many of them reflecting his Native American blood,” posits Aland.

Etchingham recalls shopping for furniture with Hendrix in Portobello Road, and an antique oak chair is a specially made duplicate. And above all, two large Lowther speakers rise from the floor, and in a box ready for installation, a vintage Bang and Olufsen turntable – for the music, which included records by Handel which Hendrix bought when he learned about his predecessor.