Every music legend deserves a good pilgrimage. Jimi Hendrix fan Hugh Clench visits the state-of-the-art museum inspired by the guitar hero who died 30 years ago
If, like me, you are old enough, and committed enough, to have seen Jimi Hendrix play live more than once, then you’ll know the significance of September 18 1970. It was 30 years ago on that day that Jimi was found dead by his girlfriend, Monika Dannemann, in their London flat.
If, unlike me, you are one of the world’s richest men, then you might indulge one of your adolescent interests in middle-age with a few spare rands that you have in the bank and create what must be one of the most extraordinary museums in the world.
That, at least, is what Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, and his partner Joe Patton, have done in creating the Experience Music Project.
Designed by Canadian architect Frank Gehry, the building looks like six balls of brightly coloured play-dough shaped by a giant’s hands, with a few broken guitar fretboards thrown on the top for good measure.
Straddling the Seattle monorail, which clatters between the Seattle Center and the downtown Westlake Center (an early prototype for the ubiquitous shopping mall), the project opened in June and demonstrates what can be achieved by a consuming passion and seemingly unlimited resources.
Seattle is an appropriate setting for such an imaginative and ambitious project. The home of Starbucks, Boeing and Microsoft and the setting for Frasier and Free Willy, it has become the most desirable alternative location for Californians fed up with increasing pollution. It was also the birthplace of one James Marshall Hendrix on November 27 1942.
Not surprisingly then, large portions of the museum are devoted to Hendrix’s life, work and ideas. On entering, you are equipped with a shoulder-slung guide, consisting of a CD-Rom player and a hand-held LCD display and keypad that you point at exhibits to hear more information about them through the headphone set. As my 11-year-old son discovered, this is enough to sustain the interest of those who have never even heard of Jimi Hendrix.
The state-of-the-art guide is handed to you in the main entrance area, which is called the Sky Church, a name coined by Jimi to describe an area where people come together to share a sense of communion through music.
It is a performance area capable of holding 650 people with the largest indoor LCD screen in the world.
One whole gallery is devoted to artefacts associated with his band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, including Hendrix’s favourite guitar – the white Fender Stratocaster he played at Woodstock – Noel Redding’s bass, and Mitch Mitchell’s drum kit.
The only exhibit visitors have any hope of physically touching is the guitar, and if like me you are more than 1,8m tall, you can just reach over the plexiglass barrier and touch it. As I discovered, this immediately sets off the alarm, but if you stay cool and pretend it has nothing to do with you, then you should get away with it. In any event, I know Hendrix would have approved.
In another gallery covering the history of rock music, a stage outfit worn by Janis Joplin is on display, along with one of Elvis’s leather biking jackets. All of this raises questions about the concept of a museum like this – rock music is, after all, about living now and to hell with the future or the past. However, the Experience Project is redeemed by the interactive elements, where it is possible to try to create your own music.
In the Sound Lab you can learn the basics of playing the drums, keyboards,guitar and bass, or jam in soundproof booths with your family, friends, or other visitors.
Those with a more egotistical streak can go on stage at a virtual concert with a full set of stadium rock equipment, bright lights, smoke machines and thousands of screaming virtual fans.
The Project also features a new twist on the simulator ride, where you can go on the Artist’s Journey through a variety of musical experiences.
The first of these, Funk Blast, is, not surprisingly, a journey through the world of funk music. You begin by watching a short video describing the basics of funk, before moving up a ramp around a giant multicoloured boot signed by funk stars and surrounded by video screens preparing you for your ride.
The ride is a standard flight simulator with a very non-standard visual experience that takes you through tunnels of funk, on stage, and out into the street with a range of ridiculously dressed musicians. You come to the end by almost disappearing down the gap between James Brown’s front teeth.
There’s no doubt that this is a museum with a difference, and whether or not you are a fan of Jimi Hendrix, it more than deserves a visit for the imagination that has gone into it. Be warned, however, that some preciously held beliefs might be shattered.
I always thought Purple Haze was a song about a psychedelic drug experience, but driving around I realised that it refers to the lavender farms that abound in the Seattle area and advertise their purple haze on roadside billboards.
You can also visit Jimi’s grave in Greenwood Memorial Park, Renton, a suburb of Seattle, which you can reach in 30 minutes by car. About 50 000 people a year make the pilgrimage, many taking rubbings of Jimi’s modest grave stone.