The Jimi Hendrix Experience 'Live At Woburn' To See Release July 28

On July 28th, the official Jimi Hendrix bootleg label Dagger Records will release 'The Jimi Hendrix Experience : Live At Woburn'. Recorded live at the Woburn Music Festival, Bedfordshire, England on July 6th, 1968, this previously unreleased 7 track recording was captured in front of an enthusiastic crowd some 14,000 strong who turned out for the performance.

By July 1968, Axis: Bold As Love was still a top selling album but Jimi had long since moved on to new challenges. To Hendrix, performances such as Woburn were unique, shared experiences and not simply personal appearances intended to help shift units of albums or singles.

At Woburn, Jimi skipped songs from Axis: Bold As Love altogether, electing instead to ‘jam' as he called it—kicking off his set with a spirited "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." The trio followed with "Fire," and despite beset with buzzing, crackles and otherwise unwanted noises throughout their set, The Experience continued to persevere doing their best to surmount the technical problems that hampered an otherwise animated set.

Although opting to bypass music from Axis: Bold As Love, Hendrix did foreshadow his next album at Woburn, stretching out a marvelous 10+ minute version of "Tax Free;" an early contender for Electric Ladyland and a favorite Experience vehicle for improvisation. Hendrix followed up with another extended improvisational rendition of "Red House" before closing the show with a trio of live concert stalwarts "Foxey Lady," "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" and "Purple Haze."

In launching into "Purple Haze," Jimi kicked off a boisterous feedback opening, buttressed by Mitchell and Redding and complete with tremolo bar swoops, wah-wah pedal shadings and soaring dive bomb styled bursts that transitioned seamlessly into the song's unmistakable opening notes. At its conclusion, the audience roared with approval. While no microphones were positioned to fully capture the intensity of their reaction, their enthusiasm and calls for more can be easily heard through Jimi and Noel's stage microphones.

The Experience's performance at Woburn Music Festival would mark the trio's last performance in England until the two celebrated concerts in February 1969 at the Royal Albert Hall.

To preview the release go to this location.