It was 40 years ago today � December 16, 1966 � that the Jimi Hendrix Experience released its first single, "Hey Joe", in England. Jimi's career took him around the world, but this tour focuses on London, where the actual experience began and ended.

In the minds of many still the greatest guitarist in history, 36 years after his death, Jimi Hendrix wasn't the first to make the instrument talk, but he taught it a whole new language. He mixed Mississippi blues with jazz colours and acid rock and put it all through a cosmic filter.

Born Johnny Allen Hendrix on November 27, 1942, in Seattle, he was 16 when his father Al changed his name to James Marshall Hendrix and bought him a $5 acoustic guitar, then a year later an electric. Jimmy played with the Rocking Kings, then joined the army, where he formed another band called the King Kasuals, with fellow soldier Billy Cox.

Honourably discharged with an injury incurred while parachute jumping, he started doing gigs and studio sessions with the Isley Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, Sam Cooke and Little Richard, and Richard wouldn't be the last artist to hit the roof over being upstaged by a guy playing his guitar behind his back.

In New York in 1965 he joined Curtis Knight and the Squires, then formed a band of his own called Jimmy James and the Blue Flames, featuring guitarist Randy California, later of the group Spirit. The Blue Flames had a regular gig at the Caf� Wha? in Greenwich Village. That's where Jimmy was in June 1966 when Chas Chandler, who'd just left the Animals to get into artist management, came in looking for something new.

Chandler immediately offered to take care of Jimmy and take him to London. "Do I get to meet the Beatles and Eric Clapton?" Hendrix asked. He was going to meet them, alright.