Unpublished Interview with Noel Redding

WATCH THIS SPACE - Music ‘N’ Vision is soon to launch a 2 hour exclusive never-before seen interview with NOEL REDDING here. Noel talks extensively about his time with Jimi and the Hendrix Experience, the drugs, the music, the women, the lot… Grab our RSS feed and stay tuned to launch updates.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



As the bassist for the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Noel Redding was hugely responsible for creating the sound of rock music during the late 1960s.

One night in 1966, an audience including musical greats Donovan, the Beatles and the Who gathered at London’s Bag O’Nails club to witness a performance that changed the face of music forever. A new sound had been born in what is today considered to be one of the most important breakthrough performances of all time.

The audience had never seen or heard anything like it before, the guitar, bass and drums of the Jimi Hendrix Experience dazzled the audience with a performance which was the birth of rock music. It was an evening that changed and influenced everything including the lives and careers of the gathered musicians.

That night rock music was born at Bag O’Nails, along with three new stars. Jimi the exotic genius guitarist and front-man of the band, accompanied by drummer Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding, the bands bass guitarist, still only 20 years old.

David Redding [Noel] was born on Christmas Day 1945, in Folkestone in southern England. Noel always loved music and during his youth found himself playing guitar in a number of bands on the German rock-n-roll circuit.

On returning to England, Noel travelled to London to audition for an advert he’d seen in the music paper Melody Maker, which was for a new guitarist to join already established band, the Animals. After auditioning for Eric Burdon, Noel bumped into Chas Chandler who was the then bassist with the Animals.

Chas introduced him to Jimi who had just arrived in England and after getting drummer Mitch Mitchell aboard, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was formed and hit the road with Chas Chandler as their manager.

After some good live performances in Munich and England, the Jimi Hendrix Experience played their legendary gig that night at the Bag O’Nails club. There was a lot of media attention thereafter with a number of advances from record companies and the band releasing their first hit single, Hey Joe.

The second single, Purple Haze, also topped the charts followed by the platinum selling album, Are You Experienced, in 1967. That same year, the Jimi Hendrix Experience took US audiences by storm with some fantastic live performances, guitar burning included at the Monterey pop festival.

Not just Jimi, but Noel and drummer Mitch were also musically brilliant during the live performances and in the recording studio as well. However, rumours abound that Jimi overdubbed some on Noel’s bass lines.

The band remained together only briefly, with rows over money fuelled by heavy drinking and the ever present hard drugs, in 1968 the band split and just two years later Hendrix was dead.

In 1972 Noel moved to Ireland and lived there until he passed away in 2003. He was not just a great musician he was also a great human being, who will always be remembered and always missed. RIP Noel and thank you for giving us soooooo much.

Music ‘N’ Vision caught up with Mr. NOEL REDDING for an exclusive interview which has never been aired and is to be broadcast here soon. Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay informed of the launch date, which will be sometime in 2007.

Biography: Noel Redding

Noel Redding: Your tributes