by Johnny Thompson, Quakertown, PA

When I was a high school kid living in Doylestown it was always a cool thing to take the train into Philly. Me and my friends would go look at guitars at 8th Street Music and I think there was a music store on Chestnut Street, maybe called Sound City. Anyway, we were walking around and we saw a poster on a traffic light. When we went to investigate we saw Jimi was coming to the Electric Factory. We had to be there. A few weeks went by and we went down to the Electric Factory. It was the first time I ever was there. It was really cool and fluorescent. I sat on the side of the stage and I cant remember who started the show but I remember the Soft Machine band. That keyboard player was awesome — I think it was Michael Ratlidge. The drummer didn’t have a shirt on but he had a collar and tie painted on his chest, wow! But the night belonged to Jimi. I couldn’t believe he was there to play for us. Just watching him stand there looking so cool in that hat that he wore, scarves and vest holding that Stratocaster was enough. Then he started to play. It was explosive. I couldn’t believe he could play the songs from “Are You Experienced.” I guess I thought you couldn’t get those sounds live. But it was all there. He played with his teeth — behind his back, thru his legs, somersaults and bayonet charges at his marshal. It changed the way I thought about music and I knew then I would try to see my heroes in concert whenever I could. I saw so many great bands at the Factory — Cream, the Who, Jeff Beck, the Faces, the Byrds — what a great time.