Footage has been unearthed from Jimi Hendrix’s iconic Woodstock performance, which was filmed by a drama student who snuck onto the stage.
The now-legendary gig took place at Woodstock in Bethel, New York, in 1969, where the guitar icon took to the stage with his newly formed band Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, a.k.a. Band of Gypsys.
That band included bassist Billy Cox, guitarist Larry Lee, and percussionists Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez, and drummer Mitch Mitchell – the latter of which also being a part of The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
The set closed out the festival, and is now set to mark its 57th anniversary. To mark the occasion, a new film called Jimi Hendrix: Live at Woodstock — A Second Look has been released, and it features rarely seen footage from the show.
Some of that new material is recently unearthed footage from a 22-year-old drama student, who snuck onto the stage during the set and filmed some of it using two open-reel videotapes.
The student in question was Albert Goodman, who hid behind a friend carrying a guitar to get access to the stage, and filmed it from behind percussionist Juma Sultan. He was assumed to be a member of the film crew who were hired to capture footage of the whole show, and his footage shows Hendrix standing just 15 feet in front of him.
In the newly unearthed footage, Hendrix is seen playing ‘Purple Haze’, ‘Voodoo Child’, ‘Message To Love’, and his interpretation of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’, as well as rare footage of him playing ‘Hear My Train a Comin’’. Find the footage of ‘Message To Love’ above.
In the days after the gig, Goodman went hitchhiking and coincidentally met a driver who was friends with people who were working with Jimi Hendrix. After telling him about the footage he captured at Woodstock, the driver made plans for the student to screen the footage for Hendrix himself.
After storing the footage for three decades, Goodman then made it available to the late-guitarist’s family. It is now available to view in the new Live at Woodstock — A Second Look film, which premiered on YouTube on August 18.
In other Jimi Hendrix news, back in May Marshall honoured the rock legend with “cosmic-inspired” amps and speakers. Before then, the estates of Jimi Hendrix’s bandmates lost their copyright case against Sony Music.
