The Brith of Rock (Blues -bassed Rock 1963-1970)

The rock revolution of the 1960’s seen through the life and music of Jimi Hendrix. The first doomed icon of rock, Hendrix was the synthesis of everything that had gone before him and all that was to come. The Birth Of Rock also explores the influence of rhythm & blues on a generation of British musicians such as The Rolling Stones, Cream and The Who, and how the song-writing of Bob Dylan and studio developments of The Beatles transformed the possibilities and ambitions of rock. (bbc.co.uk)

“To get the gig working on Seven Ages of Rock was big enough but to get the first episode was something of a weighty responsibility. How could one possibly cover the 1960s without simply re-treading well worn paths?

Salvation lay in the device we’d adopted for much of the series – using a central figure to take us through the story, a figure who could demonstrate the developments and transformations in that period of astonishing artistic creativity and social change.

There was only one candidate really: Jimi Hendrix. He encapsulates the first age of rock more than any single figure; a summation of all that had gone before him and a projection of all that was to come. He was the roots bluesman who used new technology, perfectly bridging the past to the future to create a dazzling psychedelic present.

It’s essential to remember that his career in the spotlight lasted only four years and three studio albums; dead at 27, an artist whose potential was so massive, it’s hard not to reflect on his unrealised projects without a profound sense of loss.

Alongside Hendrix, we decided to also feature artists who influenced Jimi but also stamped their own indelible mark on the era – Bob Dylan, Cream, The Who, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles. Taking a “less is more” philosophy, we set out to allow the music time to breathe; avoiding the tendency to overload films with contributors would let us give the story space to unfold.

We were fortunate to catch time with many artists who rarely give interviews. Ginger Baker, for example, happened to be in the UK for a few days buying polo horses for his polo ranch in Africa. We managed to grab a couple of hours with the legendary Cream drummer.

As well known for his forthright opinions as he is for his drumming, Ginger did not disappoint. Looking rather dapper in black velvet jacket and rock star shades he proceeded to give us the low-down on the highs and lows of Cream as well as life – and death – in the Sixties.

One story he told was of the night Hendrix died. Ginger had come into possession of a bottle of pure cocaine hydrochloride from a friend who worked at Charing Cross hospital. Keen to share his windfall, Ginger called Hendrix but could not get hold of him. Ginger proceeded to get stuck in, OD’d and came round to a doctor telling him that Hendrix was dead. “The extraordinary thing is,’ said Ginger, very matter of factly, ‘if he’d had the coke he wouldn’t have died because he wouldn’t have gone to sleep.”

He finished with a darkly comic round up: “I seem to manage to stay alive by some miracle because I was supposed to have died you see. I was in the Playboy Dead Band in 1972 along with Jimi and Janis Joplin and Greg Allman. I was the drummer in the Dead Band.”

We also caught up with with his old band mate and sparring partner Jack Bruce, who gives us a first hand account of the night Jimi, after only one week in London, dares to sit in with Cream and blow Eric Clapton off stage. Its moments like this that made making the programme so memorable.”