CURTIS KNIGHT & THE SQUIRES feat. JIMI HENDRIX – You Can’t Use My Name: The RSVP/PPX Sessions

In 1968, Capitol Records issued a selection of tracks recorded by Curtis Knight with Jimi Hendrix as the ‘Get That Feeling’ LP. These session recordings, made a few years earlier, were a deliberate attempt to cash in on the guitarist’s meteoric rise to fame over the previous eighteen months. Over the years, various combinations of those recordings made for the PPX and RSVP labels were issued as unlicensed albums in shoddy packaging, destined to fill the discount shelves of supermarkets and petrol station shops.

Issued in March 2015, ‘You Can’t Use My Name’ represents the first “Hendrix Family Approved” release of the session material. The chosen numbers allow a good insight into the range and talents of the younger Jimi, making it a worthwhile compilation.

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Jimi Hendrix: Band of Gypsys/Fillmore East concerts to be released in full – box set released in November

Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys concerts have become the stuff of legend.  Fans have been given various highlights into their four Fillmore shows from 1969/70, but now the picture is to be completed with the release of a lavish new box set, ‘Songs For Groovy Children’.

Following the dissolution of the Jimi Hendrix Experience after just three albums, Hendrix formed a new group with Buddy Miles on drums and his old army pal Billy Cox taking on bass duties.  The Band of Gypsys made their debut at The Fillmore East on New Years Eve 1969.  That day, they played two shows; two further shows followed on New Years Day.

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Both Sides of The Sky: More unreleased Hendrix material to be released in March ’18

Another new compilation of material authorised by the Hendrix Family estate will be released in the first quarter of the new year.

Following 2016’s ‘Machine Gun’, a live set which made the whole of the Band of Gypsys’ early Fillmore show available for the first time, ‘Both Sides of the Sky’ concentrates on the Gypsys line up in the studio.  The new release features thirteen tracks, ten of which will are previously unreleased.  Among the highlights is an early take of ‘Angel’ (then still provisionally titled ‘Sweet Angel’) recorded in January 1968.

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It Was Fifty Years Ago Today… The Continuing Saga of Sgt. Pepper

It was fifty years ago today…that the world was first introduced to Sgt. Pepper. It’s hard to imagine, at this point, that there was even a time when the album didn’t exist. Whether you consider yourself a fan or not, for the past two generations the album has become omnipresent. Two generations of people have loved it and hated it, while those who have yet to hear the record itself will still be aware of it’s presence. Visiting a record shop, there’s a good chance that its technicolor collage artwork will be seen. It’s always there; for most of us, it’s always been there.

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