Shirley Collins and Jimi Hendrix: When England’s queen of folk met America’s king of guitar
Folk singer Shirley Collins met Jimi Hendrix at her Blackheath home a few years after they appeared on the same 1968 festival bill. Their eventual meeting offers a glimpse of Hendrix’s warmth and of the musical worlds that could overlap in Britain’s late 1960s music scene.
Collins and her sister Dolly played the afternoon folk set at Woburn Festival in July 1968, while Hendrix headlined later that night; equipment problems affected his performance, and they did not meet there. Collins had travelled through the American South with folklorist Alan Lomax in 1959 and became a prominent voice in the English folk revival. She later recalled Hendrix visiting her home, charming her young daughter Polly, and making her worry when he played guitar with his teeth; he died in London in 1970.
- Collins and Hendrix shared a festival bill in 1968 but met later.
- Hendrix visited Collins’s Blackheath home and charmed her daughter.
- Collins was a leading voice in the English folk revival.
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Shirley Collins was a leading singer in the revival of English folk music, which brought traditional songs to new audiences. In 1959, she travelled through the American South with folklorist Alan Lomax, recording songs and learning about the traditions behind them.
Jimi Hendrix was an American guitarist who became a major figure in late-1960s rock. Their musical worlds crossed at Woburn Festival in 1968: Collins and her sister Dolly played earlier in the day, and Hendrix headlined that night.
The meeting described later took place at Collins’s home in Blackheath, south-east London. Their story offers a small glimpse of how folk and rock musicians could cross paths in Britain’s varied music scene of the time.