Hendrix Guitar In Fire Sale

The first guitar Jimi Hendrix ever set aflame onstage went for £280,000 at a London auction of rock ’n’ roll memorabilia September 4.

It went to Daniel Boucher, a collector from Boston, who told BBC News it was something he’d always wanted and he decided he’d go the distance for it.

Hendrix torched the Fender Stratocaster when he played London’s Finsbury Park Astoria in 1967.

The instrument was recovered from a garage last year and still bears the scorch marks of Hendrix’s performance.

Other items to come under the hammer at the Fame Bureau’s “It’s More Than Rock And Roll” auction included The Beatles’ first contract.

It was a management deal with Brian Epstein signed by all four members of the band in January 1962. It went for £240,000.
Among the other items sold was a notebook of lyrics and poetry written by The Doors singer Jim Morrison, which went for £58,000.

A guitar once owned by Elvis Presley fetched £26,000, but a gun permit – featuring what are claimed to be The King’s only remaining fingerprints – failed to meet its reserve price.

“The auction has the largest array of star lots we’ve seen for 15 years,” said Fame Bureau managing director Ted Owen.