128 - Jimi Hendrix with Jimi's roadie Eric Barrett

128 - Jimi Hendrix with Jimi's roadie Eric Barrett

Author: Rock n Roll Book Club August 10, 2026 Duration: 43:11

Our first episode about Jimi Hendrix & we are joined by Jimi’s former roadie Eric Barrett. 


Eric ran into Mitch Mitchell & Noel Redding, bassist & drummer in The Jimi Hendrix Experience in a club & received a phone call shortly after asking him to fly to Milan to work his first gig with Jimi. 


Eric had met them on a previous tour working for a band named The Koobas who had opened for The Jimi Hendrix Experience. 


It proves a baptism of fire as Eric is expected to learn how to work with Jimi during a gig almost instantly. 


Eric attended the famous Saville Theatre show where Hendrix opened with Sgt. Pepper with several Beatles in the audience. 


The band live in a house together with Eric in Benedict Canyon in Los Angeles, where they race sports cars, survive drug busts & more. 


Electric Lady Studios opens in New York & Jimi’s focus turns to recording, but not before his most iconic gig takes place at Woodstock in August of 1969. Eric tells us about this legendary gig & his role in it along with Jimi’s performance at the Isle of Wight festival the following year. 



It takes anything from 5 to 40 hours to prepare each episode of Music Maps - if you’d like to make a contribution to help us cover the costs & time of producing these episodes for you, you can do so at this link: ko-fi.com/musicmaps



It is hugely important for us to get positive reviews & star ratings - if you have enjoyed Music Maps & can spare the time to do either we would hugely appreciate it. 



You can see our upcoming live events here: https://rocknrollbookclub.co.uk/events



Instagram: @rocknrollbookclube17


X: @simonmusicmaps


Facebook: E17rockbookclub



Hosted, Produced & Edited by Simon Cardwell

Music by Andy Maxwell


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.


The Music Maps Podcast from the Rock n Roll Book Club isn't your typical music show. It's an audio expedition where geography is the guide. Every episode starts with a specific location-a city, a venue, a forgotten roadside attraction-and uses that place as a launchpad to explore the sounds, stories, and scenes connected to it. You might find yourself deep in the blues clubs of Chicago one week and tracing the underground punk threads of a small European town the next. The conversations are wide-ranging, connecting the dots between iconic artists and obscure movements, all anchored to a point on the map. Listening to this podcast feels like adding a new, richly detailed pin to a global atlas of musical influence. It’s about the context behind the chords and the cultural soil from which genres grow. The result is a continuously evolving, deeply human portrait of how music and place are inextricably linked, one fascinating destination at a time.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Music Maps Podcast
Podcast Episodes
93 - The Beach Boys with Peter Doggett (Hawthorne, California) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:44
The story of the Beach Boys begins in Hawthorne, California in the late 1950s as the band come together led by Brian Wilson, originally as The Pendletones & Dennis Wilson suggests they focus on surfing themed material. T…
92 - Pamela Des Barres [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:51
Join us to discuss a music book classic ‘I’m With The Band - Confessions of a Groupie’ with Pamela Des Barres. Pamela’s first touchstone in music was the Beatles & she became on obsessive Beatlemaniac after the Fab Four…
91 - Pink Floyd with Mark Blake [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:55
Join us & writer Mark Blake to hear about the formation & early years of Pink Floyd - from their beginnings in Cambridge, ultimately relocating to London where the band gets going. Syd Barrett's songwriting develops quic…
90 - Ride with Steve Queralt (Oxford) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 53:29
This week we are joined by Ride bassist Steve Queralt to discuss his new album Swallow - which is out now on Sonic Cathedral featuring contributions from Emma Anderson (Lush) & Verity Susman (Memorials). We also delve in…
89 - Live 8 with Paul Vallely [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:18:56
This week we travel back 20 years to 2005 with writer Paul Vallely to hear about Live 8, the G8 summit, Bob Geldof & Bono & more. So it starts in 1997 with the landslide general election win for Tony Blair & New Labour.…
88 - R.E.M. Twin Tone Records, Big Star & more with Peter Jesperson [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:07
We are joined by Peter Jesperson as he tells us about his time spent with R.E.M. & his role in Twin Tone Records in the twin cities of Minneapolis/St.Paul. We also squeeze in a couple of stories about his time around Ale…
87 - The Wild Swans with Paul Simpson (Liverpool) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:10:53
This week we get to talk about one of the best music books of recent years Revolutionary Spirit by Paul Simpson. Paul was born in Liverpool but grew up in Lancashire alongside future members of Echo & the Bunnymen - Les…
86 - Donovan [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:34
It is truly a pleasure to welcome Donovan to Music Maps - a true legend of the 60s. His book The Hurdy Gurdy Man is available on Penguin.We start with his early life in Glasgow in the 1950s & the family relocate to Hatfi…
85 - The Everly Brothers with Barry Mazor [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:43
This week we travel back to the 1950's & 60's to hear all about one of the most influential acts of all time The Everly Brothers with biographer Barry Mazor. Don & Phil's Dad Ike was a musician & the brothers are already…