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Mitch Mitchell, drummer with the Jimi Hendrix Experience

Mitch Mitchell formed a unique partnership with Jimi Hendrix and the dynamic drummer was a crucial element in the revolutionary sound of the Jimi Hendrix Experience that created such a sensation in the Sixties. It was Mitchell's freewheeling, percussive style that helped galvanise such hits as "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze" and "The Wind Cries Mary" and that gave Hendrix such inventive support on the albums Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love.


Although Hendrix later worked with the more steady American drummer Buddy Miles, it was Mitchell who provided the spark for his most creative performances, whether on stage or in the studio. And the diminutive English drummer with the cheeky grin was invariably called upon to support Hendrix at his most important appearances, at the Monterey, Woodstock and Isle Of Wight Festivals.

John "Mitch" Mitchell proved inspirational when he was recruited by the guitarist on his arrival in London from the US in September 1966. Mitchell had played with such groups as The Riot Squad and Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, but he surprised critics when his style blossomed on joining Hendrix. As well as playing structured songs, the trio, with Noel Redding on bass, often indulged in mind-blowing, free-form improvisation. Mitchell rose to the challenge, as he crouched over his drum kit and poured his heart and soul into every performance.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience was also about having fun, and Hendrix loved Mitchell's anarchic sense of humour. Moments before Hendrix set fire to his guitar (at the Astoria, Finsbury Park in March 1967), all three band members could be found in their dressing room dancing around in their underwear, spraying each other with deodorant.

Mitchell rarely seemed overawed by any situation; much of his confidence was instilled by an early career in showbusiness as a child actor. He was born in Ealing, London on 9 July 1947. His parents, Phyl and Jack Mitchell, enrolled him in a drama school at the age of 10 where he learned to act and dance. He appeared in many TV commercials and was the Bisto Kid and one of the Ovalteenies. At the age of 12 he played Jennings in the popular radio series Jennings at School and was later cast as Wendover, the impish schoolboy in BBC TV's Whack-O! that starred Jimmy Edwards as the headmaster. Mitchell also featured in Bottoms Up! (1960), the movie version of Whack-O!, and was in the ITV drama series Emergency Ward 10.

As a teenager he became interested in pop and jazz and took up drumming after spotting a new Premier kit on display in his local music shop. It was owned by Jim Marshall, who taught drums and also developed the amplifiers that James Marshall Hendrix would later use in the Experience.

Jim Marshall had set up the kit in the window of his shop in Uxbridge Road. He later recalled hearing "an enormous racket" going on as he returned to the shop one afternoon. Someone was playing the kit without permission.

"I saw this kid sitting in the window and said, 'What's going on?'" Marshall recalled. "He ran out of the shop but a couple of days later came back looking sheepish. His mother had told him to apologise and to pay for any damage. He had marked the cymbals and heads but I told him not to worry. Then he asked: 'would you consider taking me on as a shop boy on Saturdays?' So Johnny Mitchell became my shop boy and later on he asked me to teach him to play the drums."

Quickly mastering the rudiments, Mitchell began playing with local bands including Pete Nelson and the Travellers, Screaming Lord Sutch and Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, while still attending drama school. He turned professional when he joined the R'n'B band the Riot Squad in 1965. They signed to Pye and released several singles.

The producer Denny Cordell recommended Mitchell to Georgie Fame, who was looking for a new drummer to join the Blue Flames. Mitchell made his album-recording debut on Fame's Sweet Things, released in 1966. Among his early influences was the soul drummer Earl Palmer, but during his stint with the Blue Flames Mitchell also got to hear about Max Roach, Elvin Jones and Philly Joe Jones.

Out of the blue, Fame's management fired the entire band. But Mitchell bounced back when he received a phone call from Hendrix's manager, Chas Chandler, asking him to audition. Mitchell and Redding jammed with Hendrix in a Soho basement in October 1966, before Mitchell was offered £20 a week to join the Experience, which he thought was too low. He also protested when Hendrix proposed playing "In the Midnight Hour", considering it a hackneyed standard. This led the management to consider employing Aynsley Dunbar instead. But when Dunbar demanded £30 a week, Mitchell retained his life-changing gig. And he continued to encourage Hendrix to develop his own material.

The Experience's debut single, "Hey Joe", released in December 1966, entered the charts and they began playing a series of exciting West End club dates. Mitchell took on the Elvin Jones approach, developed for John Coltrane, in a way that suited Hendrix's own explosive style. Brisk rolls and crescendos were matched by pounding back beats on tracks such as "Purple Haze", "Can You See Me" "Third Stone from the Sun" and "Manic Depression".

The Experience conquered the US at the 1967 Monterey Festival and then toured the country, where Mitchell saw his hero, Elvin Jones, playing in a small club. "He came over and said, 'English pop group, huh?' and then kissed me," Mitchell recalled. "He got up and played a ridiculous solo. But I could never work on the jazz scene. It's so self-destructive."

In October 1968 the Experience released their double album, Electric Ladyland, which featured Buddy Miles. Cracks were beginning to show in the band, however, and exhausted by touring, the group temporarily split in December. On Hendrix's return to England, the three core members of the Experience reconvened to guest on BBC TV's Lulu show in January 1969, but by June Redding had quit and was replaced by Billy Cox. In July Mitchell also left, but returned to play with Jimi at the Woodstock Festival on 18 August. Their performance, now available on DVD, shows the full extent of Mitchell's interaction with Hendrix.

In December 1969 Hendrix began working with the Band of Gypsies, with Buddy Miles on drums. At their second performance, at New York's Madison Square Garden, Hendrix said: "I'm sorry, we just can't get it together" and walked off stage. He got back together with Mitchell for the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival, but died in London on 18 September, leaving Mitchell devastated. For many years afterwards he found it difficult to talk about past events or rebuild his career.

The drummer had only recently decided to get back on the road, with the Experience Hendrix 2008 tour of the United States that began inOctober, featuring Buddy Guy and Billy Cox. However, after a few shows, Mitchell was found dead in his hotel room in Portland, Oregon. Friends said that he had appeared frail and unwell in recent months. He wasone of the last survivors of the Hendrix era, as Redding died in 2003 and Miles in 2007.

Mitchell's work with Hendrix inspired a generation of drummers. "Mitch had great finesse," said Clem Burke of Blondie, one of his many admirers. "He was exciting, but cool. I don't think those Experience records would have sounded the same without Mitch Mitchell playing on them. He was one of the all-time greats."

Chris Welch

John "Mitch" Mitchell, drummer: born Ealing, Middlesex 9 July 1947; married (one daughter); died Portland, US 12 November 2008.