You can just picture it. It’s March 10, 1967, and having played at the Club Agogo in Newcastle, Jimi Hendrix has ventured to the nearby seaside village of Tynemouth. Perhaps the young guitar god has pulled a Geordie lass who lives on the coast, or maybe his Newcastle-born manager Chas Chandler is showing him the sights. Either way, Jimi is hungry. He’s worked-up an appetite putting his Stratocaster through the Club Agogo’s plaster ceiling (actor Jimmy Nail was there and witnessed this), and, strolling along Tynemouth’s Front Street, he spots a fish & chip shop.
It’s winter and the delicious fried food and vinegar smell is temptation enough, but when Jimi notices the shop is called Marshalls, he feels fate’s hand at his shoulder. Born James Marshall Hendrix, and a famed-user of Marshall amps, the guitarist goes inside and purchases a fish supper wrapped in newspaper, maybe a Saveloy and a pickled egg, and devours them on a nearby bench overlooking the sea. That’s the story commemorated on the blue plaque in the window of Marshalls Restaurant to this day. But did it really happen?
