Jimi Hendrix left emotional PA unusual gift from beyond the grave

Famous for tracks like Purple Haze and Voodoo Child, Jimi Hendrix was dubbed the most influential electric guitarist in rock history. But receipts for hamburgers, steaks and dry cleaning bills - for a striped suit and a gold jacket - seen for the first time in 53 years, show that even Hendrix faced the monotony of everyday life. Displayed at his former house in London’s Mayfair, a Georgian property known as Handel Hendrix House - as 17th century German-born British composer George Frideric Handel once lived there - the items will be on show thanks to his former PA Patricia ‘Trixie’ Sullivan. Her grandson, Jonathan Garcia, 29, tells The Mirror: "There is just lots of paperwork for fans to enjoy.” Bills, work permits and personal letters are a few of the treasures that tell the off-stage story of of Hendrix, renowned for his flamboyant style and trailblazing guitar riffs. The permanent exhibition, which opens on Friday, at 23 Brook Street, Mayfair - also dubbed the home of ‘baroque 'n' roll’- paints an unusually subdued picture of the rocker. Infamous for his use of hallucinogenic drugs, Hendrix died, aged just 27, in September 1970, following a suspected sleeping tablet overdose. Trixie, now 83 and suffering with dementia, kept his property in four plastic trunks under her bed at her home in Majorca, after rescuing it when bailiffs raided his manager Michael Jeffrey’s office at Anim Records, following his death in a plane crash in 1973. Graphic designer Jonathan helped curate the exhibition, after storing Hendrix’s property in the shed at his Dorset home, when Trixie, who is in a nursing home, entrusted it to him. Employed by Michael Jeffrey, Jonathan says of his grandmother: "My nan started working for Jimi when she was about 24 or 25.“ A gutsy character, she was soon booking studio sessions, organising itineraries, negotiating contracts and accompanying the star on worldwide tours. Jonathan says: "Nothing stressed my nan out. She was the backbone of organising Jimi's life. When she was 25, she had power of attorney for signing Jimi to do the famous Royal Albert Hall concert in 1969. She was doing that on the same day as packing their bags for a gig in Germany. She was doing all of this basically on her own." Following Jeffery's death in a mid air collision over Nantes, France, his nan rescued the items going on display. He says: "The bailiffs came because Jeffrey owed some money and they emptied out all the cabinets, but they were not interested in all the paperwork that was left behind. My nan gathered it all up.” Keeping it safe for 16 years, she then passed it to Jonathan. Visitors to the exhibition will get a glimpse of Hendrix's hectic life, with private recording contracts, flight itineraries and invoices for music equipment, as well as phone bills totalling tens of thousands of pounds on show. Food receipts show how he loved to order hamburgers and steaks from the 1960s restaurant Mr Love beneath his apartment. Clearly not one to cook, one bill, covering food over a couple of months, totalled £32/16s/6d, which would be about £485 today. Legend has it, Hendrix enjoyed Mr Love’s American menu, saying the problem with English food is “you get mashed potatoes with just about everything, and I ain’t gonna say anything good about that”. Trixie’s diaries will also be on display. She writes of their Munster gig, during the star’s January 1969 tour of Germany: “One show only – great crowd nearly rioted – broke many chairs damage $250. Got pushed around as entered car.” Jonathan says she described Hendrix as “quite introverted” and said he “doubted himself a lot.” Always playing guitar when she visited his Brook Street address, he spent evenings walking between the Marquee, The Scotch of St James and the Speakeasy - all a stroll away from his home - looking for a chance to play. Jonathan says: "I’m sure my nan would have just bullied him into being confident. She described herself as his babysitter.” But, fiercely loyal, Trixie barely spoke about Hendrix, even to her grandson. He says: "My nan now has late stage dementia, but she would never really talk about Jimi. "If you were to ask her about Jimi she would get emotional really quickly. Mike Jeffrey died in 1973 and Jimi died in 1970 so, within two or three years, she lost the closest people to her. Jimi's death must have really taken its toll. She was literally shadowing him everywhere he went.” Trixie loved her job and when she did share anecdotes about the star, they were priceless. Jonathan says: “There is one story that sticks out to me. I love the film 2001: A Space Odyssey and, according to my nan, she and Jimi went to watch it together in a cinema in London when it first came out. I can't wrap my head around going to watch 2001: A Space Odyssey with Jimi Hendrix! It is pretty wicked. I have a very cool nan.” And Hendrix helped Trixie from beyond the grave last year when her family raised £80,000 by auctioning some of his items, to help with her care home costs. Turning his attention to the Hendrix paperwork, Jonathan says: “We have really cool letters from fans and bills for rent. It is very cool." Regularly visiting Trixie, Jonathan plans to play her some Hendrix music soon, to see if it jogs any memories. He says: “Music is amazing. Because my grandmother is in late stage dementia I cant talk to her about much. The one thing that she still has in her brain is music. She sings all sorts of stuff.” Although the Hendrix archive is now in the hands of the star's museum, Jonathan says he will forever treasure a belt given to his nan by the superstar. He says: "Jimi did leave my nan a belt. There is a photo of my nan wearing it and we believe Jimi gave it to her at one point as it is very Hendrix-esque. There are conversations about whether my nan used to dress Hendrix up and influence his fashion style as well.” Exhibition organisers hope fans will now travel far and wide to visit the new Jimi Hendrix exhibition. Meanwhile, the curator of the new exhibition, Claire Davies, who is deputy director of the Handel Hendrix House, says much of the paperwork relates directly to the property. She says: “When he was here at 23 Brook Street, it was the only place he called home and the only place with his name on the rent invoices. To furnish his flat, he bought high-end Persian rugs that in today’s money would be worth about £30,000, the receipts show. It’s a really interesting insight into what his life behind his rock star image looked like for this brief moment, but also how it could have looked if he had lived a little bit longer and then settled down properly.” Isabel Deards, a project archivist at Handel Hendrix House, adds "Through these previously unseen materials, visitors to the museum will be able to picture the everyday life of Jimi Hendrix. Visitors will also be able to read extracts of Trixie's 60s diaries, in which stories of gigs, late nights and parties dance off the page." *The Jimi Hendrix exhibition opens at Handel Hendrix House, 23 Brook Street, Mayfair, London on Friday. (June 19). The museum is open Wednesday-Sunday. For more information go to www.handelhendrix.org