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Performing directly after the 40th anniversary launch and screening of The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live At Monterey DVD at London’s Hippodrome in October 2007, Gary Moore had a hard act to follow. But Moore’s dedication, drive and searing tone was matched by

Just months after the original Monterey performance, in November 1967, Gary, then aged 15, had attended Hendrix’s one and only Irish show. The impression made was evidently profound – 40 years later, he recreated all the originals Jimi played that night in Belfast. Moore’s blistering determination to bring his own personal touch and devotion was there too, from the phosphorescent Purple Haze that opens and the superbly cranked Manic Depression that follows. As both vocalist and instrumentalist, Moore’s regard for Hendrix, not least as a composer, comes shining through.

The excellent rhythm section, Primal Scream drummer Darrin Mooney and bassist Dave Bronze, ensure an agile base for his explorations. However, there’s a palpable lift to an even higher plain when Hendrix vets Billy Cox (bass) and Mitch Mitchell (drums) take their places for an extended Hey Joe. Sheer class in scintillating action.

Late NME, Daily Mirror and Classic Rock writer Gavin Martin started writing about music in 1977 when he published his hand-written fanzine Alternative Ulster in Belfast. He moved to London in 1980 to become the NME’s Media Editor and features writer, where he interviewed the Sex Pistols, Joe Strummer, Pete Townshend, U2, Bruce Springsteen, Ian Dury, Killing Joke, Neil Young, REM, Sting, Marvin Gaye, Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, James Brown, Willie Nelson, Willie Dixon, Madonna and a host of others. He was also published in The Times, Guardian, Independent, Loaded, GQ and Uncut, he had pieces on Michael Jackson, Van Morrison and Frank Sinatra featured in The Faber Book Of Pop and Rock ’N’ Roll Is Here To Stay, and was the Daily Mirror’s regular music critic from 2001. He died in 2022.