In 1970 a young man of 21 years worked as layouter in a photo composing company in Berlin. All his collegues have been affected to photography. Therefore it doesn’t take long until Marcellino Hudalla bought his first camera to do what his collegues do: Photography. As a former singer of different bands he specialized himself in concert photography and took the challenge to meet the stars of the 1970’s in Berlin: Led Zeppelin, Keith Richards, Robert Plant, Udo Lindenberg and many more.

Unique photos of international stars lead to some business with newspapers and magazines and Marcellino was asked to take photos of further stars of the 70’s. One day Lippmann & Rau (a prior concert promoter) announced a special event: A big festival in Waldbühne Berlin should take place by the end of the summer. With an incredible lineup: Procol Harum, Canned Heat, Ten Years After and Jimi Hendrix Experience as headliner.

But the weather was aweful on the festival day. Thunderstorms and heavy rain forced the concert promoter to postpone the festival from the legendary Waldbühne to the unemotional Deutschlandhalle.

Due to the spontaneous relocation the festival started with hours of delay. But Marcellino was there. With his Mamiya 6×6 in his hands and a strobe that was just able to fire between three and five flashes he fought for his place in the security ditch in front of the stage. Between all the acts he went back to the backstage area to charge his strobe. Days and weeks he was obsessed by the idea to take an iconic picture of Jimi Hendrix. And then… he came.

It was after midnight when the Jimi Hendrix Experience reached the stage. Many fans especially GI’s (american soldiers that need to be back in the barracks by midnight) had already left the building. But Marcellino was still there and waited for the right moment…

Jimi looked amazing in his colourful outfit – but something was different: Instead of burning guitars and sound cascades Jimi decided just to play blusey songs like „Hey Joe“ and „The Wind Cries Mary“. Although the light was bad due to the sponaneous move into Deutschlandhalle Marcellino took his picture. Ten days later the news informed about Jimi Hendrix death. And Marcellino’s headshot from Berlin went famous.

Now, 50 years later the negative was laying for years in a small box in Marcellinos cellar. But thanks to a random meeting with the founders of SWAN Magazine the idea emerged to give Jimi Hendrix an honor by re-interpretation of this legendary photo. The festival was the second last concert Jimi Hendrix gave.