Anton Savage caught up with an amazing man who not just played, recorded and partied with Jimi Hendrix, but got to know the legendary guitarist as ‘one of the lads’.
Dave ‘The Tiger’ Taylor is an Irish musician and guitarist who became friends with Jimi in the 1960’s and enjoyed his company. Hendrix took a shine to Dave and his band at the time, Eire Apparent, so much that he took them under his wing.
Dave 'Tiger' Taylor (left with dog) and Eire Apparent with Jimi at his London flat, which has been recreated and is now open to the public.
They toured all over the world together and would hang out in Jimi’s apartment all the time – he says that they would mostly just play guitar. Some of the guys would smoke weed, but Dave never could because of his asthma! He remembers Jimi as the perfect, charming host – always on hand with a cooked breakfast in the morning – who was neat and tidy, making his bed every morning.
He recalled many great days and nights to Anton, with Jimi’s girlfriend Kathy Etchingham also a great host, able to deal with any police who knocked in!
Have a listen here:
Jimi produced and played on the one album that Eire Apparent made, and Eire played a magical package tour with Jimi, Pink Floyd, The Move, The Nice and more.
Dave says that they loved playing music together – and Jimi would often record on his huge sound on sound tape recorder that he had in the flat. Years later, Dave was speaking with a man called Ted Owen, who had an auction house. He says that he got his hands on the recorder, and found tapes with Hendrix and Eire Apparent on them. He said that they were deteriorated, but was trying to reclaim them. Dave never found out what happened to them. Do you know?
The last time that Dave saw Jimi in the flesh was in 1970 in The Marquee Club in Waldorf. Jimi was with Sly Stone and Dave approached him asking if he remembered him. He says that it was like there was never a gap in between seeing each other.
The Hendrix tour photo with Eire Apparent, Pink Floyd, Amen Corner, The Move, The Nice etc...
One of the best memories that Dave had was sitting on the bed with Jimi, playing a Robert Johnson riff. Later, when Dave went to see the film Woodstock, he heard the same riff that him and Jimi played as Jimi finished his set!
Dave went back to Ireland and played in various bands over the years. Notably, he played with The Freshmen Showband, who played all the jingles with RTE in the 70’s. Dave has gone looking for them in the archives since, but has had no luck
He still plays in a band called Trilogy and teaches guitar.
Magically, we got in touch with him after his daughter contacted us after we spoke to Martin Hyatt about the Handel/Hendrix flat exhibition last week. We showed a pic of the flat, with Jimi and some pals, and lo and behold, listener Victoria got in touch with us to tell us her dad was in one of the photos!
Victoria, Anton and The Tiger in studio!
Dave has not yet been to the recreation of Jimi’s flat, but plans to. He was at the photo exhibit about five years ago when he first saw the balck and white collection of him in Hendrix’s flat. It was taken by the photographer Barry Wencil, and he paid €500 to get one for himself!
Tiger rocks out for Anton!
