Although aged just 27, Jimi Hendrix had become widely regarded as the finest and most innovative rock guitarist that ever lived by the time of his death on 18 September, 1970.

In four years in the second half of the sixties, Hendrix became a counterculture icon with his flamboyant hair and clothes, and music drenched in the spirit of psychedelia and the counterculture movement.

He veritably rewrote the rulebook for lead guitar playing, fusing his blues background with jazz, as well as setting the template for what would become heavy rock.

The trail Hendrix blazed has had a profound influence on popular music, with singles such as 'Purple Haze', 'All Along The Watchtower' and 'Hey Joe' all going down as classic releases.

Johnny Allen Hendrix was born on 27 November, 1942 in Seattle, Washington with mixed black-Cherokee ancestry.

He served in the military in the early sixties, before being discharged for 'behavioural problems'. He then spent three years as a backing guitarist for other artists in the south and in New York, working with figures including Little Richard and The Isley Brothers.

In 1966 Hendrix left for London on the advice of Chas Chandler, former member of The Animals, who was stunned by his incredible ability after seeing him play in New York.

Hendrix soon put together a three-piece band, and recorded the album Are You Experienced? under the name of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. 'Hey Joe' and 'Purple Haze' were taken from this record, songs which came to define him.

The success of the album meant he was able to return to the US a famous name, and the band gave a seminal performance at the Monterey Pop Festival, where Hendrix burned his guitar on stage, just one part of the on-stage histrionics that made him such an icon.

The band released two more albums, Axis: Bold As Love and Electric Ladyland , both of which achieved critical and commercial success. In 1969, Hendrix disbanded The Experience to pursue different musical ideas with new backing ensemble Band of Gypsys.

Perhaps the most notorious moment of Hendrix's career came at the Woodstock festival in 1969, where he played 'Star Spangled Banner' with distortion and other unusual amplified effects.

At the time of his death, caused by drug and alcohol intake, Hendrix was working on new material that was set to see him meld funk, blues, jazz, rock and world music.

Hendrix's enormous influence on popular music is made all the more remarkable by the fact he only released three studio albums in his lifetime.

A true original, Hendrix used distortion, wah-wah, and a myriad of other effects that no other had attempted. His style is often described as 'space rock' or, in a reference to the drug of choice in the psychedelic era, 'acid rock'.

Hendrix was also a cultural icon – a black man appealing to a predominantly white audience, often dressed in tassels and wearing a headband. He also took showmanship to new levels, in concert playing guitar with his teeth and behind his back.

One of his biggest fans, The Who's Pete Townshend, described a Hendrix performance: "When he started to play, something changed: colours changed, everything changed."