12 Dreams

[sgs]

I've only just found out that Randy California, the guitarist of the band Spirit, died a couple of years ago. Do you know what of?

[James]

Randy California (real name Randy Wolfe ' he got the California tag from another guitarist, Jimi Hendrix) drowned in January 1997, as he saved his 12-year-old son Quinn from drowning in an undercurrent off Molokai, Hawaii. His body was never found. He and his band Spirit were a fascinating part of the 60s and early 70s and are well worth a feature by the Answerbank sage, Andy Hughes!

[sgs]

Thanks for that answer, James, and no doubt Andy will rise to the challenge. Wasn't the name Spirit in memory of Jimi Hendrix? I remember seeing them in 1978 at the Reading Festival. In the late 70s Reading was a mire of bad metal bands for the most part, with plenty of NWOBHM (that's an acronym for Andy to find out) like the Tygers of Pan Tang and Samson. Any relief from them was welcome - 78 was the first year punk bands were featured, too, no bad thing. Anyway, back to Spirit, they were - at least to a 17 year-old with far too many 60s records in his collection - the highlight of the year, and they covered a couple of Hendrix numbers. The whole set was somewhat spoiled by a big gang of heavy bikers and Hell's Angels chanting 'Quo-oo-oo-oo-oo' all the way through. Status Quo - before they became your granny's favourite Christmas-record act - were headlining that day. Needless to say they were rubbish. Memories are made of this, etc.

[dw]

The name Spirit inspired by Jimi Hendrix, who was very much alive when the group formed? According to AMG, the name came from a book title authored by Kahlil Gibran.

[sgs]

Fair enough, DW, you're absolutely right, but no need to take that tone. It was just an - obviously incorrect - 'fact' in the back of my mind. Truth is, I probably hadn't even thought of Spirit for 20 years until I learned of RC's death. But now I know . . .