Posted: Sunday 8th June 2008

To celebrate the announcement of Guitar Hero performances on the main stage at the forthcoming Isle of Wight Festival (June 12th - 14th), videogame publisher Activision has teamed up with Isle of Wight Festival organiser John Giddings and the historic Dimbola Lodge Museum to create a unique piece of modern art.

The island’s incredibly popular bronze Jimi Hendrix statue - which stands in the grounds of Dimobla Lodge overlooking the site of the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival - has been temporarily re-branded to turn the original guitar hero’s instrument into one from the videogame Guitar Hero.

The Hendrix statue celebrates the Festival's history at the heart of music performance, so we thought it entirely apt to bring this bang up to date by giving Jimi a Guitar Hero controller," says John Giddings, organiser, Isle of Wight Festival. “We cannot wait to see Guitar Hero players rocking out over 50,000 Festival-goers, and hope that their performances will prove as memorable as those by Hendrix all those years ago.”

The Jim Hendrix statue was erected in the grounds of Dimbola Lodge, the former home of celebrated photographer Julia Cameron, in 2006 in order to celebrate the island’s place in music history.