In search of... Jimi Hendrix in Seattle

The Sixties meets the 21st century at this temple to a rock'n'roll legend.

What kind of a fan builds a shrine to their hero?

As a child Paul Allen was taken by his parents to the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle. More than 30 years later, the Microsoft founder – by this time one of the world's richest men – returned to the site of the fair, bought the prime spot and built himself an extraordinary museum.

Allen had decided to share his huge collection of Jimi Hendrix memorabilia. He spent a gobsmacking $250m (£160m) of the proceeds from his software packages Windows, Word and Explorer and commissioned pioneering West Coast architect Frank Gehry to create a futuristic home for his treasure. These included Jimi's purple hat-band, his battered old mixing desk and, surely the holy grail for Hendrix fans, the shards of one of Jimi's smashed-up guitars.

'Scuse me while I kiss this guy! Sounds cool. Where can I find it?

Hendrix came from Seattle and is buried there in a nondescript suburban grave. But after leaving home, aged 17, he avoided the north-western dockside city. That didn't deter Allen from building his shrine there. The Experience Music Project (EMP) now dominates the centre and is a must-see attraction.

A crazy place for a crazy guitarist?

The building itself isn't just rock'n'roll – it's totally bonkers. Gehry also designed the Bilbao Guggenheim but went even more curve-mad with here. His blob-like construction stands at the foot of Seattle's Space Needle, a remnant of the Trade Fair's Dan Dare-style futurism that dominates Seattle's skyline. The building has been described, according to a local newspaper, as "resembling the organs of a slaughtered cow"; and "open-heart surgery gone awry". EMP's windowless skin is made up of 21,000 coloured aluminium panels, each one shaped, cut and bent to fit its specific location. The overall impression is of the Eden Project melted by the sun.

Anything we haven't experienced?

EMP offers loud noises, flashing lights, nerdy rock'n'roll paraphernalia and some amazing technological gizmos. It's like taking a glimpse inside a teenager's head back in the 1960s.

You enter into a foyer with an 85ft ceiling called The Sky Church. This houses what is claimed to be the world's biggest indoor video screen, which shows loud and disjointed video clips. Next up is a ride on a hydraulic arm, such as you might find at a fairground. You plummet into the mouth of a saxophone and exit via the spit valve to arrive in the middle of a thumping funk concert with stars such as James Brown and Parliament. The mobile theatre starts rolling its audience from side to side in time to the music, saving you the trouble of dancing. It's fun but daft.

There are galleries of static displays, too. Jimi gets a gallery to himself, which contains a room full of his old guitars. There's a collection of items that once belonged to the Pacific North West's other rock legends (Nirvana's scribbled lyrics or Heart's stage costumes, anyone?) and in the Milestones Gallery an eclectic muddle of posters, magazines and record sleeves covering early rock, hip hop and punk. It's uninspiring and I'd be tempted to say you'd be better off saving the £12 entry fee – if it wasn't for the technology.

The Sixties meets the 21st century? Like, wow!

Allen's best contribution isn't his artefacts – it's his amazing techno brain. The museum has no fewer than 50 hi-tech patents pending. The most obvious pioneering device is the headset system called the MEG (Museum Exhibit Guide). This is like one of those Sony Walkman commentary systems, only a million times more sophisticated. Visitors wear the three-and-a-half pound device on a shoulder strap. It's a 6MB computer, activated by a handheld keyboard/pointer. Wave this at the exhibits and you'll get appropriate music or commentary played back through the headphones. There's 10 hours' worth of content and you can bookmark anything, then look it up on terminals in the EMP computer room or on your home computer via the internet.

This interaction between the real and digital world is potentially revolutionary. As in most museums, only a tiny proportion of EMP's collection is on show. But you can see the stuff in storage via these computerised links. Then there's the Sound Lab – a bold attempt at letting people experience playing rock music for themselves. Keyboards, drums, guitars, bass, effects, mixing desks and samplers are set up in cubicles. You can just make a noise, take an interactive lesson or link with other cubicles to jam.

Alongside, there's a room of lights flashing in time to music, where people dance, apparently unconcerned that their movements are relayed to a giant screen in the next room. In similar vein, there's a fake stage with amplifiers and instruments where museum-goers pose, legs akimbo, as rock stars and have their picture taken, to buy later as a placemat-sized print.

Get me out of this purple haze, I feel giddy.

The museum is only the tip of EMP's iceberg. There are concerts, workshops, seminars, children's camps, an Electric Bus that tours schools and an excellent website, www.emplive.com, which allows you to learn guitar riffs, check out rock stars' clothing and download MP3 songs.

Paul Allen has recently bought the site of the first Microsoft office in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The rumour is that he's planning the ultimate geek's day out: a museum charting the history of computers.

How do I get there

Travelbag (0870 890 1459; www.travelbag.co.uk) offers a week in Seattle from £666 per person, based on two sharing, including return flights with Northwest Airlines from Gatwick and seven nights' hotel accommodation. The Experience Music Project is on Third Avenue (001 877 367 5483. For general Seattle information contact Washington State Tourism (020-7978 5233; www.seeseattle.org).