Redding soon went on to other projects. While living in Los Angeles, he formed
Road, a three-piece in the same psychedelic hard rock vein as the Experience, with Rod Richards (ex-
Rare Earth) on guitar and Les Sampson on drums, and Redding switching back to bass. They released one album,
Road (1972), with the three members taking turns on lead vocals. Redding moved to Ireland in 1972. He formed the Noel Redding Band with
Eric Bell (from
Thin Lizzy),
Dave Clarke, Les Sampson, and Robbie Walsh. Despite the band's name, Redding shared songwriting and lead vocal duties equally with Clarke. They released two albums for RCA, three tours of the Netherlands, two tours of England, one tour of Ireland, and a 10-week tour in the US. The band dissolved after a dispute with their management company. Tracks recorded for a third unreleased album were later released as
The Missing Album on Mouse Records. In his book
Are You Experienced?, co-authored with his wife Carol Appleby, he spoke openly about his disappointment in his being cut off from the profits of the continued sale of the Hendrix recordings. He had signed away his royalties in 1974, and in 1980 sold the bass guitar he used with the Experience to a collector. Redding had received $100,000 as a one-off payment after he had been told that there would be no more releases of Jimi Hendrix Experience material. This was before the advent of CDs and DVDs. In 1990, Redding and Appleby were involved in a car crash returning home from a concert in
Glounthaune. Appleby was left brain dead by the accident, with Redding later stating that "she was in intensive care on life support and after four days I had to make the terrible decision of shutting down the machine". They had been together for seventeen years and, just two days prior to the accident, Appleby had finished helping Redding co-write his autobiography. In 1997, Fender produced the Noel Redding Signature Jazz bass in a signed limited edition of 1000. Premiered at the
NAMM Show in January 1997, the bass was based on the 1965 Jazz bass which Redding used throughout his time with the Experience. Redding tracked down the person to whom he had sold the bass some years prior, who agreed to allow Fender to inspect it. Redding stated that "Fender got the original bass from him, copied it, and sent me a prototype, and it was exactly the same as my original bass; they did a brilliant job". After meeting San Francisco musician and songwriter Keith Dion in London during the awarding of an English Heritage Blue Plaque Award in 1997, Redding performed several tours across the United States with Dion's band "3:05 AM". Recordings from these tours were released on the UK and European releases "West Cork Tuning" and "Stone Free". Video footage from these tours was shown in May 2014 during the now annual Noel Redding Tribute Festival held in Clonakilty each year. Positive feedback was also received from the Irish Cultural Minister and the head of the Irish Film Board. In 2002, a live album
Live From Bunkr Prague was released. Redding's last performance was in Clonakilty at De Barras pub, where he had held the Friday night residency for nearly 20 years, performing with some of the local musicians who appeared on his last album
Thank You, Goodnight and Good Luck including Steve Pawsey, Jeff Ward, Jim O'Neil, Eric Bell and Les Sampson. == Death ==