Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for June 24th

Today you got The Stones playing here in New England -- There's an awesome '70's festival line-up you can check out for just $10 per ticket(!) -- Happy Birthday to (maybe) the greatest guitarist EVER!!!

Jeff Beck; back cover photo "Blow By Blow" LP, March 1975. (Courtesy of Epic Records)

6/24/1966 (54 years ago today) - First they hold a press conference on board a yacht in New York City, then it's off to the Manning Bowl in Lynn, Massachusetts as The Rolling Stones kick off their fifth North American tour -- Opening acts: The McCoys ("Hang On, Sloopy") and The Standells ("Dirty Water")...

6/24/1978 (42 years ago today) - It's the Annual Summer Music Festival at Knebworth Park, England -- For just ten bucks, you'll catch sets from Genesis, Jefferson Starship, Jeff Beck, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, Devo, The Atlanta Rhythm Section, Roy Harper and Brand X, a jazz-fusion side-project for drummer Phil Collins -- Unfortunately, this was the beginning of the end for Starship: Grace Slick decided to quit the band here, resulting in the group devolving into a schlock-pop joke, but otherwise not a bad line-up at all for '78...

6/24/1944 - Happy Birthday to Eric Clapton's replacement in The Yardbirds: Jeff Beck turns 76 today! What a career: post-Yardbirds, there's the legendary Jeff Beck Group (with Rod Stewart and Ron Wood); Beck, Bogert and Appice (a heavy power trio with ex-Vanilla Fudge bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, definitely one of Jeff's most underappreciated endeavors); plus -- The Honeydrippers (with Robert Plant), a handful of Mick Jagger solo albums, and most inspirationally, his first all-instrumental record, 1975's "Blow By Blow" (produced by George Martin), which set a whole new standard for jazz-rock-fusion music. Jeff's performance at the State Theatre here in Portland, Maine, is often cited as the best live concert to have ever taken place in this city. We were there. It's true.