The last live performances for a pair of classic rock legends, and a birthday for a piano man who has played with just about every rocker you can think of...

Portrait Of Quicksilver Messenger Service
Quicksilver Messenger Service, c 1975; petting the cat, far left, is Nicky Hopkins. (Capitol Records/Getty Images)
loading...

2/24/1969 (51 years ago today) - The Royal Albert Hall in London is the venue for the final live concert ever performed in Europe by the original line-up of The Jimi Hendrix Experience -- Not too long afterwards, bassist Noel Redding officially calls it quits. Before the year ends, Jimi forms the Band Of Gypsys with drummer Buddy Miles...

2/24/1973 (47 years ago today) - The Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey is the venue for the last live concert appearance by The Byrds -- This final incarnation of the band featured singer/guitarist Roger McGuinn, John York on bass and vocals, drummer Gene Parsons, and Clarence White on lead guitar, mandolin and backing vocals. The Byrds legacy of influence is vast and deep indeed: acts ranging from The Eagles, Big Star, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, R.E.M., The Smiths and just about every alt-rock/post-punk outfit you can name, all owe a great deal and more to the work that The Byrds left behind...

2/24/1944 - Born on this date, the go-to keyboardist for every important rock band in the Sixties and Seventies, the truly reliable and fantastically talented piano man Nicky Hopkins -- Check your record collection, you won't believe how often Nicky shows up as his resume of session work is, frankly, astounding: The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Kinks, The Pretty Things, The Who, Jeff Beck, Jefferson Airplane, Dusty Springfield, New Riders Of The Purple Sage, Steve Miller, Ella Fitzgerald, Jerry Garcia, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Nilsson, Donovan and solo Beatle albums by John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr -- Nicky died on September 8th, 1994, in Nashville, from complications related to his lifelong battle with Crohn's disease; he was just 50 years old. A remarkable life, really.

Share your whatever-you-got with the Calendar here on our web site and on the WBLM Facebook and Twitter pages with the hashtag #TommysCoffeeBreak.

"He reads the dots and plays each line/And always finishes on time...", xoxo!

More From 102.9 WBLM