Big show for Dylan in Britain... -- Petty gets burned... -- Prog-rock drummer b'day...

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TP, Feb. 2008. (Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
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5/17/1964 (55 years ago today) - Bob Dylan made his first major concert appearance in the UK when he performed a Sunday afternoon show at the Royal Albert Hall in London -- The 18-song set was billed as a "Folksong Concert" and included the live debut of "Mr. Tambourine Man" -- After the set, Bob received a telegram from John Lennon seeking a meeting that never materialized...

5/17/1987 (32 years ago today) - A fire destroys Tom Petty's Encino, California home, burning it to the ground at an estimated cost of over $800,00 -- Though Tom and his family escape unharmed, they are traumatized by the blaze, which police investigate and determine that it was started deliberately, a clear-cut case of arson! The perpetrator is never caught.

5/17/1948 - Happy Birthday to drumming legend Bill Bruford, 71 years old today -- He was the original drummer for Yes (from 1968-'72), and then spent the rest of the Seventies and early Eighties playing with King Crimson, Genesis, U.K., and his own group Bruford -- Earned a PhD in music at the University of Surrey, was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall Of Fame in 1990, but retired from public performance in 2009; these days, he occasionally writes and speaks about music while operating a couple of low-key/indy record labels. Very talented, wicked smart...

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