Peter Kenneth Frampton
(born April 22, 1950) is a British/American [1] musician, singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd, among others. In 1982 Frampton tried unsuccessfully to split his ties with A&M Records; however, he re-signed with the label in 2006 and released his Grammy Award-winning Fingerprints
. [2] He is considered by the Cincinnati Enquirer
as the "The Face of 1968".
Frampton's international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!
. The album sold over 6 million copies in the United States alone, and since then he has released several major albums. [4] He has
worked with David Bowie and both Matt Cameron and Mike McCready from Pearl Jam, among others. In later years Frampton is remembered for such hits as "Baby, I Love Your Way", "I'm in You" "Show Me the Way" and "Do You Feel Like We Do."
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PETER FRAMPTON TICKETS
| EVENT | DATE | AVAILABILITY |
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Career
Frampton first became interested in music when he was only seven years old. He discovered his grandmother's
banjolele (a
banjo-shaped
ukulele) in the attic.
[5] Teaching himself to play, he became near-obsessed, and upon receiving a
guitar and
piano, from his parents, taught himself those instruments as well. At age eight he started taking
classical music lessons.
[6] [7]
Early influences were
Cliff Richard &
The Shadows (featuring guitarist
Hank Marvin) and American rockers
Buddy Holly and
Eddie Cochran, and then the
Ventures and the
Beatles. His father introduced him to
Belgian gypsy jazz guitarist
Django Reinhardt.
Early bands
By the age of ten, Frampton played in a band called The Little Ravens. Both he and
David Bowie were pupils at
Bromley Technical School where Frampton's father, Owen Frampton, was an art teacher and head of the Art department. The Little Ravens played on the same bill at school as Bowie's band, George and the Dragons.
Peter and David would spend time together at lunch breaks, playing Buddy Holly songs.
At the age of 11, Peter was playing with a band called The Trubeats followed by a band called The Preachers, produced and managed by
Bill Wyman of
The Rolling Stones.
He became a successful child singer, and in 1966, he became a member of
The Herd. He was the lead guitarist and singer, scoring a handful of British teenybopper hits. Frampton was named "The Face of 1968" by the
UK press.
In early 1969, when Frampton was 18 years old, he joined with
Steve Marriott of
The Small Faces to form
Humble Pie.
While playing with Humble Pie, Frampton also did session recording with other artists, including:
Harry Nilsson,
Jim Price,
Jerry Lee Lewis, as well as
George Harrison's solo "
All Things Must Pass", in 1971, and
John Entwistle's "
Whistle Rymes", in 1972.
During the Harrison session he was introduced to the '
talk box' that has become his trademark guitar sound.
[11] [12] [13]
Solo career
After five albums with
Humble Pie, Frampton left the band and went solo in 1971, just in time to see
Rockin' The Fillmore
rise up the
US charts.
He remained with Dee Anthony, the same personal manager that Humble Pie had used.
[14]
His debut was 1972's
Wind of Change
, with guest artists
Ringo Starr and
Billy Preston.
This album was followed by
Frampton's Camel
in 1973, which featured Frampton working within a group project. In 1974, Frampton released
Somethin's Happening
. Frampton toured extensively to support his solo career. In 1975, the
Frampton
album was released. The album went to #32 in the US charts, and is certified
Gold by the
RIAA.
Peter Frampton had little commercial success with his early albums. This changed with Frampton's breakthrough best-selling live album,
Frampton Comes Alive!
, in 1976. "
Baby, I Love Your Way" and "
Show Me the Way" were singles. "
Do You Feel Like We Do", despite its length, was also popular. The latter two tracks also featured his use of the
talk box guitar effect. The album was recorded in 1975, mainly at the
Winterland Arena in
San Francisco, California, where Humble Pie had previously enjoyed a good following. Released in early January, it debuted on the charts on 14 February at number 191. It stayed at the top of the charts, at number one, for 10 weeks, in the
Billboard's
Top 40 album chart for 55 weeks, and stayed on the
Billboard 200 charts in total for 97 Weeks. It was the top selling album of 1976, beating
Fleetwood Mac's
Fleetwood Mac
for the top spot, and was the 14th best seller of 1977. The album became the biggest selling live album at the time of its release and sold over 6 million copies in the US, 16 million worldwide. It has since dropped to fourth all-time, after The
Garth Brooks album
Double Live
, which at 20 times platinum is the best selling live album of all time at present.
Bruce Springsteen is next at 13 times with
Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band Live 1975 - '85 and The
Eagles come in next with
Eagles Live at 7 times platinum.
Frampton Comes Alive!
is 6 times platinum.
The success of
Frampton Comes Alive!
put him on the cover of
Rolling Stone
, in a famous shirtless photo by
Francesco Scavullo. In late 1976, he and manager Dee Anthony visited the
White House at the invitation of
Steve Ford, the president's son.
[23] The album put Frampton in a position to be offered, and then accept, a co-starring role with
The Bee Gees in director
Robert Stigwood's poorly received film
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
. Frampton's career seemed to be falling as quickly as it had risen.
His following album,
I'm in You
(1977) contained the hit title single and went platinum, but fell well short of expectations compared to
Frampton Comes Alive!
.
In 1979, Frampton returned to the studio following a near-fatal vehicle accident, to record the album
Where I Should Be
. Among those contributing to the album were past band members
Stanley Sheldon (bass),
Bob Mayo (keyboards/guitar/vocals),
Chad Cromwell (drums), and
John Siomos (drums/vocals).
In 1980, his album
Rise Up
was released to promote his tour in Brazil. The album eventually turned into
Breaking All the Rules
, released the next year in 1981. These albums were the first he recorded almost completely live.
[24]
Frampton continued to record throughout the 1980s, although his albums generally met with little commercial success. However, he did achieve a brief, moderate comeback of sorts in 1986 with the release of his
Premonition
album, and the single "Lying," which became a big hit on the
Mainstream Rock charts. Most notably, he also united with old friend David Bowie, and both worked together to make albums. Frampton played on Bowie's 1987 album
Never Let Me Down
and joined the
Glass Spider
world tour.
In the late 1990s, he starred in an infomercial plugging the internationally successful eMedia Guitar Method, a piece of instructional software represented as an alternative to taking actual
guitar lessons. He claimed in the infomercial that the software was the best way to learn guitar.
[25]
In 1994, Frampton wrote and released the album "Peter Frampton", the final version of which contained material recorded on Tascam cassette recorders. Originally released on the Relativity label, this record was re-released in 2000 by Legacy records, with 4 bonus tracks and additional notes by Peter.
In 1995, Frampton released
Frampton Comes Alive! II
which contained live versions of many of the songs from his 1980s and 1990s solo albums. Frampton Comes Alive! II was accompanied by a video release on DVD, recorded at
The Fillmore Theatre on June 15 1995.
Although there was a large amount of marketing for the album, it did not sell well.
After
Frampton Comes Alive! II
, he recorded and toured with
Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings and
Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band, where he and
Jack Bruce performed a cover version of
Cream's "
Sunshine of Your Love".
In 2003, Frampton released the album
Now
, and embarked on a tour with
Styx to support it. He also toured with
The Elms, and even appeared in 2006 on the
FOX Broadcasting variety show Celebrity Duets, paired with
Chris Jericho of
WWE fame. They were the first pair voted out.
On 12 September 2006, Frampton released his newest album, an instrumental work titled
Fingerprints
. His band consists of drummer Shawn Fichter, guitarist
Audley Freed, bassist
John Regan (Frampton's life long best friend,
), and keyboardist/guitarist Rob Arthur, and guest artists such as members of
Pearl Jam,
Hank Marvin, and his bassist on
Frampton Comes Alive!
,
Stanley Sheldon.
On 11 February 2007,
Fingerprints
was awarded the 2007
Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album. In February 2007, he also appeared on the Chicago based PBS television show Soundstage.
Frampton is currently working on a new album, which is supposed to be released in the spring of 2010.
Personal life
In June 1978, Frampton was involved in a near fatal car accident in the Bahamas, suffering multiple broken bones, concussion and muscle damage. Dealing with the pain of the accident contributed to a brief problem with drug abuse.
Frampton has lived in London, New York (Westchester), Los Angeles, and Nashville. He moved to Indian Hill, an eastern suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, in June 2000, the birthplace of his wife Tina Elfers and the city in which they were married in 1996. They chose to live there to be closer to Tina's family.[
]
Frampton has been married three times. His wives have been: Mary Lovett (1971–73); Barbara Gold (1983–93), with whom he had two children, Jade and Julian; and Tina Elfers (13 January 1996 – present), with whom he has one child, Mia Frampton.
In 1996, Frampton appears on an episode of The Simpsons entitled Homerpalooza, in which Peter plays Do You Feel Like We Do.
Frampton also made a T.V. appearence for the show Family Guy on the episode Death Lives in which Peter Griffin asks Death to bring Peter Frampton to play his and his wife's marrige song, Baby, I Love Your Way
Also in 2000, Frampton served as a technical advisor for Cameron Crowe's autobiographical film Almost Famous
. He also appears briefly in the film as 'Reg', a road manager for Humble Pie, Frampton's real-life former band.
Discography
- Wind of Change
(1972)
- Frampton's Camel
(1973)
- Somethin's Happening
(1974)
- Frampton
(1975)
- I'm in You
(1977)
- Where I Should Be
(1979)
- Breaking All The Rules
(1981)
- Art of Control
(1982)
- Premonition
(1986)
- When All the Pieces Fit
(1989)
- Peter Frampton
(1994)
- Now
(2003)
- Fingerprints
(2006)
References
-
New U.S. Citizen Frampton Making New Music, AP, Oct 11, 2004
- GRAMMY awards
- "50 years of Peter Frampton". - ''Cincinnati Enquirer''. - 4 February 2001
- RIAA Gold and Platinum Search for albums by Peter Frampton. Retrieved on 2008-12-15.
- Interview with Kyra Phillips: - "Frampton: 'It's been a journey'". - CNN - Friday, 9 April 2004
- 60's/70's. - Frampton.com
- Huey, Steve. - Peter Frampton. - Allmusic
- Nager, Larry. - "No fade in Frampton's future". - ''Cincinnati Enquirer''. - 4 February 2001
- Buxton, John. - "Answers to Correspondents". - London Daily Mail
- p.64. - 19 August 2006
- "50 years of Peter Frampton". - ''Cincinnati Enquirer''. - 4 February 2001
- "THE TALKBOX - what the heck IS that?!!". - Frampton.com
- Lux, Joanna. and David Dayen. - "Peter Frampton: More Alive Than Ever". - G4 Media. - 13 June 2002
- Lovelady, Nicholas. - "Frampton and the Talkbox". - University of Central Florida
- Crowe, Cameron. - "Frampton: Rock Star of the Year". - ''Rolling Stone''. - 10 February 1977. - RS232.
- Top 100 Albums - RIAA
- Peter Frampton. - Legacy Recordings - a Sony BMG Music Entertainment company
- Peter Frampton. - MTV.com
- Bull, Roger. - "Peter Frampton: Still a guitar man". - ''Florida Times-Union''. - (c/o Jacksonville.com). - 13 October 2006
- Eder, Bruce. - ''Frampton Comes Alive!''. - Allmusic.
- Search Highlights for ''Frampton Comes Alive!''. - Billboard.com
- Top Pop Albums of 1976. - Billboard.biz
- Top Pop Albums of 1977. - Billboard.biz
- "Random Notes". - ''Rolling Stone''. - 16 December 1976. - RS228.
- 80's. - Frampton.com
- 90's. - Frampton.com
- Alumni List. - Fashion School. - Kent State University