Peter Frampton was born 22nd April 1950 in Beckenham,
Kent, UK.
Frampton started playing guitar at age eight,
and took several years of classical lessons. In
his early teens, he played with rock & roll combos
like the Little Ravens, the Trubeats, and the Preachers,
the latter of which were managed by the Rolling
Stones' Bill Wyman and appeared on the TV show Ready,
Steady, Go. In 1966, Frampton dropped out of school
to join the mod-pop group the Herd, where he got
his first taste of success. The Herd scored several
British hits over 1967-1968, and Frampton's youthful
good looks made him a teen idol, earning him the
tag the "Face of 1968" from the music press. In
1969, Frampton left the Herd to form the harder-rocking
Humble Pie with erstwhile Small Faces frontman Steve
Marriott. Although Humble Pie was poised for a breakthrough
after two years of touring, Frampton departed in
1971 over differences in musical direction, and
decided to start a solo career. Having already performed
on George Harrison's landmark All Things Must Pass,
Frampton contributed guitar work to Nilsson's Son
of Schmilsson, and released his debut solo album,
Wind of Change, in 1972. Despite help from the likes
of Ringo Starr and Billy Preston, it failed to make
much of an impact. Frampton next formed an official
backing band dubbed Frampton's Camel, which included
keyboardist Mickey Gallagher (Cochise), bassist
Rick Wills (Bell & Arc), and drummer Mike Kellie
(Spooky Tooth). Their 1973 album, Frampton's Camel,
also sold disappointingly, but Frampton began to
build a following through near-constant touring
over the next few years. He broke up Frampton's
Camel prior to the release of his next album, 1974's
Something's Happening. The title would prove prophetic:
The follow-up, Frampton, became his first hit LP
in America, climbing into the Top 40 in 1975 and
going gold. By this point, Frampton had amassed
a considerable catalog of underexposed songs, the
best of which were tightly constructed and laden
with hooks. He'd also developed into a top concert
draw, since he was able to inject those songs with
an energy that was sometimes missing from his studio
outings. Plus, in concert, he often expanded the
songs into vehicles for his economical, tasteful
guitar playing, and his pioneering use of the talk-box
guitar effect became a trademark part of his performances.
All those elements came together on Frampton Comes
Alive, a double-LP set recorded at San Francisco's
Winterland in 1975. The album was a surprise smash,
rocketing to the top of the charts (where it stayed
for ten weeks) and selling over 16 million copies
worldwide to become the most popular live album
yet released. It stayed on the charts for nearly
two years, and spawned Frampton's first three hit
singles: "Baby, I Love Your Way" and the Top Tens
"Do You Feel Like We Do" and "Show Me the Way."
Naturally, his supporting tour was a multimillion-dollar
blockbuster as well. When the dust settled, Frampton
was a star, and Rolling Stone named him its Artist
of the Year. Frampton Comes Alive is no longer the
top-selling live album of all time; that honor goes
to Garth Brooks' 16-times platinum Double Live set.
The category of best-selling live rock album is
more debatable. Bruce Springsteen's five-LP/triple-CD
box set Live 1975-1985 has been certified for sales
of 13 million units, as opposed to six million for
Frampton Comes Alive. However, since the RIAA counts
"units" rather than the number of actual copies
sold (i.e., one double-disc set equals two units),
it's harder to determine who holds the edge in raw
sales over time. Under pressure from A&M to deliver
a quick follow-up, Frampton fought his better judgment
and went back to the studio, instead of taking a
break to rest and let his success sink in. The result
was I'm in You, which rose to the number two spot
on the album charts soon after its release in 1977.
Its title track did the same on the singles charts,
giving Frampton the biggest hit of his career. In
the wake of the Frampton Comes Alive phenomenon,
it was perhaps inevitable that many fans would regard
I'm in You as a disappointment; even if it sold
over three million copies, its hasty writing process
showed through in spots. Unfortunately, 1978 was
a disastrous year for Frampton. He made a high-profile
acting debut playing Billy Shears in the big-budget
film version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club
Band, a tremendous critical and commercial flop.
In June, he was involved in a near-fatal car accident
in the Bahamas, sustaining a concussion, multiple
broken bones, and muscle damage; to make matters
worse, he and his longtime girlfriend also ended
their relationship. Frampton recovered fully from
his accident, only to endure a brief slide into
drug abuse. His 1979 album Where I Should Be only
went gold, and its biggest hit was the Top 20 "I
Can't Stand It No More" -- respectable, but nonetheless
a startling drop-off from the success Frampton had
just recently enjoyed. Frampton seemed increasingly
directionless as the '80s dawned. He cut his hair
prior to the release of 1981's Breaking All the
Rules, but the new image failed to send it higher
than the lower reaches of the Top 50. The following
year's The Art of Control was an unequivocal flop,
and Frampton retreated from the music business for
several years. He returned on Virgin in 1986 with
Premonition, and though it wasn't a smash hit, he
did get substantial rock radio airplay for the cut
"Lying." The following year, Frampton played on
onetime schoolmate David Bowie's Never Let Me Down
album and accompanying tour. He recorded another
new album, When All the Pieces Fit, for Atlantic
in 1989, and had been planning a reunion with Steve
Marriott not long before Marriott's tragic death
in a 1991 house fire. Frampton subsequently started
touring again, and cut an eponymous album for Relativity
in 1994 that was later reissued by Sony Legacy.
The following year, he issued the newly recorded
live album, Frampton Comes Alive II, on IRS. During
the late '90s, he recorded and toured with Bill
Wyman & the Rhythm Kings and Ringo Starr's All-Starr
Band. Frampton's first DVD, Live in Detroit, a newly
recorded concert that was also issued on CD by CMC
International, was released in 2000
Former groups
Humble Pie
Camel
The Herd
Buy Peter Frampton Albums and CD's
For US and Amazon.com
For UK and Amazon.co.uk
FAQ
Responsible for one of the mind-blowing live
albums of all time - Frampton Comes Alive
