| Peter Frampton |
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Peter Kenneth Frampton |
| Born |
April 22, 1950 (1950-04-22) (age 57) |
| Origin |
Beckenham, Kent, England |
| Genre(s) |
Rock, Arena rock, Pop |
| Occupation(s) |
Guitarist, Singer-songwriter,
Pianist |
| Instrument(s) |
Vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica, accordion |
| Years active |
1966 – present |
| Label(s) |
A&M |
Associated
acts |
Humble Pie, The Herd |
| Notable instrument(s) |
| Peter
Frampton Signature model Les Paul |
Peter Kenneth Frampton (born April 22, 1950 in Beckenham,
Kent) is an English
musician,
best known today for his solo work in the mid-1970s and as one of
the original members of the band Humble Pie.
|
Contents
- 1 Career
- 2 Personal
life
- 3 Frampton
in popular culture
- 4 Discography
- 5 Filmography
- 6 References
- 7 External
links
|
Career
 |
This section may contain original research or unverified
claims.
Please help Wikipedia
by adding references. See the talk
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|
Frampton first became interested in music when he was
seven-years old. He discovered his grandmother's banjolele (a
banjo-shaped ukulele) in the attic. Teaching himself to play, he became
near obsessed, and upon receiving a guitar and piano, from his parents, taught himself those
instruments as well.
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 Art Teacher and Father, Owen Frampton, was 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.
In 1966,
he came as a member of The Herd, with which he
became a teen
idol[Who
says this?] in Britain
, lead guitarist/singer, scoring a handful of British teenybopper hits.
Frampton was named "The Face 0f 1968" by the UK press.
In 1969,
when Frampton was 19 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 and George Harrison's solo All
Things Must Pass. This session was where he was
introduced to the 'Talkbox'
that has become such a trademark guitar sound for Frampton.
After five albums with Humble Pie, Frampton left and went solo
in 1971,
just in time to see 'Rockin' The Fillmore' rise up the US charts.
His debut was 1972's Wind of Change.
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 went gold.
All of Frampton's solo albums were given fair reviews [Who
says this?] but had
little commercial success.
This changed with Frampton's breakthrough best-selling live album, Frampton
Comes Alive! (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.
His following album, I'm in You
(1977) sold close to 1 million copies, but was panned by critics.
Frampton then took a co-starring role with The
Bee Gees in director Robert Stigwood's poorly received Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Frampton's
career seemed to fall as quickly as it had risen and there were rumours
that he had succumbed to depression and heavy drinking.
He was involved in a near fatal car
accident in the Bahamas
near the time of Sgt Pepper's' release. In 1979, Frampton returned to recording. Past band
members included Stanley Sheldon (bass), Bob Mayo
(keyboards/guitar/vocals), Chad Cromwell (drums), and John Siomos (drums/vocals). The album, Where
I Should Be (1979) was the first album recorded
after his car accident.
In 1980,
his following 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 - their sound is believed to be the better for
it"
Most notably, he also united with old friend David Bowie, and
both worked together to make albums, although they met with little
commercial success.
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.
After the September 11, 2001
attacks, Frampton decided to become a United
States citizen. He now resides in Indian
Hill, a suburb east of Cincinnati.
In 2003, he released the album Now,
and embarked on a tour with Styx to support it. He also toured with The Elms. He
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 September 12, 2006, Frampton
released his newest album, an instrumental work titled "Fingerprints".
His band consists of drummer Shawn Fichter, guitarist Audley
Freed, bassist John Regan, 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 February 11, 2007, "Fingerprints" was awarded the 2007 Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album. In February 2007, he also appeared on the Chicago based PBS television show Soundstage.
Personal life
Frampton has been married three times. His wives have been:
Mary Lovett (1971–1973), Barbara Gold (1983–1993) with whom he had two
children, and Tina Elfers (January 13, 1996 – present) with whom he has one child,
named Mia Frampton.
He also has another daughter, named Jade Frampton.
Frampton in popular culture
- Frampton has appeared in television shows such
as The Simpsons, Family Guy,
and the Colbert Report,
all with particular mentions of his "talking guitar" effect he uses in live
shows. He also played an Australian coast watcher named Peter Buckley
in the television program Baa Baa Black Sheep.
- In Family Guy, in
the episode Death Lives Peter claims that everyone
must have the album, "Frampton Comes Alive!", due to its success. The
album also includes his and Lois' song, Baby I Love Your Way.
- In The
Simpsons, Peter Frampton is featured in the
episode Homerpalooza.
- 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.
- In the television series Arrested
Development Gob records a music
CD with his puppet Franklin called "Franklin Comes Alive," a spoof of
"Frampton Comes Alive".
- Frank Zappa parodied "I'm
in You" on his album Sheik Yerbouti
with a song titled "I Have Been In You".
- In the movie Wayne's
World, Wayne (Mike
Myers) is asked if he's heard Frampton Comes Alive!.
He states "Everybody in the world has 'Frampton Comes Alive'. If you
lived in the suburbs you were issued it free along with samples of Tide."
- Mitch Hedberg once talked
about smoking fake pot with Frampton in Almost
Famous on his second CD Mitch
All Together saying "But I got to smoke fake
pot with Peter Frampton. That's a cool story. It's as cool as smoking
real pot with a guy who looks like Peter Frampton. I've done that way
more."
- In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer
episode "Dead
Things", while the trio are hiding out in Andrew's cellar Jonathon
finds Andrew's copy of Frampton Comes Alive.
- An episode of That
'70s Show opens with the main characters
sitting listening to "Do You Feel Like We Do", and Jackie
asks to "listen to the guitar solo just one more time".
- In the 1994 film Reality
Bites, Ben Stiller's character Michael states
that the Frampton Comes Alive! album "like, totally
changed my life".
- In the 2000 film High
Fidelity, John Cusack's character Rob says "Is
that Peter fucking Frampton?!" when listening to Lisa
Bonet's character Marie DeSalle performing a version of Frampton's
"Baby I Love Your Way". Moments before this, a Peter Frampton lookalike
is seen walking from right to left past John Cusack, before he asks
about the song. In the book of the same name, the same character when
referring to the song talks about how he and his ex-girlfriend would
complain excessively about the awfulness and popularity of the song.
- In the film version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch,
Tommy
Speck has his Frampton Comes Alive
album forcibly taken from him by Hedwig.
- Billabong
created a bikini
with Peter Frampton's likeness and the phrase "Baby I love your waves"
(similar to "Baby I Love Your Way") on the back without permission,
subsequently litigation was enacted.
- On December 20, 2006, Frampton played in Stephen
Colbert's place on Comedy Central's The
Colbert Report after Colbert "injured" his
hands during a guitar solo competition (the "Countdown to
Guitar-mageddon") against indie pop group The
Decemberists lead guitarist Chris Funk, which Frampton/Colbert won.
The episode also featured Apples in Stereo lead singer Robert
Schneider, music critic Anthony
DeCurtis, New York University (NYU)
professor Jim Anderson, New York governor-elect
Eliot
Spitzer, Cheap
Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen, Henry
Kissinger and Morley Safer. On the 26th February,
2007, episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen
referred to Peter Frampton as "Sir Peter Frampton."
- On June 22, 2007, Frampton was mentioned in the webcomic Achewood.
Discography
- Wind of Change
(1972)
- Frampton's
Camel (1973)
- Somethin's
Happening (1974)
- Frampton
(1975)
- Frampton
Comes Alive! (1976)
- I'm in You (1977)
- Where
I Should Be (1979)
- Rise Up
(1980)
- Breaking All The Rules
(1981)
- The Art of Control
(1982)
- Premonition
(1986)
- When All the Pieces Fit
(1989)
- Peter Frampton
(1994)
- Frampton Comes Alive II
(1995)
- Live in Detroit
(2000)
- Now
(2003)
- Live
in San Francisco March 24, 1975 (2004)
- 2004 Summer Tour
(2004)*
- Fingerprints
(2006)
Hit singles
All told Peter Frampton has scored 20 of the top
ten hits.
| Year |
Song |
US
Hot 100 |
US
MSR |
US
A.C. |
UK
singles |
Album |
| 1972 |
"Wind of Change" |
118 |
|
- |
- |
Wind of Change |
| 1972 |
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" |
3 |
|
- |
- |
Wind of Change |
| 1972 |
"It's a Plain Shame" |
|
|
- |
- |
Wind of Change |
| 1972 |
"All I Wanna Be (Is by Your Side)" |
|
|
- |
- |
Wind of Change |
| 1973 |
"I Got My Eyes on You" |
|
|
- |
- |
Frampton's Camel |
| 1973 |
"All Night Long" |
|
|
- |
- |
Frampton's Camel |
| 1973 |
"Lines on My Face" |
|
|
- |
- |
Frampton's Camel |
| 1973 |
"Just the Time Of Year" |
|
|
- |
- |
Frampton's Camel |
| 1974 |
"Doobie Wah" |
|
|
- |
- |
Somethin's Happening |
| 1974 |
"Baby (Something's Happening)" |
|
|
- |
- |
Somethin's Happening |
| 1974 |
"I Wanna Go to the Sun" |
|
|
- |
- |
Somethin's Happening |
| 1974 |
"Sail Away" |
|
|
- |
- |
Somethin's Happening |
| 1975 |
"Nassau" |
|
|
- |
- |
Frampton |
| 1975 |
"Penny for Your Thoughts" |
|
|
- |
- |
Frampton |
Filmography
- Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band as Billy Shears
- Black
Sheep Squadron as Peter Buckley (One episode)
- Almost Famous
as Reg
References
-
Buxton, John (19th
August 2006). "Answers to Correspondents". Daily Mail, London:
p.64.
-
-
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/21/1090089197543.html
-
http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=06222007
External links
