By George Campbell

Peter Frampton continued the 35^th Anniversary celebration of his record setting album, Frampton Comes Alive, with a stop at Meadowbrook Pavilion in Gilford, New Hampshire on July 2nd. Frampton is in the midst of a five-month tour across the United States celebrating the album that launched him from a singer with a small following to a major superstar almost over night.

Before the historic live album, Peter had played in a British band called The Herd and then co-founded Humple Pie with Steve Marriott. After a few years with Humple Pie he recorded four solo albums that had critical success, but limited commercial success. Then he and his band recorded live performances featuring music from much of those albums, and suddenly became a household name.

The double album would be released in January of 1976 and be titled simply Frampton Comes Alive. It would quickly jump to number one on the charts where it would remain for many weeks and eventually become one of the best selling live albums of all time. The groundbreaking album would open the flood gates for other performers that would try to duplicate his success with live albums of their own.

Now 35 years later, Frampton has embarked on a worldwide tour featuring a three hour set that is kicked off with a replaying of the entire set list from that original album, with a few bonus tunes that hadn’t fit on the original four sides of vinyl.

Frampton and his band hit the Meadowbrook stage promptly at 8PM. They kicked off the show with Something’s Happening and Doobie Wah, just as the FCA album had. But he would mix up the order from the album presentation as the show progressed. He explained that he was performing them in the order he had played them when the live recordings were made, rather than the order they were presented on the album. Among the early songs featured was the melodic classic Lines on My Face, and it was beautiful, just as it had been on the original live album.

After a few songs, the band left Peter alone on the stage to perform a few solo, acoustic songs from the album. Among them were All I want Be and Wind of Change.

The band rejoined him as he brought out the enduring crowd pleaser “Baby, I Love Your Way”, and he had the audience in his hands. As has become the custom in his concerts since back in the 1970’s, the crowd joined in singing the chorus with him for the popular classic.

Then came three great songs the guitar fans truly appreciated. “I Wanna Go to the Sun” was first, with Peter’s amazing guitar work stunning the crowd as if he were still 25 years old, as he was the year the album was originally released. This is one of my personal favorite Frampton songs, and I just sat back and took it in like fine wine, it was classic. I have seen him play this song live before and played it countless times on everything from record albums, 8-tracks, cassettes, CD’s and MP3’s. It never gets old to me, and his performance of the song on this night was as good as I have ever heard, it was brilliant. 

Adam Lester on the stage to Frampton's left.

Wasting no time the band then launched into a powerful performance of “I’ll Give You Money”, which continued the blazing guitar pace set with the previous song. This time Frampton would go head to head with the other guitarist on stage with him, Adam Lester. He and Lester would exchange incredible licks through out the song, displaying talent only the greatest guitar players can ever achieve.

Frampton introduced the band members next, Lester first, then Rob Arthur on keyboards and Dan Wojciechowski on drums. Then he would introduce the bass player who he said had been standing right beside him during the original recordings of FCA in 1975, Stanley Sheldon.

Other than Frampton, Sheldon was the only remaining band member from those original recordings as Bob Mayo and John Siomos have since passed away. Sheldon had reunited with Frampton a few years ago, and worked with Peter on his 2006 Grammy award winning Fingerprints album.

Stanley Sheldon

It was a perfect time to introduce Sheldon as they were about to play the song that arguably most defined Frampton’s career and is the most recognized song from that 35 year old album.

As they dove into the crowd pleasing anthem “Do You Feel Like We Do”, the crowd was drawn to the stage – and I was among them getting within 10 feet of the guitar legend as he played those familiar notes leading off the slow start to the song. Sheldon was slowly strumming those familiar notes on his fretless bass through out the song, until eventually he and his bass appear to be the only things on stage keeping Frampton’s guitar from exploding with the blistering solo he would display in the songs finale. 

The song was exhausting and exhilarating at the same time, just as it had been 35 years ago. The band showed why the song was so special then, and has endured the test of time to be a true Rock N Roll classic. I once told somebody the finale to this song is exactly what defines rock and roll to me. You have a solid bass holding the song in line, keeping everything on track, steady and on course. But at the same time you have a guitar screaming to be set free, going crazy fighting to do the exact opposite of the steady bass. The two dueling instruments create such a perfect explosion of contradictions and sound, that they collide making music rock and roll fans of all genres can truly appreciate. It is pure rock and roll, and Frampton continued to make it magic with Sheldon 35 years after their original recording was released.

As the song finished to the thunderous applause from the crowd, Frampton explained this is normally the time the band walks off the stage. It is in fact the final song on the album, however, staying true to the original shows the recordings came from, he said the band would now do the four encores as they originally performed them finishing the shows, and were added to the album out of order.

The first of the encores was a song Frampton originally wrote and played on his final Humble Pie album, Shine On. It was the third song on side three of the FCA album. Also among the encores was the Rolling Stones classic Jumpin Jack Flash, which he had covered on FCA with his own touch.

Pete and the band were ready for a well deserved break after finishing the songs from FCA, so they took a twenty-minute intermission. They had already performed an entire concert, a full set that most bands would have been happy to walk away from, and the crowd would have been just as happy with. But the 61-year-old Frampton and his band would return for another set of nearly another dozen songs. The first song would be “Asleep at the Wheel” from his latest album, Thank You Mr. Churchill. The song rocked and was an endorsement that he can still write and perform new music worth buying.

A few more newer songs, including a couple instrumental songs from his Fingerprints CD would be in this set, along with another old Humple Pie song, “Four Day Creep”. The band was clearly having fun with this rockin song. After they started playing, Peter appeared to be about to sing the songs first verse when keyboardist Rob Arthur jumped in and belted out the first verse of the song as Frampton continued to play while looking surprised that the keyboard player had stolen his opening line. When they came around to the next verse, Frampton again leaned toward the mic as if to sing but this time it was Adam Lester that jumped in and began to sing, Frampton again stepping back and feigning surprise; the crowd loved it. Eventually Peter would sing a few verses of the song, but the band had as much fun with the song as the crowd.

The band appeared to wrap the final set up with an instrumental performance of a song Soundgarden made popular years ago, Black Hole Sun. The song was not entirely instrumental as Peter broke out his famous ‘talk box’ one last time to finish the song and the show. 

Frampton plays While My Guitar Gently Weeps

But the show was not over, as the crowd chanted for more, Frampton and his mates returned to the stage for another instrumental that led into a surprising version of the George Harrison classic “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. It was an amazing tribute to the Beatle’s classic; performed with an interpretation that Frampton appeared to pour his soul into. It was a classic moment that left the crowd wowed and cheering. It was an amazing touch to end a classic performance by an all time Rock and Roll legend.

There are certain musicians that have the ability to capture their audience, and during any given song can wow them to silence. When the audience can do no more than sit back in astonishment and appreciate the talent being put forth. Peter Frampton is one of those artists. There are times during his shows when you can do no more than sit back and just appreciate the moment, and the mans pure talent.

A few days before the show, I had a conversation with a friend about albums we listened to around the time FCA was so popular. There may never be another album like this again. Back then music fans would buy an album and drop the needle from their stereo on it and play it in its entirety, as most were made to play. People listened to the entire album, often having no choice, other than swapping records repeatedly. People enjoyed them this way, and looked forward to their favorite artists releasing their latest albums. I remember putting new albums on my turntable and then looking at the artwork and reading all the liner notes from each one as it played.

Now it seems most music is made for an instant download, one or two songs from any given artist, long gone are the days of playing an entire album or CD at one sitting. To be honest, there may not be all that many albums worth listening to through out more than a time or two these days. Frampton Comes Alive was an album millions of people played in its entirety, over and over. I am so happy I was able to ‘experience’ the album live one more time, fully realizing I was watching music history.

Frampton left New Hampshire for a mid-west swing, and a couple dates in Canada, but will return to New England for a couple more shows in mid-July. The first will be at the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston on the 15^th followed by a show at MGM Grand at Foxwoods the next night. That will be his fans last chance to see him on this tour in New England. The tour will then move southward and work its way west continuing the US tour. He and the band will take the tour a brief break at the end of October before taking the 35^th Anniversary Tour to Europe.

For Frampton fans that want to remember the show forever, there is a very cool item being offered at each of the shows. Fans can purchase a 3-disc CD set recorded at each show on the tour. Prior to the show, you can go to the Abbey Road Live booth and purchase a cd of that nights show. You then return to the booth about 15 minutes after the show, and they will have a complete disc of that nights show for you! In fact, you can go online to the AbbeyRoadLiveUS.com website and purchase a copy of any of the shows on the tour so far, including the Meadowbrook show.  

A local band named One Hand Free played for the crowd on what is called the second stage at Meadowbrook prior to the Frampton show. They were very good, they had a nice sound, one reminiscent of a classic rock band from the early 1970's. They did a terrific cover of the old Traffic classic Empty Pages. It was a great band to having playing as people walked around taking in the sights before the show.

Meadowbrook is a fantastic venue located in central New Hampshire, near Laconia. Frampton has made it a frequent stop on past tours. Some future rock legends that will also be performing at Meadowbrook include Styx, Yes, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Chicago, The Doobie Brothers and many more. HippieFest will be making a stop at the venue on August 14^th. This show features a variety of acts from the 1960’s and 70’s like Dave Mason, Mark Farner, Rick Derringer and Gary Wright.