Peter Frampton

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Peter Frampton
Full artwork from Frampton Comes Alive!
Born	April 22, 1950 in Beckenham, England
Genre(s)	Rock Arena rock
Affiliation(s)	Humble Pie The Herd
Notable guitars	Peter Frampton Signature model Les Paul
Years active	1966 - present
Official site	Official website

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 as an "arena rocker".

By the age of ten, he played in a band called the Little Ravens. Both he and David Bowie were pupils at Bromley Technical School, and the Little Ravens played on the same bill at school as Bowie's band, George and the Dragons.^[1]

He originally became famous, however, as a member of The Herd and became a teen idol in Britain. He then worked with Steve Marriott (of Small Faces) in Humble Pie, as well as on albums by Harry Nilsson, Jim Price, Jerry Lee Lewis, and George Harrison's solo masterpiece All Things Must Pass. His solo debut was 1972's Wind of Change. Peter Frampton is famous for his use of the talkbox in the 14-minute epic "Do You Feel Like We Do", and the shorter "Show Me The Way".

Frampton's solo breakthrough was the best-selling live album ever released, Frampton Comes Alive! (1976), which included "Do You Feel Like We Do", "Baby, I Love Your Way" and "Show Me the Way". After his follow-up, I'm in You, was released, selling close to 1 million copies, Frampton co-starred with The Bee Gees in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which almost ruined his career. To make matters worse, he was in a near fatal car accident in the Bahamas near the time of Sgt Pepper's' release. In the 1980s, Frampton returned to recording. Past band members included Stanley Sheldon (bass), Bob Mayo (keyboards/guitar/vocals), Chad Cromwell (drums), and John Siomos (drums/vocals).

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 was active in the U.S. presidential election, 2004 in support of John Kerry. He now resides in Indian Hill, a suburb east of Cincinnati.

His last album was Now, and he 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, A&M released his newest album, an instrumental work titled "Fingerprints". His band consists of drummer Shawn Fichter, guitarist Gordon Kennedy bassist John Regan, and keyboardist/guitarist Rob Arthur, and guest artists such as members of Pearl Jam and Hank Marvin.

1 Frampton in popular culture
2 Discography
3 Filmography
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Frampton in popular culture

Frampton has appeared in television shows such as The Simpsons, and Family Guy, both with particular mentions of his "talking guitar" effect he uses in live shows.

In Family Guy, Peter claims that everyone must have the album, "Frampton Comes Alive!", due to its success.

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'.

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 2, 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."

Mitch Hedberg once talked about smoking fake pot with Frampton in Almost Famous on his second CD Mitch All Together.

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 70's 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".