Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton is a british guitarist who has had a long solo career and also worked extensively as a session musician and was also a founding member of Humble Pie. Undoubtedly he is probably best remembered for his 1976 live album Frampton Comes Alive which is the fourth best selling live album ever. It has sold over 16 million copies worldwide. The only live albums to have sold more are Double Live by Garth Brooks, Bruce Springsteen & E Street Band Live and The Eagles Live. He is also closely associated with his use of the Talkbox guitar effect.
Recently he has set up a company which produces hand made and high end guitar effects including the Peter Frampton Talkbox. Among his clients are Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters and Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi.
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Early Life
Peter was born in 1950 and became interested in music at an early age and when 7 he began playing a banjolele which belonged to his grandmother. (A banjolele is a ukelele shaped banjo!). He quickly moved onto guitar and quickly taught himself to play. By the age of 11 he was playing in local bands. One of his early bands The Little Ravens played on the same bill as a band known as George and the Dragons featuring none other than a young David Bowie. Frampton and Bowie did in fact attend the same school and would spend lunchtimes playing Buddy Holly songs. Other influences on Frampton included The Beatles, The Ventures and Hank Marvin, guitarist with The Shadows. Peter also listend to recordings by gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt.
Whilst still very young he played on other bands such as The Trubeats and then a band called The Preachers. The preachers were produced and managed by Bill Wyman of The Rolling Stones.
His first real success came after he joined a pop singles band called The Herd in 1966 in which he played guitar and did vocals. In 1969 still only 18 In early 1969, when Frampton was 18 years old,he left The Herd and joined up with Steve Marriott of The Small Faces to form Humble Pie.
Music Career
Peter made five albums with humble Pie but left in 1971 to go solo. During the next five years he toured extensively building a growing reputation as a guitarist. He wrote and released 3 solo albums without great commercial success. His fourth album "Frampton" released in 1975 had some small success but his 1976 release of "Frampton Comes Alive!" proved to be the highlight of his career. "Baby, I Love Your Way" and "Show Me the Way" were successful singles. Two songs on the album "Do You Feel Like We Do", and "Show Me the Way" also featured his now trademark use of the talk box guitar effect.
Peter has continued to tour, write and record to this day but has never repeated the pheominal sucess of Frampton Comes Alive. He has also collaborated with several other artists, most notably with David Bowie. He played on Bowie's 1987 album Never Let Me Down and was guitarist along with Carlos Alomar on Bowies the Glass Spider world tour.
Discography
With Humble Pie
1969 As Safe As Yesterday Is Immediate
1969 Town and Country
1970 Humble Pie
1971 Rock On
1971 Performance Rockin' the Fillmore
Solo
1972 Wind of Change
1973 Frampton's Camel
1974 Somethin's Happening
1975 Frampton
1976 Frampton Comes Alive!
1977 I'm in You
1979 Where I Should Be
1981 Breaking All The Rules
1982 Art of Control
1986 Premonition
1989 When All the Pieces Fit
1994 Peter Frampton
2003 Now
2006 Fingerprints
Equipment
His weapon of choice is a Gibson Les Paul Clasic (1960) and he also uses a 1958 Les Paul. He also has a long association with Mesa Boogie and Marshall amps.
Other equipment he uses live includes:
Hammond/Suzuki Leslie Cabinet
2X Digital Music Corp GCX Switchers
TE 1210 Chorus
Boss, SE70 Harmonizer
TC 2290 Delay
Korg DL800 Delay
Custom Audio Electronics 3+Preamp
DBX 1066 Compressor
Rack mounted MXR Phaser
Mutron Octave
Ampeg Overdrive
Ibanez TS-9 Distortion
He uses D'Addario Strings.
Video
Links
--Boson 21:13, 18 October 2009 (CEST)
