June 2024 | Peter Frampton
BY-------Graham Sclater
Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) in Beckenham, Kent, and at the age of 14,
Peter played in his first band Trubeats before becoming a member of Moon’s Train, who
were managed and produced by Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones. He became a successful
child singer, and in 1966 he became a late comer to join The Herd who were founded in
1965 and recorded three unsuccessful singles
In 1965 the band consisted of The Herd were an English rock band, founded in 1965. The
Herd were founded in 1965 in south London, and recorded three unsuccessful singles with
Parlophone. The original lineup was Terry Clark, vocals and guitar, Louis Cennamo on bass
and Tony Chapman ondrums.
In 1966 the only remaining member was Gary Taylor who was joined by Andy Bown on
keyboards (who later joined Status Quo) Peter Frampton on guitar and lead vocals and Andrew Steele on drums.
Parlophone dropped the band and they were signed by Fontana who brought in the hit production and songwriting team of Ken Howard and Alan Blakeley who had already masterminded the career of other bands.
To promote the new lineup Howard and Blakely seized on Frampton’s boyish good looks and in 1966 the 16-year-old he was dubbed "The Face of ’68" by teen magazine Rave. With the ever growing “Flower Power” craze Howard and Blakely positioned the Herd at the centre of that period. Their first single “I Can Fly” almost made it but that was followed up by the classic “From the Underworld,” which with the help of the pirate radio stations, reached Number 6 in the UK, Number 3 in the Netherlands, and charted in other countries in late summer of 1967.
In October 1967 they supported Jimi Hendrix at The Saville Theatre in October but it wasn’t until March 1968 that they achieved their greatest hit, “I Don’t Want Our Loving to Die,” which became a Number 5 single . However, the last months of 1968 were tempestuous times for the group. Steele left the group, to be replaced by Henry Spinetti, the drummer with John Kongos, who had been working with my band at the Top Ten Club in Hamburg.
The group split with their producers/songwriters and finally recorded an album and most of the songs, except their hits, were written by Frampton and Bown. Their next single “Sunshine Cottage” failed to chart. Success eluded them and the band broke up and the 18-year-old Frampton joined Steve Marriot of the Small Faces, Greg Ridley of the VIP’s and formed Humble Pie. During that time, he was introduced to the “talk box” by Pete Drake, which was to become his trademark guitar effect.
After Humble Pie broke up he continued to record and tour the US with little commercial success. This changed with Frampton top-selling 1976 live album “Frampton Comes Alive” recorded at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. It went 8 x Platinum and included the hits, “Show Me the Way” and “Baby I Love Your Way,” and others. Frampton suffered a near-fatal car accident in the Bahamas in 1978 that almost marked the end of his prolific career.
On 24 August 1979, Frampton received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the recording industry and in 2012, readers of Rolling Stone ranked Frampton Comes Alive No. 3 in a 2012 poll of all-time favourite live albums.
In 2019 Frampton announced that he was suffering from a debilitating illness and would make his final tour, seated on stage due to the excruciating pain he was in. But in 2023, Frampton embarked on what he said was to be his final tour entitled, Never Say Never.
Frampton has noted that he did not expect to be able to play again because of his diagnosis. He has stated that while his fingers don't work as well as they used to, they worked better than he thought they would - citing it as reason-enough to keep doing what he loved on stage.
Peter Frampton’s music will last forever and whilst his early hits are seldom heard on the radio, tracks from his live album will live on forever.
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