THE LEGACY OF BILL GRAHAM
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Peter Frampton

Few dominated the musical landscape in the '70s like Peter Frampton, one of the biggest arena draws of the era. Frampton's widespread commercial appeal hit with the release of his double-LP concert Frampton Comes Alive!. This was no overnight breakout, as Frampton had steadily built his following his previous studio albums and extensive touring. Both of which helped craft the electric stage presence that helped make Frampton Comes Alive! such a success, eventually selling more than 16 million copies worldwide.

Frampton paid his dues in the '60s playing in rock 'n' roll bands like the Little Ravens, the Trubeats, and the Preachers (who actually appeared on the show Ready, Steady, Go!). By 1966, Frampton left school to play guitar and sing for the Herd, who had a handful of hits amongst British teens. After the Herd, Frampton left to join Steve Marriott of the Small Faces to create Humble Pie. Although Humble Pie was gradually building to a breakthrough with multiple albums, Frampton left the band over dissenting perspectives on which direction to take their music.

Frampton went on to so session recordings with some of the era's biggest stars like George Harrison and Harry Nillson, and Jerry Lee Lewis before he released his debut solo album Wind of Change in 1972, followed by Frampton's Camel the next year.

Frampton Comes Alive!, recorded at Winterland and released in '76, was something of a watershed album: Great work, including Wind of Change and Frampton's Camel, led up to this surprise huge-seller, and efforts following Alive! were measured against its success. While "Baby I Love Your Way" and "Do You Feel Like We Do?" were top singles and Frampton was named Rolling Stone's Artist of the Year in '76, he spent next few years financially quite comfy but artistically unsettled, though one notable performance was at Bill Graham's Day on the Green festival held in Oakland in 1977, on which he shared a bill with other late '70s superstars like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Santana, and Outlaws.

David Bowie's invitation to play lead guitar on Bowie's Glass Spider World Tour in 1987 settled any issues with stagnant creativity, however, and the re-charged Frampton headed on to LA and on to more laurels. A planned collaboration in the early '90s with Steve Marriott from Humble Pie came to a sad end when Marriott died in a house fire, but Frampton Comes Alive II came out in '95, and collaborations with Bill Wyman, tours with Ringo Starr and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and 2003's Now and '06's Fingerprints have kept Frampton busy and thriving creatively.

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