In 2019 Peter Frampton broke the sad news that he had a progressive muscle weakening disorder and embarked on a farewell tour, which I was lucky enough to catch that summer at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado.

Dates for his native UK were announced for May 2020 but the pandemic intervened and that, we thought, was that. It was therefore a great relief that he was still well enough to reschedule the dates and say farewell after all with a short tour including this London show, just a fairly short journey by tube and train from his Beckenham birthplace. I was astonished to learn after the show this was his first appearance at the Albert Hall as a solo artist, even if he has always been a bigger draw across the pond.

There was a very tasty appetiser for the main course in Cardinal Black, the young Welsh act seemingly handpicked by the headliner by all accounts. A short set was still enough to showcase their talents, whether on more concise songs like opener ‘Tell Me How It Feels’ with its soulful melodies or longer workouts like ‘Warm Love’, both featuring the rich soulful vocals of Tom Hollister and the superb Chris Buck winding up lengthy guitar solos in effortless fashion.

There was only time for five songs but they closed in style with one of those epics in ‘Tied Up in Blue’, Tom doubtless achieving a lifetime’s ambition at this august venue with a section where he sang without the aid of a mike. I’d been very impressed with their London show at the Garage earlier this autumn and hopefully enough of this wider audience were sufficiently impressed to check out their debut album ‘January Came Close’.

Sadly since those US dates Peter Frampton’s condition has progressed to the extent that he played the gig seated, and he had to be helped rather gingerly onto the stage and into his seat, he and the other guitar players using what appeared to be a job lot of swivel chairs from an Office Depot catalogue.

You could tell he was somewhat frustrated, as he still rocked in his seat very expressively, though the English understatement is still there (even if the accent has long been mid-Atlantic) as he described his standing these days as ‘wobbly’. In other respects though, he was vibrant and though my view from the side of the stage made it hard to follow his finger movement there appeared to be no noticeable diminution in the speed or accuracy of his playing.

He opened as usual with ‘Baby (Something’s Happening)’, followed by ‘Lying’ which I particularly enjoyed being from his underrated mid-80’s album ‘Premonition’ which was the first Frampton album I bought (being a good decade or more younger than the average attendee here!) ‘Lines On My Face’ featured some dreamy guitar and an even larger and warmer cheer than usual went up when he sang the ‘my family of friends’ line.

With a disembodied Peter having asked us in the interval to restrict film or photo to the first three songs, I saw a delicious irony in the fact that the fourth song was the one where all the amateur you tubers would have had their phones up, in ‘Show Me The Way’. Keyboardist Rob Arthur joined up front to play that unmistakable acoustic intro, Peter used his equally trademark talkbox for the first time and people were singing along, although only a very few felt empowered enough to get up and dance.

There were two ways this subtly differed from a standard Frampton show. One was that the anecdotes of career highlights and fond memories were longer and more frequent. The other was that in places the set departed from the usual ‘Comes Alive’ centric setlist. Both were exemplified by ‘The Lodger’, featuring some extended but always melodic jamming between Peter and Rob.

I always had the impression that his sheer versatility as a guitar player was a strength and this was shown either side of a pair of out and out rockers in ‘I Wanna Go To The Sun’ and ‘Breaking All The Rules’- where I just couldn’t get the Stones ‘Bitch’ out of my brain every time the main riff was played.

He showed his talents as a blues guitarist on an interpretation of Hoagy Carmichael’s ‘Georgia’: meanwhile ‘All I Wanna Be Is By Your Side’ saw him switch effortlessly between delicate finger picking and a searing middle solo. Mention should also be made that in general his singing was strong, and indeed it could be argued he has grown into that always somewhat careworn voice, that now suits him better than ever.

Aided by Rob and Adam Lester, he put a unique spin on his version of ‘Black Hole Sun’ where the guitars collectively created an almost orchestral sound. Returning to ‘Comes Alive’ territory, an 11 minute plus ‘I’ll Give You Money’ saw a brilliant guitar jam as he and Adam traded solos, then an anecdote about Nassau and being handed an acoustic could only mean ‘Baby I Love Your Way’, though once again I expected that more in an appreciative but rather reserved audience would have got up.

Finally, after telling the story about the return of his favourite guitar, the biggest cheer of the night greeted the intro to ‘Do You Feel Like We Do’, complete of course with a mid song keyboard detour from Rob, more messing about with the talkbox and clocking in at a ‘mere’ 16 minutes.

Wisely playing on rather than leaving the stage the ‘encore’ saw Peter come full circle and pay tribute to Steve Marriott, introducing a dip into the Humble Pie catalogue, where both Rob, in particular, and Adam shared the vocal load very ably. The bluesy ‘Four Day Creep’ gave way to an extended rock out to ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’, ever single player given a slot to show their prowess.

It was a demonstration of what a fine band he has assembled over the years, but this evening was about one man. Sadly by now in a 2 hour 25 minute set a fair few had dashed off early for last trains, leaving Peter to rather wistfully say ‘I’m losing my audience’ prior to a final encore.

It wasn’t one of his songs, instead one associated with one of his dear friends, but ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ was in many ways the perfect showcase for his distinctively fluent and melodic playing style.

After the band took a customary bow he lent into the microphone for a final thank you to the audience, saying that he would keep fighting and to ‘never say never’. I suspect most of us though had assumed this was a farewell to him while still near the peak of his powers.. If so he left us with a memorable and poignant show to mark the distinguished career of one of the UK’s finest musical exports.

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 15 April 2024

ENMY The Ledge (FiXT)
KAROBELA Get Hard (indie)
KATH & THE KICKS Neptune (indie)
THE BEE TELLERS River Poem (Black Sand Records)
LAUREN FREEBIRD Like A Bomb (indie)

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09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023
14:00-16:00 KATARINA PEJAK – Pearls On A String (Ruf Records)

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