Peter Frampton Live in Detroit

    Not bad for an old bloke - 52 and still going. He should be good - Peter started playing guitar in bands at the age of 10. Having played in "The Herd" and "Humble Pie" Peter Frampton went solo in 1971. "Somethin's Happening" was his first mega album in 1974 then after the release of "Frampton" in 1975 came the biggest selling live album of all time - "Frampton Comes Alive" Recorded at San Francisco's Winterland in 1976 and released the same year, the album sold over 16 million copies. Since then he's recorded with just about everybody including Bill Wyman in 1997. He now writes music for movies and has tried his hand acting in the new Cameron Crowe movie "Almost Famous" for which he also wrote the music.

    To keep in contact with his fan base and going back to his live performance roots, Frampton played to an ecstatic crowd in Detroit  in 1999 with Peter Frampton on Vocals / Lead Guitar, John Regan on Bass, Chad Cromwell - Drums / Vocals and Bob Mayo - Keyboards /Guitars / Vocals. So the good old basic four  man band strikes again. No fancy stuff here, just your aging rock and rollers (with the occasional balled thrown in). Aging they may be but the musical skills have been honed far in excess of today's younger bands (everybody raves about Oasis which is fine 'cause there're a great band, but if they keep it up for another 25 years they'll be (hopefully) technically as brilliant as Peter Frampton and Band).

    I know most of the songs on the DVD - "Show me the Way", "Baby I Love Your Way", Do You Feel Like We Do" etc, plus some stuff I wasn't so familiar with which took a couple of listens to come to grips with. Whilst not exactly the most dynamic performance I've ever seen, there is a certain rapport with the audience which comes with a superb performance in terms of both musicality and technical reproduction. Framptons voice is still as strong as ever and the guy can sure hold a note (unlike some other 50+ singers), his guitar playing is his forte however, and he's still one of the best.

    Due to the lay back nature of the performance I rate this as a seven out of ten, not quite a "Must Have"  but a worthwhile addition to any DVD concert collection whether you're a 70's retro freak or not!

Audio 4.5 out of 5 (Dolby Digital 5.1)

Video 4 out of 5

Content 4.5 out of 5