Peter Frampton

[GuitarGeek]

It seems in 1975, concert lineups were decided at random, at least for triple bills. Perhaps there was a roulette wheel with every band/artist name on it. You can't even explain it by record label. In 1973, I saw Lynyrd Skynyrd open for The Who. Both bands were (in the US, at least) 'Working For MCA' at the time.

If I'm not mistaken, it's been said Townshend himself actually chose Skynyrd to open on the Quadrophenia tour. I also believe The Who's manager, Bill Curbishley eventually took over Skynyrd's management (though I'm not sure if he had been installed as such in '73, or not). I'd have thought that would have been a pretty good double bill (assuming you could hit the jackpot and get a show where everyone in both bands was sober enough to make it work).

But eclectic concert bills were already old hat by 1973. If you check out some of the bills from the 60's, there were all kinds of weird things. You'd have Motown and Stax people on the same bill as bands like The Byrds or The Beach Boys.

Bill Graham famously put legendary artists of all stripes on in front of the rock groups he booked at the Fillmores and the Winterland. He'd do stuff like stick someone like Fats Domino on in front of the Jefferson Airplane, or put Miles Davis on in front of the Grateful Dead (which Phil Lesh once described as "one of the great crimes of the 20th century"). And I believe Virgil Fox actually recorded a live album at one of the Fillmore venues.

Graham was interviewed many years later, actually, not too long before he died, and was asked about that, and he said that he wanted to help out some of the older artists who were maybe struggling to get gigs at that point, and he was hoping to turn the rock audience onto the others artists from other musical genres by putting them on in front of whichever rock group "the kids" had come to see that night. I think it would have been pretty cool to see Miles Davis on the same bill as the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore West, four nights in a row, no less (for what it's worth, Black Beauty was recorded during that four night run).

You want to talk about a weird bill, I read once that when their first album came out, Aerosmith were put on tour opening for Mahavishnu Orchestra. Try to get your mind around that one. I also read once that Kiss and western swing revivalists Asleep At The Wheel once shared a bill, though I think that might be apocrypha.

[Mister Triscuits]

And I believe Virgil Fox actually recorded a live album at one of the Fillmore venues.

And one at Winterland. I saw him live once around 1972...his set was something like six pieces, and then he did five encores. Not one encore of five selections, but five separate encores.

[-=RTFR666=-]

Saw Frampton headline the World Series of Rock at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, Summer '77 - Supporting acts were Rick Derringer, J Geils Band, and Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band.

[Calabasas_Trafalgar]

The best non-solo Frampton: Humble Pie's s/t 3rd album and Rock On; also John Entwistle's Whistle Rhymes

[spacefreak]

"Wind of Change" and "Frampton's Camel" are I think his best studio albums.

[spellbound]

I'd have thought that would have been a pretty good double bill (assuming you could hit the jackpot and get a show where everyone in both bands was sober enough to make it work).

It was a good show by both bands, despite being only a few days after Moon infamously passed out onstage at the Cow Palace. The Who fans in the audience, seeing Skynyrd for the first time, called them out for an encore before the Who's set. The Who were amazing. I remember Townshend being angry at rock critics, and sneering before 'Won't Get Fooled Again', "This is for everyone who wanted the show to be [i]perfect[/]."

I was a few years too young to see Bill Grahams late '60s-early '70s shows, besides not living in San Francisco. The audience was open to new experiences, and ate up the odd combinations of artists Graham brought to the stage. In later decades, I don't think it would be so easy to combine artists from all genres of music and still please a less open-minded audience.

It was at Bill Graham's 'Day On The Green' that I saw The Who for the second time, sharing the stage with the Grateful Dead on the Ox's birthday in 1976.

[Prehensile Pencil]

One of his latest records, the unfortunately titled, "Thank You Mr. Churchill", has a few bad-ass tunes: