They played all the songs you wanted to hear. Peter can still sing and his guitar playing was off the chart.
David Blakeley
We had a fair walk through the underground tunnel before coming back out on the pavement. Helen said she wouldn’t want to go back that way after the concert. It looked even more magnificent illuminated by red lights. Helen looked on our tickets to see which entrance we had to go in. One of the attendants told us we needed to walk round towards the next entrance.
Once we had finally arrived at our floor we both went to the bathroom before getting a drink. I got a pint of Stella and a bottle of water - £7.50. We then went to see if I could get a programme, but they were already sold out. I bought a Phoenix bottle opener key ring £10. We then went to find our seats. The Royal Albert Hall is very impressive and our seats were pretty central to the stage.
The support band, Cardinal Black, came on at 7-30. They were very good. Their lead guitarist and lead singer were both very impressive. The singer stood right at the front of the stage and sang with no microphone and you could still hear him, brilliant. They played for about half an hour. The road crew swapped over the equipment ready for the main event.
Peter Frampton’s voice came over the PA. “Hi, this is Peter Frampton here. Please take out your mobile phones and video the first three numbers. If you’re not so techno savvy ask your friends. Then after that turn off your phone and just enjoy the show, Live in the moment”!
Peter was helped onto the stage supported by one of his band mates. They all sat on a stool and Peter was helped onto his stool. Then they were off. They played all the songs you wanted to hear. Peter can still sing and his guitar playing was off the chart. He said “I hope you don’t mind me sitting down, but I’m a bit wobbly. If I stand up for too long then I’ll fall over. If I do fall over I’ll never get back up again.”
Peter did quite a bit of talking about the songs, being in Humble Pie with Steve Marriott and playing with David Bowie. He also told us about his famous Black Les Paul custom guitar, it was lost for 30 years after a plane crash containing all his stage equipment. He managed to get it back, the Gibson made it playable, so he now calls it The Phoenix. He said no other Les Paul is quite like it. He also used the Talk Box guitar effects that he helped to invent and perfect. Helen hated every second, but put up with it for me. So we left about 15 minutes before the end of the concert. We managed to find our way back to the underground without having to go back through the tunnel. We couldn’t go via that anyway as it was closed.