PETER FRAMPTON: Issue during a concert this past weekend
Peter Frampton had a meltdown Sunday night during his show in Welch, Minnesota when a cameraman kept his lens trained on a female member of the audience holding up a copy of Frampton Comes Alive instead of his guitar solo.
Frampton walked off the stage without saying anything. He went right over to the cameraman and tried to wrestle his camera away while reportedly asking why he was doing that and demanding to know who the guy's boss was.
He returned to the stage 10 minutes later, but without the aid of the video screens.
One fan, wrote online, "You stormed off stage because the cameraman showed a gal holding her Frampton album instead of showing you during a guitar solo? Your reaction was really unfortunate. He got the crowd going. It was awesome to see that! Didn't you hear everyone cheering? Then you cut the camera all together. This didn't punish [the cameraman] but it did punish your paying audience. We couldn't see a thing then. And that's too bad. We love to see the technique and the expressions and the play between musicians. But you chose to take that away from your paying audience."
Another audience member wrote, "I lost all respect for what you did... Grow up and lose your big ego!"
Frampton commented on the incident on Twitter, writing, "I apologize. I had to give you all the show you deserved and things beyond my control changed my modus operandi."
The woman who had the album had the cameraman sign it.
To his credit, Frampton always asks his audience to kindly put away their phones and cameras, and to pay attention to the concert. He recently told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "It’s annoying, very distracting, and people don’t get the full picture. It’s this little, tiny picture they’re looking at and they put it on YouTube, and I wonder how many times they look at it. We’re in super HD on stage! Live in front of you! Watch the real thing!... I do ask people, strongly, to turn off the flash. Every time they video, it stays on the entire song, and that’s like looking into a ‘Star Wars’ bar or something!”
Frampton later offered an explanation for his tirade against a cameraman Sunday night in Minnesota. It's lengthy, but he details why he lost his cool. Here are some highlights of his Facebook post:
- "My band and I follow a carefully written script every show with moments to go off musically and take it to a new, different place... When something happens to change the script, like a distraction out of my control, then it messes with the build of the show."
- "At this very climactic moment, the director of the in-house video displayed the audience on the screens, which distracted from the connection that we had worked to achieve."
- "I feel very bad for [the fan displayed on the video screen] and totally understand the perception from out front at this point in the show."
- "After the first interruption, I asked the director through my backstage team to please keep the cameras on the band during this important part of the song, but the monitors changed again. After the show, the director admitted this was a 'very bad call.'"
- "I overreacted and tried to take the camera from the cameraman and left the stage to talk to the director."
- "I could not take the chance of the screens affecting the show again so I had them turned off. This was not the right thing to do and I apologize to everyone there."
NEIL SEDAKA: Retirement plans on hold
A year ago, Neil Sedaka told us had plans to retire from performing. But those plans have been put on hold. Approaching the 60th anniversary of his first hit song, the self-proclaimed "the rock-and-roll survivor" still works occasionally. A fellow New York legend offered a different take. Neil says, "Billy Joel told me, 'You’re the Davy Crockett of rock and roll.'"
Promoting Sunday's show at Westhampton Beach, New York, Sedaka tells 27east.com, that while he's cut back on performing, he still loves playing before audiences. "I do one show every couple of months — the traveling is difficult." What maintains is his enthusiasm? Neil says it's "the people have the memories and nostalgia. They remember where they were when they heard the songs. It’s wonderful."
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