Three Reviews for The Price of One.
Had the pleasure of seeing the recently reformed Roxette at Wembley, Peter Frampton at Hammersmith and Alice Cooper at Alley Pally All three of these great artists certainly saw action in the 80′s, although most would say that Frampton’s best era was the 70′s. Starting with Alice who was supported by the always excellent New York Dolls. Alice is one of the great rock performers, a true showman. The London date was part of his “No More Mr Nice Guy” tour. His vocals seem to get stronger and stronger, like a fine wine, with age. His band also had some outstanding musicians within. He has recently released “Welcome 2 My Nightmare” – a sequel to his seminal album. He only performed one track from that album “I’ll bite your face off!” sticking to the hits. With streamers, giant balloons and much more it was a real rock and roll night of fun.
Peter Frampton visited London as part of his “Frampton Comes Alive 35 Tour”. Peter did a three and a half hour show, with just a short interval. The first act was a performance of the Frampton Comes Alive album in it’s entirety. For those who love guitar based music, there is no finer than Frampton. The first act finished with a four minute standing ovation (the Apollo was all seats that night) a reflection of just how much in awe of Peter Frampton’s playing….yes including the infamous voicebox (Waa, waa waa waa waa waa).
The second act features songs from across his 40+ years from Humble Pie to his recent Grammy winning Fingerprints album. The night finished with a spine tingling cover of While my guitar gently weeps. A true musical legend England vs Sweden was happening at Wembley Stadium whilst next door at the arena an even better Swedish export was playing – Roxette Support came in the form of former Savage Garden frontman Darren Hayes, who got the crowd in the mood with a good mix of solo tunes and hits from his old band. I was particularly pleased to hear Affirmation, a great Savage Garden track. Roxette crammed 20 hits into their set along with a couple of tracks from new album “Charm School”. If I am brutally honest, some of Marie F’s vocals were weak in places with some of the big hits being changes in key or tune.
This did not detract from the overall performance which was great, with some massive singalongs from the audience. My Score for these three Alice Cooper 8/10 Peter Frampton 9/10 Roxette 7/10
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