By Alex Lloyd Gross
February 11 2012 Peter Frampton returns to the Philly area in a huge way. First, He is playing the smash Frampton Comes Alive in it's entirety. The second is he is bringing back some of the original band that played on that record. "The show lasts upwards of three hours", said Stan Sheldon , who played bass on the monster album, during a recent interview.
There is no opening act. The lights come down and " The first thing we do is come out and give 'em cake. We play the entire record, Frampton Comes Alive, in the order it was played in San Fransisco, which is a little different than the order it is on the record. For example,"Lines On My Face " is the third song in the set. There is only a certain amount of time on the record", Sheldon explained.
After a short intermission, the band comes back out on stage and does a blistering set of newer material. " Including alot of stuff from his Grammy winning record, for pop instrumental album of the year", Sheldon said.' that album, Fingerprints, saw Frampton come to the Philly area and sell out the Keswick Theater.
Sheldon is no stranger to Philly. He has played the Tower Theater and JFK Stadium in June of 1976. "I remember playing the Tower back in the day, Sheldon said, As for JFK, "I remember it vividly, it was one of the biggest shows we ever did",Sheldon said. He left the band In the middle of late 1979. He might have played with Peter during his last show at the Spectrum July 24 1979. When told that Climax Blues Band opened, Sheldon was less certain he did NOT play that gig. It's been over 30 years ago.
In 1978 he took a hiatus from Peter Frampton to tour with Warren Zevon, then came back in 1979 for part of the "Where I Should Be" tour.
Stan pretty much dropped out of the touring scene to concentrate on getting his Masters in Latin Studies, "We had not been in touch much while I was attending university, but when John Siomos and Bob Mayo both died very close to each other in 2005, we contacted each other. When Peter played in Kansas City, I went to see him and we talked for a while. He then invited me to play on "Fingerprints", Sheldon said.
"Peter has a large amount of material to chose from, he's going to do alot of material from "Thank You Mr. Churchill, as well", Sheldon said. an added souvieneer offered to fans is a triple CD of the evenings show."The first two are done before the show is finished but afterwards, fans can line up for about 10 minutes or so while the final one is burned, it's pretty damn good quality too", Sheldon added.
When he is not on tour, Stan has been known to give bass lessons. " I was teaching, I was hired to train spanish speakers in EPA certification in this country. Then I started to teach in a music store. I like to teach beginners, folks just starting out", Sheldon said.
Sheldon has also provided the music for Cheech and Chong's Up In Smoke movie. "That's me, Waddy Wachtel, and the band that would later become Ronin. It was a lot of fun and I'd like to to do more movies, they're alot of fun" Sheldon said.
Peter Frampton is an amazing showman. An awesome entertainer. However he has not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That's something that Sheldon seemed a bit perplexed at during the interview. "Peter is so amazing, he's won a Grammy and he deserves to be there.", Sheldon said.
You can catch Peter and Stanley at the Tower Theater February 11. A few tickets remain.
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