Directly after he'd delivered one of his biggest hits, a very good account of Show Me The Way, the former bubble-haired rock god - now 55 and bald - sang: "Standing in the spotlight, it's hard to know the truth."
If anyone has stood in the spotlight then learned the lie of fame, it is Peter Frampton. His huge seller Frampton Comes Alive in '75 tossed him into the ranks of the superstars, only to see him jettisoned when his follow-up album, I'm In You tanked by comparison.
He lost a swag of money, and punk wiped the slate of stadium rockers.
Yet the cheerful, witty and gently self-mocking Frampton, who played to a capacity house, delivered as if it had never mattered to him.
He joked about his lack of hair, quickly got some of the hits off That Album out of the way early (which made you wonder what else he could offer) and addressed tracks off his new album Now - such as I Need Ground and the encore of George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which I doubt his fans even know exists.
Frampton was a little let down by the lack of visual and musical dynamics from his small band but seemed content to carry the attention, notably for his undiminished guitar playing, which was met with great applause. He is of that generation which likes guitar solos. It must be said, however, that one solo did tend to merge into another.
But he was still in excellent voice, can really play those guitars, and over 80 minutes delivered the hits and more, closing the show before the encore with what we had come to hear, a feisty (but slightly tongue-in-cheek) Do You Feel Like We Do, complete with that voice box thing which makes his guitar talk, and offering thanks to the band just as he did on That Album - which many are doubtless playing again for the first time in years.
<EM>Peter Frampton</EM> at the ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre
Peter Frampton
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