Peter Frampton at the UK Premiere of Frampton, BFI IMAX, London
BFI IMAX, Waterloo, London · 2026
I am Charles Pycraft, a London photographer. Tonight I photographed Peter Frampton at the BFI IMAX in Waterloo, where Doc'n Roll Film Festival gave the UK premiere of Frampton, the new documentary about his life and career. The three frames here were taken on the Doc'n Roll Films step and repeat: two of him alone, and one with Colm Forde and Vanessa Lobon Garcia, the co-founders of Doc'n Roll Films. This piece keeps to what the pictures show and what is on the public record.
The step and repeat
He wore a navy shirt, open at the neck over a black T-shirt, with a pendant on a fine chain, grey trousers and black and white trainers. On his own he stood with his hands in his pockets in front of the red and black Doc'n Roll Films boards, and he smiled in every frame. Then Colm Forde and Vanessa Lobon Garcia, who founded Doc'n Roll Films, joined him for a picture together.
The film
Frampton is directed by Rob Arthur, who has been Frampton's keyboard player and bandleader for many years. It marks the 50th anniversary of Frampton Comes Alive! and follows him from The Herd and Humble Pie to solo fame and sold-out stadiums, using archive footage, interviews and performances from his latest tour. Contributors include Ringo Starr, Bill Wyman, Roger Daltrey, Sheryl Crow, Alice Cooper, Tom Morello, Kate Hudson, Herb Alpert, Nancy Wilson and Cameron Crowe. It runs 104 minutes.
Arthur began filming on Frampton's Finale, The Farewell Tour in 2019, and the project grew into a portrait of the whole career. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival in New York on 4 June 2026 and opened the Newport Beach Film Festival on 15 October. Tonight's 17:30 screening was billed with a Q&A with Peter Frampton, Clive Frampton and Chris Kimsey. When I wrote this I could not find a confirmed UK release date.
Fifty years of Frampton Comes Alive!
Frampton was born in Beckenham, Kent, and went to Bromley Technical High School, where his father taught and was David Bowie's art teacher. He was a teenage star with The Herd from 1966, and in 1969 he formed Humble Pie with Steve Marriott of the Small Faces. In 1970, at a George Harrison session at Abbey Road, the pedal steel player Pete Drake introduced him to the talk box, the effect that became his signature.
Then came Frampton Comes Alive!, recorded in 1975, mainly at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. In 1976 it spent ten weeks at the top of the Billboard chart and gave him Show Me the Way, Baby, I Love Your Way and Do You Feel Like We Do. In the film's trailer Cameron Crowe puts it simply: "He was the guy going on the rocket where no other rocket had gone."
There were lean years after that, and a return. He toured with Bowie on the Glass Spider tour in 1987, and in 2007 his instrumental album Fingerprints won the Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album.
Still playing
In February 2019 he revealed that he has inclusion body myositis, a rare progressive muscle disease, and announced a farewell tour. He kept playing. On 19 October 2024 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Roger Daltrey, and played Do You Feel Like We Do with Keith Urban at the ceremony. On 15 May 2026 he released Carry the Light, his first album of new songs in 16 years, made with his son Julian.
The pictures
Three frames of Peter Frampton at the UK premiere of Frampton, BFI IMAX, Waterloo, London, on 3 November 2026, one of them with Doc'n Roll Films co-founders Colm Forde and Vanessa Lobon Garcia.
Credit: Charlie Pycraft / BACKGRID. Licensing: Backgrid UK Sales, backgrid_uksales@shutterstock.com (Backgrid ID BGUK_3732217)
Also at the premiere: Robert A. Johnson, the Memphis guitarist who played with Isaac Hayes and John Entwistle's Ox.
I photograph premieres, launches and press events in London. For PR and event work, get in touch through charlespycraft.co.uk.