George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh has gone down in history as the first all-star benefit rock concert. The former Beatle called upon many of his famous musical friends to perform at the two shows for humanitarian relief in the war-torn country, which were held August 1, 1971, at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
Fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr played, as did Bob Dylan, guitarists Jesse Ed Davis and Don Preston, keyboardists Billy Preston and Leon Russell, and the rock group Badfinger, among a host of others.
One person who was invited but didn’t play? Peter Frampton.
The guitarist was five years away from becoming a megastar with the release of his 1976 live smash, Frampton Comes Alive! At the time he was still performing in Humble Pie, which is why he was in New York City. The band was touring England and the U.S. that summer and spending what free time remained at Electric Lady Studios, where they were mixing their 1971 live breakthrough, Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore, recorded the previous May 28 and 29.
“On the weekends, we’d fly off to perform, opening the bill for many different artists, and on weekdays we’d be at Electric Lady Studios in New York with Eddie Kramer, mixing the Rockin’ the Fillmore album,” Frampton recalls to Guitar Player.
Frampton knew Harrison. He had performed lead electric guitar alongside him on singer Doris Troy’s self-titled album, produced by Harrison for the Beatles’ Apple Records. He had also played acoustic guitar on All Things Must Pass, Harrison’s first post-Beatles solo album.
“I knew I was going to see George’s shows, and I asked if he needed me to play guitar,” Frampton explained, “but they were overbooked with guitarists.”
I knew I was going to see George’s shows, and I asked if he needed me to play guitar, “but they were overbooked with guitarists.”
— Peter Frampton
Indeed they were. In addition to Harrison, Davis and Preston, the shows would feature Eric Clapton, who was making his first live appearance since his late 1970s shows with Derek and the Dominos.
Depressed over that band’s failure, the death of Duane Allman and his unrequited love for Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, the guitarist had fallen into heroin addiction and withdrawn from recording and touring. Harrison had recruited him for the concerts, hoping it would help pull him out of his decline.
Frampton accepted the news with grace. “I wished him all the best with the show,” he says, “and told him I’d come see it.”
Unexpectedly, the guitarist soon found himself invited to dine with Harrison and Pattie, while they were in Manhattan.
“Afterwards, we went back to the Pierre [Hotel], and he invited me up to their suite,” Frampton continues. “There were two electrics sitting by the window, and maybe one or two little amps. George asked if I wanted to play some guitar, and I said, ‘Yeah, sure,’ trying to keep my excitement under control.
“And without a word, he just started running through the songs they were going to do. My mind started going 14,000 miles an hour. I couldn’t understand why we were doing this if the guitar positions for the concert were filled.
“We must’ve played six to 10 songs, and he was checking me out to see if I was up to speed, which, of course, I was. How can you not be when it comes to the Beatles’ songs?”
But to Frampton’s confusion, Harrison said nothing about performing at the concert. In the days afterward, the guitarist flew south to play a couple of shows with Humble Pie.
As he takes me backstage, he pulls me right into Bob Dylan, who gives me the ‘I could slice your head off with the back of my hand’ kind of look.”
— Peter Frampton
Meanwhile, in New York City, the behind-the-scenes drama around Clapton escalated as the August 1 concert date arrived. The guitarist, suffering through heroin withdrawal was bedridden throughout his stay in the city and had been unable to make any of the rehearsals.
Frampton returned to New York on the day of the show. “I’d missed the first one, but I planned to go to the second, and so I picked up my tickets and backstage pass,” he says. “I watched the entire show, and at the end, I made my way to the side of the stage.”
When he got there, he didn’t get the welcome he expected.
“Terry Doran [Harrison’s personal assistant] saw me, and his eyes got really big,” Frampton continues. “He said, ‘Where have you been!?’ I said, ‘What do you mean? I’ve been on the road.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, but we had no way of getting hold of you!’
Frampton was thoroughly confused.
“And Terry says, ‘Well, George wants to speak to you!’
“So as he takes me backstage, he pulls me right into Bob Dylan, who gives me the ‘I could slice your head off with the back of my hand’ kind of look.”
Doran delivered the guitarist to Harrison, who explained their growing terror as the concerts approached and Clapton appeared unable to perform.
“This was during his heavy drug phase,” Frampton says. “Whether he had some or was trying to give them up, I don’t know. But when he wasn’t able to rehearse, they tried to get hold of me, because they wanted me there — just in case.
“I asked George and Terry, ‘You mean you wanted me to play?’ And they said, ‘Yeah.’”
In the end, a cameraman from the crew hired to film the shows provided Clapton with methadone, which made him well enough to perform both shows.
“I’m glad that Eric was able to play somehow, since a lot of people would’ve been very disappointed if he didn’t, especially George,” Frampton says.
“The last thing I wanted to be was a stand-in for Eric Clapton. I would’ve done it if George had gotten hold of me and the situation was more dire. But I’ll never know how dire it actually was.”
