Last week (November 16), electric guitar titan Peter Frampton played a show at the Mitsubishi Electric Halle in Düsseldorf, Germany.
The concert was the last scheduled date on Frampton's Finale: The Farewell Tour, which was announced way back in 2019, but partially (the UK/European leg, at least) postponed until this fall due to COVID-19.
Frampton performed the long-delayed European shows seated, due to his ongoing battle with inclusion body myositis (IBM), a progressive muscle disorder that he was first diagnosed with in 2015.
Even still, though, the guitarist gave fans a show to remember, tearing through a 15-song set packed with hits ("Show Me the Way," "Baby, I Love Your Way," "Do You Feel Like We Do") and covers (among them spirited versions of Nickolas Ashford's "I Don't Need No Doctor" and Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun.")
For the grand finale though, Frampton tipped his cap to an old friend, George Harrison, with a gorgeous extended take on The Beatles’ "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." You can see fan-filmed footage of the performance below.
Frampton and Harrison first met at a late 1969 session for Doris Troy's self-titled album, which the latter was producing. Frampton would go on to play acoustic guitar on Harrison's seminal 1970 album, All Things Must Pass.
He was also the quiet Beatle's first call to stand in for an ailing Eric Clapton at the all-star 1971 Concert for Bangladesh, though Clapton did eventually pull through.
Following the "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" performance, and after taking a final bow with his band, Frampton returned to the front of the stage and told the crowd, “I want to let you know I’m going to keep fighting this, so let’s never say never."
He subsequently returned to the stage once more to offer his thanks to "the people you don’t see but make us sound good and look good.
“I have to thank my entire crew," he said, "from the bus driver all the way to lighting and sound… everything. They have done an incredible job and make everything work every night.”
Frampton announced in September that he would perform the European Finale: The Farewell Tour shows seated, telling Classic Rock, “My legs are not good. I can’t stand. That would be dangerous for me now, because I get so carried away when I’m playing that I’m liable to fall over.”
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