The British Invasion

At one point in the 70's, there was a spike in the popularity of British Rock. The leading light of the resurgence of this genre was Peter Frampton, pictured at bottom Spartan Stadium in San Jose, CA. He's touring as we speak, minus the hair. A year ago, he did a show in New York at the Beacon Theater, recreating the classic album, Frampton Comes Alive. I admit I thought it was the bee's knees and still enjoy it when I hear it. My favorite of the British Invaders was Dave Mason, formerly of Traffic. His album "Alone Together" remains a desert island disc to this day. He's appearing tomorrow in Sausalito at a Labor Day Art Festival. The photograph is from Winterland. The middle man is Gary Wright of Spooky Tooth, in concert at
Winterland in San Francisco, who had a hit or two back then. All three of these gentlemen appeared in festival shows around the country, sometimes with Fleetwood Mac as the headliner. I saw all four together in Oakland at Bill Graham's Day On The Green. I'm too tired to look up the date. Baseball Stadiums are not the place to hear live music. I sat behind the stage at a number of these shows, courtesy of my music director friend, Dana Jang. Our deal was "You drive, I'll get us backstage." The hipster level was very high back then. Not that anything's changed. In 1975, on August 3rd, the lineup was all the above listed bands plus Robin Trower, former lead guitarist for Procol Harum. It was billed as "The British Are Coming."