Peter Frampton tosses fan's phone away during concert
Fed up with a fan flouting a no-recording request, the aging rocker decides to take matters into his own hands and out of them.
Please let me explain the subject of the headline.
Peter Frampton is what used to be called a rocker. He used to have long, curly hair. He is famous (to some) for a twanging wa-wa sound to his guitar and for songs such as "Baby, I Love Your Way" and "Show Me The Way."
Indeed, these two titles somehow suggest that he is an artist who believes there is a way that leads to a happier life.
In his case, it's to take a fan's cell phone and throw it as far as he can.
You might think this intemperate behavior. Even for an alleged rocker. But, as Melissa Schickel explained in OnStage magazine, he is merely a man of forbearance, who will finally snap when principle is flouted.
At a concert Sunday in Carmel, Indiana, there was a stricture against videos and flash photography. This is, perhaps, understandable, save for those who insist that without a video there is no proof that you were at the concert at all.
It seems, though, that two "fans" at the front had no respect. They flashed and they shot video. One had a phone, the other a camera.
Frampton, says Schickel, gestured to them to please stop. In return, one of the couple turned with his back to the stage, so that his partner could take a selfie of him with Frampton in the background.
Perhaps it was this that made the guitarist finally lose his way. Or perhaps it was the fact that security didn't intervene.
So first, he played with his back to the audience. Then the flash photographer retreated. But the gentleman with the phone kept on filming.
Frampton therefore -- with a smile, reportedly -- asked the gentleman if he could see the photographs he was taking.
Instead of actually examining them, he threw the phone as hard as he could toward the rafters behind the stage.
It's not recorded what the alleged fan might have thought of this. However, Schickel says that his female companion still tried to take a flash picture as the concert ended.
Clearly, these were not self-righteous millennials, the sort for whom the world is merely a vehicle for their own self-expression. These were people of more advanced years and regressed sensitivities.
It's common now for people attending concerts to experience them while permanently holding cell phones and staring into their screens. But is this human?
For his own part, Frampton took to his Facebook page to express himself. He wrote: "For those of you from the Carmel, IN (Kah-mull) show who are still scratching your heads as to why I would relieve someone, in the front row, of their phone/camera...Many thanks to the eyewitnesses who came forward to explain how annoying, 'Team Distraction' actually were. And not just to me but everyone arm round them."
Frampton linked to a review written by Jeff Davis. His description was similar to Schickel's, with one deft numerical estimate: "Frampton grabbed the phone from the guy's hand and heaved it at least a hundred and fifty feet behind the stage while never missing a chord."
Now that's a professional.