(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Thu 7 August 2025 20:00, UK
Not every great artist is destined to be as big as their fans want them to be.
It’s hard for anyone to make a sizeable dent in the charts, and even if they managed to beat the odds and come out on top, there are only so many opportunities for them to make the right hook before people start either getting bored of them or start wondering what else is out there other than the same old pop songs.
While David Bowie knew the importance of switching things up now and again, he also knew how to bring some attention to people who needed to have the light shone on them a bit more.
Then again, Bowie was far from the most accessible pop star to begin with. He always made it a habit of going to something different on every single album, and while that made everything exciting for new fans, it also meant that people who loved one era would be disappointed in his later years. He had no interest in playing ‘Ziggy Stardust’ for the rest of his days, but who cared when there were more exciting characters like ‘The Thin White Duke’ and ‘Aladdin Sane’?
But when the 1980s started, Bowie had to settle into one of his most uncomfortable costumes yet: an MTV star. His sense of theatricality was almost made for the ’80s, and when he strutted out onstage with albums like Let’s Dance, he held the entire world in his hand for the first half of the decade. He was one of the biggest draws at Live Aid, but he knew he could push himself further if he wanted to.
He needed to progress, but compared to his other experiments, projects like Tonight and Never Let Me Down went a bit too far in places. The 1980s may have been kind to many of Bowie’s contemporaries, but when he refers to this period as his “Phil Collins years”, that wasn’t exactly a compliment. He had officially become a commercial pop star, but at least he got to bring Peter Frampton out of obscurity.
It’s not like the guitar god had gone anywhere, but it was clear that his career was in need of a boost. Frampton Comes Alive was phenomenal for its time, but an album like I’m In You would have been enough to wipe out anyone else’s career, let alone someone who was still building momentum. So when Bowie finally reached the big time, he knew now was as good a time as any to help out his old friend.
When talking about bringing Frampton out on tour, Bowie felt the need to give him the chance to wow audiences again, saying, “We played with each other at various times and all the while I saw this dreadful stuff happening to him in the 1970s. It was all getting lost that he was a great guitarist. The camera moved away from his fingers, and he hated that. It was apparent that he was back on the train again on the Stevie Nicks tour and really wanted to play.”
Outside of the great music he contributed to Never Let Me Down, not everything was a walk in the park. Having Bowie help save your life after almost dying in a plane accident was one thing, but it was all worth it to get those few hours onstage. He wouldn’t be going on the same long stretches that he did in his prime, but he knew there were more than enough opportunities for him to shred whenever he had the chance.
Frampton’s career may not have been completely flatlining, but Bowie’s offer to expose him to a new audience was the shot in the arm he needed. Humble Pie and his solo career may have been one facet of his career, but now the door was open for him to work with a whole new generation of players.
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