Camel

Another vote for Rain dances.
Regards
Steve

A big yes for Rain dances.... Live is also good, Snow Goose is pretentious and I quite enjoy it. Moon Madness and Nude are OK. Memories of seeing them live at the Birmingham Odeon ('77?) are tinged through being beaten up afterwards.

Thanks chaps.....onto Amazon/101/play now

Cheers

Keith.

Mirage...

The first album, informatively titled "Camel" -- in many ways, the best of the lot. I got it in 1973, on the strength of which I saw them live the same week, with about 40 other people. In the early days Pete Bardens played his Hammond B3 through a Schaller Rotosound unit (into a HiWatt stack, IIRC) rather than the usual miked Leslie. This arrangment was clearly also used on the album, and it gave the band a very distinctive sound, most of which was later lost IMHO.

"Mirage" is excellent, also "Rain Dances". I also like "The Snow Goose" a lot -- pure music.

See also: Pete Bardens solo effort "Heart to Heart" -- much more seminal Camel than actual, later Camel.

Best;

Mark

"Breathless" and "Rain Dances" are on the way courtesy of 101, will try these 2 first

Thanks again

Of the 4 I have I would put

Mirage and Nude ahead of Moonmadness and Snowgoose.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Alan Ball:
Early Camel lean more towards a Barclay James Harvest type of sound with a bit of ELP/Floyd/Genesis/King Crimson thrown in for good measure. 'Mystic Queen' from 'Camel' could slot quite easily into the middle of 'Echoes' from PF's 'Meddle'.

---

Alan, when I first read that I thought "Pardon?", but actually you're dead right. I think quite a lot of it may be down to using a Mellotron, though (not that ELP ever did AFAIK!). Whenever I play "Camel", I end up wanting more after the 2nd side (wish it had been a double), so it's great to have the others.

Best;

Mark

... which Camel album was it which had a track starting with a beer bottle being opened, then poured?

Damned if I can remember, and I can't find it on any of ours...

Mark, It's on Mirage. Haven't checked the exact place but I think it's between track 3&4 (ish) on side 1. Always made me smile too....

Best wishes,

Bob.

Looks like I'll just have to go and listen to Mirage tonight (and open a bottle of beer obviously)

Mirage listened too, its still v. good. and beer drunk (Arran Gold, also very good if anyone's interested here).

The bottle is opened at the end of Supertwister.

From the Insert...

Andy Ward: drums, cans, bottles & Body Mist

Thinks: [shit, where's it gone?]