'Moonmadness' was an album released in March 1976 with the line-up of Andrew Latimer, Peter Bardens, Doug Ferguson and Andy Ward. The guy sitting next to me at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge last night, had first seen the band when he was 13, in Peterborough 42 years ago!
Tonight’s line-up is Andrew Latimer, Denis Clement, Colin Bass and Pete Jones, a band of consummate musicians who start the show by playing the whole of 'Moonmadness' for the first 40 minutes. Time machine stuff!
The acoustics at the Corn Exchange were perfect for a night of Camel classics. Andy Latimer's guitar sounds were as clear as a bell all night long. The keyboard player in the band Pete Jones was amazing and played sax as well as keyboards. at the same time! Camel are like a band reborn. They did play Cambridge around 2-3 years ago on the ‘Snow Goose’ tour , but tonight they just seemed re-energised.
Much like the crowd who were mostly first generation Camel fans and are now in their 60’s and 70’s. There was also a good helping of younger folk in attendance as well. Prog is certainly in a healthy place at the moment with new bands emerging all the time. For tonight’s show half time brought many conversations amongst the friendly crowd. A guy in front even shared his Galaxy Mistrels around!
The second set lasting nearly 90 minutes covered just about every thread of the band’s career. A fine night indeed!
Pete
