Camel

Guildford

Camel formed in Guildford, Surrey, in 1971. Andrew Latimer, Andy Ward and Doug Ferguson had been playing as a trio called Brew, and backed the singer Phillip Goodhand-Tait on his album I Think I'll Write a Song that September. The keyboard player Peter Bardens, formerly of Them, then joined. Once he had finished his commitments to his previous band, On, in Ireland, the four became Camel. They first played under the name in December 1971, supporting Wishbone Ash in London.

MCA released their debut, Camel, in February 1973. It did not sell, and the band moved to Decca's Deram label through Gama Records. Mirage followed on 1 March 1974. It missed the British chart but reached 149 in the United States, which earned them a three-month American tour.

The Snow Goose

The success of The White Rider, the Mirage track built on a story, led the band to plan a whole album around one. Bardens favored Hesse, and Ferguson suggested Paul Gallico's novella The Snow Goose. In the summer of 1974 Latimer and Bardens rented a converted farm building near the River Camel and wrote most of the music in about two weeks. Recorded in London in January 1975, with orchestral arrangements by David Bedford, The Snow Goose is entirely instrumental. Gallico objected, so the cover had to read Music Inspired by The Snow Goose, and lyrics drawn from his text were dropped.

Released on 25 April 1975, it reached 22 in Britain, and pieces such as Rhayader became concert staples. On 17 October 1975 the band played the whole work with the London Symphony Orchestra at a sold-out Royal Albert Hall, and at the end of the year Melody Maker readers voted them Britain's Brightest Hope. Latimer said in 1981 that the album pushed the band into the public eye. Moonmadness (1976), the last record by the original four, reached 15. Mel Collins, formerly of King Crimson, joined for its tour.

New line-ups

Ferguson left in early 1977, unhappy with the move toward jazz, and Richard Sinclair of Caravan took over bass and vocals for Rain Dances (1977). Breathless (1978) was the last album with Bardens. Latimer later said the two of them had been stifling each other in the studio. Bardens left on 30 July 1978, just before the tour, and two more former Caravan players, Dave Sinclair and Jan Schelhaas, covered the keyboards. After the tour Richard Sinclair was asked to leave, and Kit Watkins and Colin Bass came in for I Can See Your House from Here (1979).

Latimer's partner Susan Hoover devised the concept for Nude, recorded at Abbey Road in September 1980 and released on 23 January 1981. It follows Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who held out in the Philippines until 1974, unaware the war had ended. Bass sang Drafted, and the album was Camel's last in the British Top 40. In mid-1981 Ward stopped playing because of alcohol and drug abuse, and the band quietly disbanded.

Latimer carried on with The Single Factor (1982), made with session players, and Stationary Traveller (1984). A Hammersmith Odeon show that May, with Bardens guesting, became the live album Pressure Points. When the Decca contract ran out late in 1984, Latimer moved to the United States and disbanded the group.

Camel Productions

After struggling to find a label for Dust and Dreams, Latimer and Hoover set up their own, Camel Productions, in California. Dust and Dreams came out in 1991, followed by Harbour of Tears (1996), Rajaz (1999) and A Nod and a Wink (2002), the last studio album, dedicated to Bardens, who died of lung cancer in January 2002. After a farewell tour in 2003, illness kept the band largely inactive. Latimer had been diagnosed with polycythaemia vera in 1992, learned in 2007 that it had progressed to myelofibrosis, and had a bone marrow transplant that November.

In 2013 Camel re-recorded The Snow Goose and played it in full on tour for the first time since 1975. The Moonmadness tour of 2018 ended at the Royal Albert Hall, and a 2023 tour was cancelled when he needed urgent back surgery. Later that year the Air Born box collected the MCA and Decca years, and in 2025 Latimer began releasing recordings on his own Bandcamp.

Legacy

Camel are considered a principal influence on neo-prog and on Marillion, and Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth and Steven Wilson have both cited them. Prog readers placed The Snow Goose 31st in their 2014 poll of the top 100 prog albums.

The great unsung heroes of 70s prog rock.

Mark Blake