CAMEL ON THE ROAD 1982

The second in the series of "official bootlegs", one particularly knowledgeable Camel fan can probably guess the kind of material that will be performed on this live performance. Sure guitarist Andrew Latimer does remark that this is the band's tenth anniversary tour, but it's also the supporting tour for "The Single Factor" album, considered by most to be the worst in Camel's discography. This album was recorded live in the city of Den Haag, in South Holland. Interestingly enough, "The Single Factor" was the best charting album in Camel's history in this country, peaking at #10 on their album charts.

Camel at this point was basically just Latimer backed up by various veterans of the Alan Parsons Project. Vocalist Chris Rainbow and bassist David Paton accompany him on the tour, while bringing along drummer Stuart Tosh, as by this point Andy Ward had left the band due to mental health issues. Another fascinating addition to this tour lineup was the inclusion of keyboardist Kit Watkins, who featured on Camel's similarly mediocre 1979 studio album "I Can See Your House from Here" (yes, there's a lot of songs from that album on this record too.). To put it short, this concert is largely made up of works from Camel's worst albums, so you should know what to expect.

What really gets me is that Latimer indeed remarks early on in the performance that the band is going to play "new and old" tracks from the band's discography. If you look at the actual tracklist and/or listen to the whole performance, then you'll realize he was lying for the most part. All but one of the songs are from the period of 1977-1982, and all but two are from 1979-1982, arguably considered to be Camel's worst period. To make matters worse, the band doesn't play around with the songs, just making bland renditions of what we already heard. If you're a fan of this period of Camel, then perhaps you will enjoy this, but in my opinion you're really not getting anything new from the studio albums besides an 80's style rendition of "Never Let Go" from the band's first album, which is also at the very end of the concert.

And to make matters even worse, from the songs they do play in this concert, many of them aren't even the best cuts. Yes, the band chooses to play throwaway songs like "Neon Magic" over "Ice", and much of the setlist is some of the worst songs from "The Single Factor", such as the bland pop tune "You Are the One" or the comically bad "Manic". The band chooses to include the worst song from 1977's "Rain Dances" in "Highways of the Sun" instead of playing a prog classic such as "Unevensong". I get Richard Sinclair was long gone by this time, and so was Peter Bardens, but even just back in 1978 Camel was playing inspiring live performances with tons of improvisation and a diverse range of songs from the band's incredible discography. This entire effort is not progressive in the slightest, and only really serves to show to the listener that yes, Camel did have the gall to play this kind of music to their fans. I mean, imagine being some Dutch prog fan in 1982 and buying a ticket to this concert expecting to hear some modernized rendition of "Lady Fantasy" and then getting "Wait" instead, especially after Andrew Latimer told you at the beginning of the show that the band would play "older" tunes for the tenth anniversary tour.

"Heroes" is my personal favorite track from "The Single Factor", and I just wanted to mention it because it is on the setlist here, and Paton does do vocals, but you can tell he really can't handle doing the chorus outside of the studio. Another missed opportunity to kick us in the right direction, and the boring "Who We Are" really doesn't do much to improve the mood.

I cannot recommend this to anyone outside of people who really want to listen to all of the Camel live shows. There is nothing new or contrived here that warrants critically analyzing this album, and the deception on the part of the band for wasting their 10th anniversary playing AOR tunes is just sad. It's not that the songs are terrible - yes they are incredibly mediocre - but we should expect better out of a band like this. One star.

OVERALL RATING: 1.3/5

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