MIRAGE LIVE 14.12.94

A horse designed by a committee?

The line up and track listing say it all. Here we have many of the (some time) members of Camel and Caravan together, performing the classics of both bands. Camel are represented by Peter Bardens and Andy Ward, while Caravan field the Hastings brothers plus Dave Sinclair. Steve Adams, who had previously worked with Bardens, and Rick Biddulph who'd worked with Sinclair round out the line up.

This double CD captures one of the first live performances by the band. The songs are effectively split three ways between Caravan, Camel, and Barden's solo work. They fit well together, although the absence of Andy Latimer's distinctive guitar work is noticeable on the Camel songs.

Whether Mirage actually add anything to the songs is questionable. The performance is as you would expect exemplary, but I can't help feeling that I'd just as soon listen to Camel play Camel, and Caravan play Caravan.

Worth hearing as an interesting historical document, but ultimately superfluous.

Just to see the members of the so call "camel & caravan", is easy to conclude that there's no andrew latmer, or richard sinclair, but even so, the sound is a fine sample of camel and caravan music live... There's a fine selection of music of both bands, and the musician play then with a verry good felling that bring us to a camel or a caravan gig... I recomend this album as a sample of a few good guys that make amazing songs of both bands...

While I'm only giving this album 2 stars, this is a great buy for any serious Caravan and/or Camel fan. Although Richard Sinclair and Andrew Latimer are notably absent, Pye Hastings, Dave Sinclair, Andy Ward, and Peter Bardens (along with some others), put together a nice show.

The set list is made up primarily of popular live tunes from the two bands, but there's a few Bardens solo songs present. Highlights include the usual suspects: Rhayader, 9 ft Underground, Never Let Go, For Richard, and Lunar Sea.

Most of the performance is of course exemplary, but for me it just seems to be missing that "vibe" which made Camel's "A Live Record" and Caravan's "Live at Fairfield Halls" so good. Nonetheless, the record is definitely worth hearing, but only for fans. If you really want to get a good live impression of both bands, take a listen to the aforementioned live records, which are both 4 or 5 star albums in my book.

Playing "The Snow Goose" without Latimer or "Nine Feet Underground" without Richard Sinclair is like playing "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" without Roger Waters or "Penny Lane" without John Lennon. Who cares?

It's a double live and features Bardens, Ward, Jimmy and Pye Hastings and Dave Sinclair, so for us poor Camel/Caravan addicts an album like this is a pure pleasure. Yes, the sounds are different, too clean maybe, specially on "The Great Marsh", but "Song Within A Song" has that piano part that was not in the original version and neither on the one on "A Live Album". Pye Hastings is not the more appropriate singer for this song, but we can survive.

"Speed Of Light" sounds better here than on the studio album. It's not too difficult to imagine as that album is everything but a masterpiece. This live version is less "artificial". Of course it's played by instrumentist instead of by sequencers and the added parts are quite good.

"Tell Me" is quite similar to the original, while "Skylines" is a bit too slow.

Where the band's reputation is to be proof, is on the epic "9 Feet Underground". Too bad, it's only the second half of the song. I suspect that it has been cut for disk space reasons and I hope that sooner or later the original recording will be found and reprinted. It's a pity because this second half is not bad. Of course it has been rearranged, it's more jazzy specially when Jimmy Hastings plays on the sax the solo that was originally played by his brother. The rest is similar enough to the original to be highly enjoyable (you can't change a masterpiece too much. In cases like this I expect to hear exactly the same notes in any solo).

The medley wich follows is nice but as in every medley there's a bit of regret for the parts not played. Specially for what comes from "If I could do...". Let's say that being Pye who sings, the vocal parts better executed are of course those of Caravan. Only Bardens is effectively excellent with both the "bands".

Another test: "Never Let Go"....as I have written, the guitar intro shouldn't have been changed. The two or three notes replaced are very disturbing when you know every "breathe" of that song. The arrangement is closer to A Live Album than to the studio version and I think that the singer here is Bardens, but it lacks the great solo sax of Mel Collins. Also Bardens is using a "whistled" sound for his keyboard solo, that in the original version was sounding like a flute (I thought it was Latimer's flute for years until I saw a live video!!!). Good but not the best version.

It's good to hear something from Breathless. In general I dislike (or I think so) the period between Rain Dances and The Single Factor, but it's a fact that excluding this last one this is the most representative and characteristic sound of Camel, what they'll be remembered for.

I don't remember to have heard the funky-rock "Timepiece" before. It sounds more Caravan than Camel. It's quite good and I can't actually compare it with any studio version.

Now the epic...."For Richard", from my favourite Caravan album. Some guitar is added to the intro. The production for the vocals is better than the "stereo" recording of "If I coud do..." . It's quite a pity as Pye's voice was more dreamy on that album. However also this version makes me dream. Just the uptime section is a bit too fast, but on a live exhibition it can happen.

I don't know where "Journey and "Gunblaster" are from, but I think I've already listened to the first somewhere else.

"Freefall" is a great pleasant surprise, also because the guitar sounds the same notes as Latimer, but the voice....on this song it's crap. I don't know who's the singer here, but this is not the right tonality for him.

"Lunar Sea" is one of the best Camel's songs ever and it's played well, also because it has been played in almost all the Camel's tours so at least Bardens has played it tons of times. The guitar is remarkable. Here it could be Latimer.

Well, you have a compilation of two bands at the price of one plus some Bardens' solo and maybe something else. They are not the best versions ever but if you love the two "twin bands", this is an excellent addition. For all the other people, check out the originals first. I stay on 3 stars. Fans of Caravan and Camel need only the track list, the rating is not influent.

Caramel

In the mid 1990's Peter Bardens put together a band called Mirage, named after the 1974 Camel album. In addition to Bardens himself, this band was made up by previous members of Camel and Caravan including Andy Ward, David Sinclair, Pye Hastings, and Jimmy Hastings. This constellation obviously brought back memories from the 1977-1978 period of Rain Dances and Breathless, when Camel was joined by members of Caravan and Andy Latimer jokingly said that they were thinking of renaming the band "Caramel".

Peter Bardens' Mirage went on the road to perform a mixture of Camel and Caravan material plus songs from Peter Bardens recent solo albums. All of the Camel albums to which Bardens contributed are represented in the set list from Never Let Go from the self-titled 1973 debut to The Sleeper from 1978's Breathless album. 1974's Mirage is represented by Free Fall; 1975's The Snow Goose by The Great Marsh/Rhayader/Rhayader Goes To Town; 1976's Moonmadness by Song Within A Song and Lunas Sea; and 1977's Rain Dances by Tell Me and Skylines. Several Caravan classics are also performed including 9 Feet Underground and For Richard. From Bardens' solo albums there is one track each from 1987's Seen One Earth and 1988's Speed Of Light, and two from 1991's Water Colours. The song Gunblasters would later appear on Bardens' 1995 album Big Sky. The song Lizard On A Rock was previously unfamiliar to me and I still don't know were it is from. It is actually one of the better songs in this set!

The Camel songs are performed slower than the original versions. This works to interesting effect on Song Within A Song which here is given a much jazzier feel, but it is less successful on some of the other Camel numbers. Some of these performances feel a little bit lazy and lacking in energy. Compared to the versions of these songs played live by the "real" Camel (the Andy Latimer-led incarnation of the band) these versions by Peter Bardens' Mirage are clearly inferior. Of the two songs performed from Rain Dances, Tell Me works somewhat better than Skylines. The Camel number that works best here is Lunar Sea. The Caravan songs are similarly not up to par with other versions that I've heard (live or studio). You get the feeling that the band was somewhat underrehearsed at the time of this recording.

The only numbers that one could argue are improved in this format are the solo Bardens tunes. Out of these the two instrumentals originally from Water Colours, Timepiece and Journey, are clearly the better ones. Overall this live album is worth hearing for fans of both Camel and Caravan; good, but not really essential.