NEVER LET GO

"Never Let Go" is the fourth live album of Camel and was released in 1993. It was recorded from a live performance of the band in Enschede, Holland, in 1992, and as with "Camel On The Road 1972", "Camel On The Road 1981", "Camel On The Road 1982" and "Camel 73 ? 75 Gods Of Light", "Never Let Go" is also a live bootleg, a common thing with Camel.

"Never Let Go" is a double live album with twenty eight tracks. It was released to support the live tour of "Dust And Dreams". When "Never Let Go" was released, Camel had eleven studio albums, "Camel" released in 1973, "Mirage" released in 1974, "The Snow Goose" released in 1975, "Moonmadness" released in 1976, "Rain Dances" released in 1977, "Breathless" released in 1978, "I Can See Your House From Here" released in 1979, "Nude" released in 1981, "The Single Factor" released in 1982, "Stationary Traveller" released in 1984 and "Dust And Dreams" released in 1991.

So, as we can see, at the time of "Never Let Go", Camel had already a very extensive and amazing career. But, as many of we know, Camel had some problems with their lines up in the 70's. Camel only had a stabilized line up on their four first studio albums. Of their original line up, Camel saw the departure of Doug Ferguson in 1977 after "Moonmadness", the departure of Peter Bardens in 1978 before the supporting tour of "Breathless" and the departure of Andy Ward after "Nude". Besides that, Camel had also some legal problems. For a few years Andrew Latimer was fighting with lawyers to get some due royalties and to resolve the problems with their former manager. After the end of the contract with Decca, Camel was able to create their own record label, and after seven long years they released "Dust And Dreams".

"Never Let Go" has twenty-eight tracks. From all studio albums of Camel, at the time, almost all are represented here. The only exception is "Stationary Traveller" without any of its tracks represented on "Never Let Go". Thus, from "Camel" we have only one track "Never Let Go". From "Mirage" we have two tracks "Earthrise" and "Lady Fantasy", which is divided into three parts "Encounter", "Smiles For You" and "Lady Fantasy". From "The Snow Goose" we have two tracks "Rhayader" and "Rhayader Goes To Town". From "Moonmadness" we have only one track "Spirit Of The Water". From "Rain Dances" we have only one track "Unevensong". From "Breathless" we have only one track "Echoes". From "I Can See Your House From Here" we have only one track "Ice". From "Nude" we have two tracks "City Life" and "Drafted". From "The Single Factor" we have only one track "Sasquatch". From "Dust And Dreams" we have sixteen tracks "Dust Bowl", "Go West", "Dusted Out", "Mother Road", "Needless", "Rose Of Sharon", "Milk 'N' Honey", "End Of The Line", "Storm Clouds", "Cotton Camp", "Broken Banks", "Sheet Rain", "Whispers", "Little Rivers And Little Rose", "Hopeless Hanger" and "Whispers In The Rain". So, "Dust And Dreams" was entirely performed live.

The line up on "Never Let Go" is composed by Andrew Latimer (vocals, guitars, flutes and keyboards), Mickey Simmonds (keyboards), Collin Bass (vocals, bass guitar and keyboards) and Paul Burgess (drums). Camel gave a very extensive live show, a kind of a nostalgic time trip, a voyage for almost all Camel's studio works, starting from some of their best and oldest musical material in the 70's and ending with what was, at time, their last studio creation. The pieces are largely kept on the originals, but overall appear stronger than on the studio versions. So, it contains some of their best jewels from their various studio albums. We may say that "Never Let Go" is divided into two distinct musical parts. The first disc contains some of their best studio material from some of their best studio albums, and begins with a song from their debut studio album, and goes forth following a perfect chronological order with songs from their first to their eighth studio album. The second disc contains the complete live performance from their eleventh studio album "Dust And Dreams". No major changes have been made to the studio version, but the game is played with more pressure. "Never Let Go" ends with the encore of two songs from other two studio albums, which represents a kind of two bonus live songs of the show, the instrumental "Sasquatch" and the classic "Lady Fantasy".

Conclusion: Another Camel's bootleg live album. What can I say? I can say that we are in presence of another live masterpiece from Andy Latimer and his friends. And once more and despite we are in presence of a live bootleg album, the quality of its sound is once more very good. I even dare to say that it's completely irreproachable. Fortunately, their weakest albums "Breathless", "I Can See Your House From Here" and "The Single Factor" are each represented with some of their very best songs, "Echoes", "Ice" and "Sasquatch". So, "Never Let Go" is a fantastic live album of Camel, and is an excellent place to start your journey through Camel's world, if you aren't used with Camel's music, especially if you want to explore some stuff that desn't belong to the so-called golden era, that comprises their first four studio albums. Overall, "Never Let Go" is one of the best of Camel's numerous live albums due to the great selection of songs.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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