CAMEL ON THE ROAD 1972

At last a live CD from the classic Camel line up in the very beginning. Those ´official bootleg` series were a good way to release some otherwise very hard to find Camel´s rareties like this one (they can be found on bootlegs, but not surprisingly the production is usually of poor quality). Although I think the date is wrong (would the group be playing their most outstanding numbers like Lady Fantasy and White Rider at the time and leave them out from their first album? I doubt it), those perfomances are great. The sound is not perfect of course, but really superior than I initially thought it would be. Mercifully, there are no drum solos.

The CD´s (or EP´s) real shortcoming is its playing time (just over 44 minutes). There are only 4 songs on it and the first three (Lady Fantasy, Six Ate, White Rider) are terrific, showing the amazing chemistry between Andrew Latimer, Peter Bardens, Doug Ferguson and Andy Ward. The fourth song is an instrumental jam called God Of Light Revisted and it seems to be those guys trying to sound like Santana (Soul Sacrifice comes to mind more than once while I hear it). Not their best, but interesting anyway.

Not really essential, but a nice exemple of how good the original Camel was on stage and certainly a great treat for fans. Rating: 3,5 stars.