Guess what famous guy has heard of Camel - Progressive Rock Music Forum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

Found out about this when reading about the band on Wikipedia and then reading an article on it. Do it.

My wife and I went to see Rick Astley at the Liverpool Echo Arena a couple of years ago. (for her, not me). He was actually quite good though and spoke about music that he had liked, and influenced him, over the years. The next song he sang, he had album covers coming up behind him in rotation on a large screen. The 2 I recall were Camel - Mirage and Rush - Hemispheres.

Oh, for the wings of any bird, other than a battery hen

I’ve heard interviews with him and he is definitely a prog fan. Quite sensibly he avoided playing it in order to get signed and have a career.

Why? There was no opportunity to have a career in prog in the late eighties. If he wanted a career in music he took the best option.

I’ve recently started playing keys in a function band, and we play music I would have turned my nose up at in the past. Now I’m really enjoying it and even getting to like some of it. Just because you’re a prog fan doesn’t mean other music is crap, or you can’t enjoy playing it. Nothing wrong with Never gonna give you up!

Just ask Nick Beggs. Now a bona fide prog master, but started off in Kajagoogoo.

Yes I’ve been rick-rolled.

I don’t like the song much either, but it gave Rick an opportunity, and few of us get that in the music biz.

Gentle and Giant wrote:

My wife and I went to see Rick Astley at the Liverpool Echo Arena a couple of years ago. (for her, not me). He was actually quite good though and spoke about music that he had liked, and influenced him, over the years. The next song he sang, he had album covers coming up behind him in rotation on a large screen. The 2 I recall were Camel - Mirage and Rush - Hemispheres.

My wife's a Rick Astley fan - she'll be gutted at this news! Wink

I have to say I'm quite surprised.

Anyway, surely you all agree that NGGYU is one of 1987's very finest Stock Aitken and Waterman-produced UK number 1 singles? LOL

chopper, did you make that joke up yourself? Wink

I'll try to remember it for a Christmas cracker joke. LOL

Oh, for the wings of any bird, other than a battery hen

Apparently he was really big in England and Europe but is really only known for one big song(never gonna give you up) here in the US(maybe two). That's why I said he's not famous. In the US he's mostly known as a one hit wonder. David Essex is another one who was big in the UK but is only known for one big hit in the US(rock on).

As far as his career choice. Well, maybe he was just more of a pop guy to begin with. It's true in the 80's it was tough to make a living out of prog so in hindsight he probably made the right decision.

Howard Jones(while more in the synth pop direction and not in the same category as Astley)actually was in a prog band in the 70's apparently(probably didn't get very far and I don't even knew their name) so there are other examples of pop musicians who had a familiarity with or some involvement with prog who chose not to go in that direction(for whatever reason).

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - October 14 2021 at 09:29

Obviously one can be fan of very different styles of music, particularly be fan of one style and produce a totally different style. Nothing wrong with that, even if one of the styles is soft pop.

Maybe he could collaborate with Camel and Fish for an album called Rick Astley's Raindances with Fish and Camels.

By the way, if any have somehow escaped the phenomenon of rickrolling (the youtube link in the OP is to "Never Gonna Give You up"):

"Rickrolling, alternatively Rick-rolling or Rickroll, is a prank and an Internet meme involving an unexpected appearance of the music video for the 1987 song "Never Gonna Give You Up," performed by the English singer Rick Astley. The meme is a type of bait and switch using a disguised hyperlink that leads to the music video. When victims click on a seemingly unrelated link, the site with the music video loads instead of what was expected, and in doing so they are said to have been "Rickrolled". The meme has also extended to using the song's lyrics in unexpected places" (Wikipedia).

See HERE (CLICK) for a better explanation of this sort of cultural phenomenon.

Rather than a Rick-roll or a Camel-roll, I'd quite like a The Residents Eskimo-roll (fellow kayakers will know what I am talking about).

Edited by Logan - October 15 2021 at 07:01

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