CAMEL ON THE ROAD 1981

"Camel On The Road 1981" is the sixth live album of Camel and despite be recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, England, in 1981 by the BBC, it was only released sixteen years later in 1997. As happens with "Camel On The Road 1972" and "Camel 73 ? 75 Gods Of Light", "Camel On The Road 1981" is also a live bootleg. But, despite the similarity of these three live albums, "Camel On The Road 1981" is a different live album compared with the other two. "Camel On The Road 1972" and "Camel 73 ? 75 Gods Of Light" have some similarities because they were both recorded in the 70's in the golden era of Camel, three of the live versions of the songs are based in the same original songs of the band, and finally, the line up of these two live albums are the same and corresponds to the original and that is also considered the best and most important of the band. Relatively to "Camel On The Road 1981", despite have three old songs from the 70's, this is a live album based in the Camel's sound of the 80's and has a completely different line up.

Anyway and despite all I said before, "Camel On The Road 1981" is also an important landmark in the history of Camel. It was the last album featuring the original drummer of the band Andy Ward. In the mid of 1981, Andy Ward stopped playing drums due to alcohol and drugs and years latter it emerged that Andy Ward had attempt suicide. So, with the departure of their former bassist Doug Ferguson in 1977, the departure of their former keyboardist Peter Bardens in 1978 and the departure of their former drummer Andy Ward in 1981, their guitarist Andrew Latimer remains the only former member on the group, despite some occasional fleeting appearances of Peter Bardens as a guest musician.

So, the line up on "Camel On The Road 1981" is Andrew Latimer (vocals, guitar and flute), Jan Schelhaas (keyboards), Kit Watkins (flute and keyboards), Colin Bass (vocals and bass) and Andy Ward (drums).

"Camel On The Road 1981" has thirteen tracks. We can clearly divide the album into two distinct parts, the old songs and the new songs. The three initial tracks correspond to the old songs and the remaining ten to the new songs. So, the first track "Never Let Go" was originally released on their eponymous debut studio album "Camel". The second track "Song Within A Song" was originally released on their fourth studio album "Moonmadness". The third track "Lunar Sea" was also originally released on "Moonmadness". The fourth track "City Life", the fifth track "Nude", the sixth track "Drafted", the seventh track "Docks", the eighth track "Beached", the ninth track "Landscapes", the tenth track "Changing Places", the eleventh track "Reflections", the twelfth track "Captured" and the thirteenth track "The Last Farewell" are all songs that were originally released on their eighth and most recent studio album, at the time, "Nude".

The album opens with the inevitable "Never Let Go", which is put down nicely here. "Song Within A Song" remains a beautiful song and in this line up it gets an extra dimension because of the duel between Latimer and Schelhaas. "Lunar Sea" is here almost two minutes longer than the original and the version on "A Live Record". Especially on this piece, having those two keyboard players pays off. The music sounds richer, fatter and better thought through. This is a very nice version. "Nude" is a fantastic album, but also a child of its time. There are shorter, more pointed parts, more songs than Camel produced before that time. On the other hand, you can also consider the album as a whole. In that sense, the lack of four pieces and some order changes is a bit annoying, because the connection is gone. But, musically, the band puts a little more fire in the music than can be heard on the studio versions, making the album a bit more bombastic and sounding more exciting. So, you can hear the audience react very enthusiastically in some parts of the show. So, "Camel On the Road 1981" has some nice extra touches, and a final curtain call for the talented Andrew.

Conclusion: I like Camel's sound of the 80's and "Nude" is, for me, their best work in the 80's. I think Camel passed with honour and elegance by those troubled times for the prog rock music, better than some many other contemporary bands. So, I've no problems with "Nude". As I wrote above, "Camel On The Road 1981" has two distinct musical parts, the old and the new songs. The three old songs are some of my favourite songs of Camel and they're all great live versions. They've some modern keyboard sound, especially due to the presence of two keyboardists. I like particularly of the live version of "Never Let Go" and the extended version of "Lunar Sea". In relation to the new songs, "Nude" is a conceptual album and I think that would make sense performed live the entirely album and not a punch of songs of it. By the other hand, "Nude" has few lyrics. It's essentially an instrumental album and it should have been differently performed live with more creativity and improvisation. As it was the live presentation of "Nude", probably they didn't want changed it very much. But, it doesn't bring practically anything new to the studio version. So, "Camel On The Road 1981" isn't a very cohesive and balanced live album. Still, don't get me wrong, "Camel On The Road 1981" isn't a bad album. Despite lack to it some musical creativity and improvisation, it's a solid album that deserves 3 solid stars.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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