FOOTAGE II

Another release by Camel Productions for the fans, featuring some live performances through the years (mostly old time Camel songs, thankfully) and also through the bands lineup changes over the years. This aspect also makes this DVD quite interesting (apart from the fact that it comes signed by Mr. Latimer himself..), allowing the fans to compare live performances from the original lineup, up to the time when only Latimer remains as an original band member.

To me personally, it's mostly the live performances by Andy Ward that catched my eye (a real master behind the drum kit). On Latimer's part, there's also time for some mistakes while playing, that you can forgive with a smile if your a die hard fan, wich will be the case of most everyone who purchases this DVD, I think.

Anyway, the fact that it was Latimer who gave the "OK" to include such "exposing" performances on this DVD demonstrates his got no problems in showing his not without faults, even as a guitar player (who would guess that?).

Regarding the songs, this compilation would't make it as a live CD, due to some glitches. For those purposes, Camel has enough CD's released over the years. But for the fan, searching for Camel footage, other than that available on the internet, with minor quality pictures and sound, this is a must.

Here's another bunch of performances from the various Camel line-ups from the first to the last, at least to this day. The members keep coming in and leaving, but the one thing that doesn't change is the fact that Camel is an extraordinarily tight live band.

The highlights to me are the two numbers by the original lineup (Arubaluba not included, since it's the studio version playing over live footage, as is the case with Lies too), Rhayader (even though I'd rather have seen this with Doug Ferguson playing bass, since his lines are a work of genius), Drafted with great vocals by Chris Rainbow (this was dropped out of Pressure Points video release because of lighting problems I guess, but will appear on the Total Pressure dvd coming sometime in the future) and the very touching acoustic version of Eyes of Ireland.

I wonder if there's still more treasures waiting for a release in the vaults. Anyway, this is an excellent addition to any prog collection and a must have for the fans.

Second Footage, have a good time!

Some years ago a couple of DVDs with the name of "Footage" were released; I previously reviewed the first one, now it is time for the second one.

This DVD contains videos from different Camel performances through the years, from the 70s to the 00s, of course with their different line-ups and musical tendencies, so in my opinion this is a nice way to know this band, and explore in brief moments their different eras. The introduction is "Aristillus" (as it was in the first Footage) and then again, the videos appear in chronological order.

Kicking off with "Arubaluba" performed in 1973 with that classic line-up of Latimer, Ferguson, Bardens and Andy Ward, so here we can appreciate a piece of their earlier works, then a couple of songs performed in 1976 which are "White Rider" and "Another Night", a couple of lesser known songs from their albums I may say, though as good as the well known ones.

Next 5 songs in a row from a performance in 1977 at The Hippodrome; in the first Footage we could see other songs from this same concert, here, with a new line-up including Richard Sinclair and Mel Collins, we can enjoy some beautiful and well played songs, "Rhayader", "Rhayader Goes To Town", "Skylines", "Highways of the Sun" and "Never Let Go", some great songs from 3 different 70s Camel albums, this is probably my favourite part of the DVD, because it shows some of the band´s finest songs.

Next, reaching the 80s shows, we have "Lies" from 1981, and "Drafted" from 1984, a couple of weaker songs from weaker albums as well, or at least not my real cup of tea, so this part might be skipped.

The last part contains 3 songs from 2 different performances during the 00s, the first two from 2000, and acoustic versions of "Slow Yourself Down" and "Eyes of Ireland", where Camel was basically Andy Latimer and Colin Bass, the first song is very nice, while the second one in my opinion is totally beautiful. And the last song is "Fox Hill" which honestly is not their best, Colin Bass´vocals are not my cup of tea at all here, they sing like telling a story, but anyway the music is good I believe.

This is another nice DVD, you can have a good time here without a doubt, it has it's great and not as great moments, exciting and boring songs, but overall it is pretty good, I would recommend it to those who want to go through the different Camel eras, of course if you can know the band well, you should listen to CD albums first, but anyway this is nice.

My final grade 3 stars.

Enjoy it!