A LIVE RECORD

The initial release of Camel's A Live Record felt like a bit of a mixed bag to me, but the remaster with bonus tracks is very welcome. Adding renditions of White Rider and Another Night from the Moonmadness tour to the end of the live rendition of The Snow Goose works quite well as a nice little uplifting encore after the downbeat ending to that particular magnum opus, but the really great improvement occurs on the first CD, which is expanded from a meagre 6 tracks to 11, and in doing so manages to offer a succinct "best of Camel" covering the Mirage to Rain Dances era.

I've grown on Mel Collins' saxophone work in particular, which means I'm especially appreciative of the performances of older material from the 1977 Rain Dances tour, with rearrangements of these classic Camel tracks performed to add in Mel's saxophone.

Even in the old edition, of course, disc two was a Camel fan's delight - a complete performance of the classic Snow Goose album, backed by the London Symphony Orchestra. The band are never upstaged by the orchestra, who are present mainly to add texture, and the occasional flourishes Latimer and Bardens slip into their performances make this an intriguing alternate version of the album for fans.

So I'd revise my old mark for this from three stars to five, provided you retain the extra tracks offered on the superb recent remaster of this set.