Camel at the Bridgewater, Manchester

[owen]

Friday night I went to see Tiger Moth Tales, featuring everyone's second favourite keyboard player, but they didn't do any original stuff, just a bunch of Camel covers.

Seriously, really enjoyed it, Pete was brill and (deservedly) got a standing ovation for his sax playing. 2 photos, which probably won't get used in the band's promo shots.

EDIT: Ah bollocks, I can't work out how to upload. Well, you didn't miss anything. I need to shrink the size apparently

[owen]

aha!

[owen]

also this. I told you it wasn't worth while

[D S]

I was at the Newcastle gig last night. Gig of the year for me - absolutely brilliant. I'm a big Camel fan anyway but the addition of Pete into the band has taken them to another level. His keyboard playing was spot on, nailing all the 70s sounds (I'd love to know how he had all the patches and splits set up), his lead vocals gave me goosebumps (best of the 3 lead vocalists) but his sax playing was a revelation. He was even playing sax and keyboards simultaneously during Lady Fantasy! He similarly got huge applause for his solo on Rajaz.
The rest of the band were also on form. You had to remind yourself Andy Latimer is now 69 and had to relearn how to play the guitar after many years of serious illness. Great to finally get to see him and hear his unique tone live. 

[owen]

+1 on the vocals and even more so, the sax. Dunno, I was expecting him to nail the keyboards, which he did in spades! Maybe I’m spoiled. I was expecting Andy to be sitting as I heard he’d been seriously ill recently but he looked great and I don’t know anyone who plays electric guitar so melodically (maybe Steve Hackett, who’s tone is totally different ).
But, honestly, it was a band playing not just a soloist plus someone we know, and that really made it

[sawtooth]

I've always loved Andy's guitar playing as I do Steve Hackett's, because they both play for THE SONG rather than doing a big widdly-spasm all the way through it as so many modern stringsmiths seem to do.

Pete's emulation of vintage keyboards and his use of splits to access multiple sounds at once are even more fantasmagorical when you consider he uses an 18 year old arranger keyboard most of us would think was more suited to home accompaniment. But I tell you he gets better sounds out of that unit than I could coax out of my Fantom G, as I've found to my eternal shame in the rehearsal room The only snag is that the units he uses are pretty much falling apart and I had to drop his spare Technics off at the Birmingham Camel gig in case his tour keyboard failed!

Proof that its not what you use, its how ya use it! 

[rogerg]

George Martin did amazing things with four-track tape.

[tigermoth]

Morning chaps. Just seen this post. Thanks for the kind comments about the band and myself. The gigs were soooo much fun. Everyone was on form and loving it. Some rumours were started  to the effect that this would be Andy's last tour. I don't know where these came from, and I can assure anyone who was wondering that I'm positive that he wants to keep doing this as long as we're all able to. Re my old Technics work horse ... I'm really proud of the old girl, especially considering that the Technics keyboards never really got a reputation as pro keyboards. To me, it seems like the kn6000 was made for prog. It never lets me down, though sometimes it takes a while to create the exact sound I want. But I've used it as the back bone of all my albums and all my live proggy performances. Hats off to me mate Gary for bringing the spare, but it wasn't required in the end. I was having problems with my floppy. ...... Now then. Stop that sniggering. I mean my floppy discs, which I stil use for my presets. No SD cards on that antique thing. Lol. Oh, and I broke a key off it during Hopeless Anger, because I got over excited. But one of the roadies super glued it on and it's stil there. Haha. Rock n roll init!