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The Magic of Camel
A ride worth taking
Surely most people following the music trends of the early seventies have heard of Camel. They never gained the same public recognition as some of their contemporaries such as Pink Floyd, Yes or ELP but their unique music still stood out as worthy competitors. And still does today.
By 1977 they had achieved sufficient status to be included in the BBC’s worthy series, Sight and Sound in Concert. TV audio was still pretty crap back then so the producers had the ingenious idea of broadcasting the rock concerts on TV simultaneously with the radio. So with careful manipulation of your treasured speakers, you were able to listen to the concert in glorious FM stereo while watching the band on TV, which for most people by then was probably a rented colour set. This was seriously hi tech Nirvana.
After the release of their breakout album, The Snow Goose, Camel acquired a respectable following. This largely consisted of awkward teenage males, somewhere between A level and university age, give or take, normally spotted by their rash of acne, serious demeanour and wearing an army greatcoat, or Navy or RAF, available from all good High Street charity shops for around a fiver. The more affluent of us may have even worn a very smelly Afghan coat that by the eighties had all crawled off to die somewhere, as they succumbed to their own…
