The reason I say this is that the only way I could see some of the band was second hand through a mobile phone display from someone in front of me, the second issue was the seating in the Arena area of the Albert Hall. If you had somebody tall in front of you then you either got a stiff neck from trying to look over their shoulders or through their mobile phone screens or put up with seeing what you could see when they moved.
Now let's move onto the good stuff, the band came on stage and immediately launched into Moonmadness, the first Camel album I bought almost 40 years ago. Some bands strive to copy the album experience on stage, some bands don't even try, Camel don't do either of these. They take the original music and wind it up, not to an 11 but to a 12. These are four men thoroughly relaxed and obviously enjoying themselves on stage while playing music completely and utterly flawlessly.
The band is led by the legend that is Andy Latimer, the only original member and writer of most of the music. Dave Gilmour may play guitar to perfection, but Andy brings the guitar alive and can make it laugh and cry. In my humble opinion he is the best by far.
We have on bass guitar, the aptly named Colin Bass, he ambles round on stage effortlessly strumming away at his guitar and singing along on vocals and is a wonderful musician in his own right. A really nice person to talk to and very down to earth.
On drums we have Denis Clement, I'm sure he grows a couple of extra limbs while on stage and he is the rhythm behind the bands playing.
Finally we have the newcomer, Pete Jones. Pete lost his eyesight at 15 months and is in my opinion a musical Daredevil. Apart from a brilliant singing voice he is also superb on keyboards and to trump this he picked up a saxophone and came up with some amazing sax solos. In the past you used to hear Mel Collins on the saxophone during a concert. Pete blows him away and again is an amazing talent in his own right.
Put all these four people together and you get an amazing quartet called Camel, far more than the sum of all four corners. This concert had the most energy of any concert I've attended, the only failing was that it should have gone on longer.
I hope a new album and tour are on the horizon, myself and the rest of the fans that filled the Albert Hall want this, long may the beast of the desert continue to wander and brighten up our lives with it's music. Through this band I have come to know people of all cultures, religions and nationalities, united in the love of the music, the United Nations of Camel.
Back to mobile phones, I decided not to take a camera, I did take my phone and snapped a few pictures, but most of the time I let the music wash over me. Here's the pictures I took.
You complain about people using mobile phones and then show us photos you took with your mobile pnone? Hypocrite!
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