I JUST discovered CAMEL. I heard about them by a band called OPETH, a Swedish Death Metal band. They have a song on their Damnation CD called "Ending Credits", and on their live DVD they play the song and at the end, the singer announces that the song is a complete rip off from a band named CAMEL. Needless to say, i really liked that song so I had to check out CAMEL, and boy am I glad I did!! I only have Mirage and Snow Goose, but plan on purchasing more. I really like the instrumentals these guys do. I also like this website. It is VERY informative and I have learned a ton about CAMEL through this site.
Thanks for such a cool site.

Rajaz Comments: Thanks Craig for your email. I have Opeth's, Lamentations DVD and "End Credits" is also played on it with reference to Camel. Great track but I have not yet worked out which Camel track the guitar riff is taken from? Have you or anybody got any idea? Email me if you have the answer

OK let's talk about one of the greatest bands ever. It's disappointing that Camel/Andy Latimer did not get greater recognition but on the other (selfish) hand I feel that because they didn't the music is much more personal to me - does that follow?? I am a true fan and first saw Camel at the mature age of 16 at good old Hammy Odeon. Like Andy I am a Brit who has "Gone West". I have checked out your website and signed the guest book. You have done a great job: I really enjoyed the site and know I will be back. Moreover you have answered a long standing suspicion of mine that I don't believe Andy includes in his bio. That is that Susan Hoover is his wife - does she have a music industry background?

As for memorabilia I once owned but lost a Camel bracelet. OK it was only stainless steel but the Camel lettering as seen on Moonmadness was pretty smart. If you know of one please let me know - I would like to buy/borrow and use as a template to make a gold one now that I can afford it!!

Are you an "old school" Camel fan or have you discovered them more recently? Judging by your wife's musical tastes (similar to my first wife) I am guessing you also go back a few years!

Well its been great chatting to another who appreciates Camel - best wishes.

Rajaz Comments: Thanks for your comments about my web site. Although the site has only been going for about a year I have been a Camel fan for around 25 years. The first album I heard was Rain Dances and has remained my favourite ever since. Unfortunately I did loose contact during the 7 year gap and did not realise they were still going strong until the release of Rajaz. I feel so guilty that I did not follow up my passion at the time and decided to create a web site to compensate for my lose, this being the best thing I have ever done. Due to this unfortunate gap I have not seen Camel live since the 10th anniversary tour, (what a lose). But I now intend to make up for that lost time by attending both the UK gigs.

First of all my complements for your interesting site. The graphics are fantastic ( I am an art-director) and the real Camel fan can find a lot of news from one of the best bands in the world. It was disappointing that all the concerts in Holland were cancelled, but at this moment the health of Guy Leblanc's wife is more important. Ofcourse in October 2003 I will visit (together with my girlfriend Gerda) all the concerts, just as the last tour. We both are collecting all the music from Camel on vinyl, CD, video and now DVD. My favourite number of all is " Stationary Traveller ". When I first bought it on vinyl the record has been on my player for about 6 weeks. Since then I had to buy the record for several times, because o a certain day you wil hear the scratches. I always say: when I die they have to play that number (fortunately I am in a good condition, so this may happen for about over 50 years). We both wish you a lot of success and we hope to get a lot of information in the future.

Regards

Paul Kalkhove

Rajaz Comment: Many thanks about the comments on my site. I am really pleased that so many fans are getting some pleasure from it. As you are an art director I am very surprised and pleased that you consider the graphics are fantastic as I am only a one man band and only picking things up as I go along.

Hola Allan,

Thank you for your e-mail. Your web site it´s a great one because it really shows you passion about the music of our favorite band and also one of the best bands ever: Camel. When I read that Camel is having trouble to book tour dates beacuase the lack of interest from promotors, it's something simply I can't understand. Camel is one of the greatest music concerts available anywhere!!! This tour is going to be my first Camel concert, I live in Akumal, Mexican Caribbean, 70 miles south of Cancun, and I will fly all the way to Mexico City to see Camel in concert this July 4 and 5 ( of course I will go to the 2 shows!). I am really excited!!!

Alan, thanks again for your e-mail, and mainly for all of the time you've spent developing your web site and share with all of us Camel fans your passion for the the best prog band ever: CAMEL.

Buena suerte compadre!

Jorge Palma

Rajaz Comment: Jorge, developing this site brings me great pleasure and to receive feedback such as your is simply a bonus.

Name : Dave Giese
Country : USA
Town : Atlanta

I have always "liked" Camel over the years but never really "got it" until I had the pleasure of viewing the live dvd concert.
I really can't describe how much this music means to me.
Andy and his bandmates simply take me to another place while they play.
And to see them play this music really puts it in perspective for me.
I get to see them on July 1 here in Atlanta Ga. USA and am looking forward to it in a big way.
I hope somehow Camel can stay alive and continue to play and write music.

They are soooooooooooooooo good it is simply amazing.

Kind regards,
Dave Giese from Atlanta

___________________________________________

Hi Allan,

lately I have been enjoying "A nod and a Wink", what a great piece of music.
Sure you can put my email on your very nice website!
You may want to edit it though, I wrote it at lightning speed.
I am a huge prog fan and also like Flower Kings, IQ, Marillion, Kansas, Collage, Satellite, and a zillion others.
But Camel is really starting to get to me, such powerful music.
Damn near brings me to tears at times, it's so "sweet", but not in a corny
way.
Worst problem is finding Camel music for a fair $, it's very expensive to
buy the imports, as we have 2 children too...

Peace, thanks for the communication.
Dave

Name : David Saunders
Country : Scotland

Hi,
Found your site by accident and must admit is is excellent. Have been a fan of the finest Brit band ever since 1974 and followed them everywhere. Cannot count the number of times I have seen the band live but started in
1976 and saw them last in Glasgow during the Rajaz tour. Must admit that new album is their finest moment since Snow Goose and such a pleasure to hear Andy still producing the 'goose bumps' even after 30 years. How does
this man do it? The most under-rated (not by me of course) guitarist in rock history and a man with the most incredible sense of melody in his music. I would love to use some of the contacts on your site to discuss
Camel and some criminally neglected bands across the world.

Regards
David

Rajaz comments - Many thanks for the feedback about the site. It appears most fans just stumble across the site. It have not been up and running that long and I have not yet had much success with search engines although I do have the privilege of having a link on the Camel Productions site.

You most certainly can use the contacts on the site as that's the reason I put them there. You can also use the Forum although, unfortunately, not many fans have joined it yet. Can I publish you email on the site as it does reflect your passion for Camel ?

Hi Allan,

Thanks for coming back so soon and appreciate your comments. While you say your site has not been up that long, I think it is excellent and I will pass the link to a number of my friends who are Camel fans - let's be honest, there is nothing better than spreading the word about the best band on the planet is there?

I would be more than happy for you to publish my comments on the site and look forward to providing more in the near future. I hope that Andy and Co play the UK as part of their final tour. I can fully understand the difficulties that he faces, both logistically and financially, trying to tour around the globe and we should all be extemely grateful that he has made the effort over the last few years - even to the
detriment of his health - to come over the water and entertain us. Having seen them so many times, I would be more than happy to view and accept a final gig as long as Andy keeps on producing the studio goods. IMHO, ANAAW is their finest hour since Snow Goose and they have produced some superb
material since the heady days. My wife and I will travel anywhere in the UK when and if he comes over this year. I gave her a copy of 'Nude' (on plastic in those days) when we met for the first time in 1981 so how romantic is that lol. That made her a committed fan.

Take care and well done on an excellent site. Thanks again for coming back to me.

David

Rajaz comments - IMHO, ANAAW ? any idea, sounds like a good quiz question to me.

Name : Frank Schoutrop
Country : Netherlands

talking about LIve Albums I am pretty sure that every album has its own value. This appears to be a normal thing but the special thing about it is that every song is payed in a different way or setup.My most favourite song: Hymn to Her is on two Live Albums but still very different .When Coming of Age came out I thought: this is the hottest thing I ever will have in my collection....Since The Paris Collection got its place in my collection there are two hot things in there...
About Studio Albums: I can see your house from here was my first album I bought. At that time a superb one. When Nude came out everything was changing...And right now after A Nod and a Wink I can't live a week without Having heard it at least once.....In the beginning I had to listen it a couple of times...but you more and more discover beautiful pieces in it and at the end: it is a beautiful album!! I am very sad about the news that Camel will not tour after 2003 anymore...however ..I know that I have to accept that due to elements which force the band to take this decision.
I will for sure attend every gig in the Netherlands to make sure that I have the latest sound walking through my brains for the next 20 years......
The last 10 years I saw them about 3 times..It was smashing........
Best regards to all fans all over the worlds

Rajaz comments - Thanks Frank for your e-mail. I was going to add you comments as reviews for various albums but felt it expressed your feeling for Camel music much better as it is.

Hi Allan,

I was in a rush before. Wanted to ask you a couple of things.
No, I haven't found the "Hidden Demo" in "Fox Hill", just a lucky guess. How do I find it? About "Straight To My Heart", I wasn't sure about Andy's father's guitar, but did you know the red guitar Andy refers to was Hank Marvin's? Maybe they were both red. I have an interview somewhere were Andy says that when he was young he was sort of "in love" with Hank Marvin. Another song he speaks of is "Shout", which you may or may not know is about Andy Ward. At the time they weren't speaking, but since then they have made up. The interviews were in the Classic Rock Society journal. Great stuff too.

Have you got the latest interview with Andy in Progression magazine? If so, is it worth getting just for that?

Fingers crossed for Camel to come to the UK soon. Saw them in 2000 and it was simply the best gig I've ever seen. Met them too, great guys all of them.

I adore this band, can you tell?!

All the best,
Jenny.

Rajaz comments - You may well be very right about Straight to my Heart. Perhaps I should have carried out deeper research before I added the question. Checking the lyrics again I did assume that the red guitar was linked to his fathers band. It certainly sounds like you are correct and I do apologise for my error. I will amend or delete the question. (I don't suppose you could write the next quiz?)

Question 10 of the quiz has now been amended so if you read this e-mail from Jenny you will know the correct answer - Thanks Jenny

Name : Ian Evans
Town : Swansea
Country : UK

Name : Dave Pagden
Town : Cambridge
Country : Canada

Hi Allan,
Got your latest newsletter, it was interesting to find out that the older stuff was still very popular in the survey of Camel releases. I generally find that the newer music has improved and got more melody, compared to the 70's and 80's. I cannot understand why single factor, Breathless and I can see your house from here, is marked low in the opinions poll.

There are a lot more variety on these cd's? maybe is because I also like Caravan and Stackridge.

I highly recommend Friendliness, Mr Mick and Man In the Bowler Hat by Stackridge.
Caravan, For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night, Waterloo Lily and in The Land of Grey and Pink.

In my opinion Genesis were at their prime when they had Anthony Phillips and Steve Hackett. After that period they went down hill in terms of Progressive Rock.

Andrew Latimer has been the catalyst in Camel alive since the early 70's., he has kept the Camel music flowing over the years despite various musician changes and I can assure you that there is not many bands out there that have kept there consistency over the years. These include Tangerine Dream, Genesis, Marillion and Emerson Lake and Palmer. I love these bands but each time you buy a new cd the music is not what you expected. At least with Camel Is hard to hate the music and their very consistent, but saying that, each cd is different.

In my reviews I've often commented that some of their latest pieces is OK , In other words your happy with the purchase and the more times you play the CD, it becomes excellent and then brilliant.

It's true
Dave

___________________________________________

Hi Allan,

I asked this question to you several months ago, which track did Phil Collins appear on as a guest appearance on the ' I can see your house from here'
Having searched the Web, it was actually on the track 'Ice'.

Thanks Dave

Rajaz comments - I asked Dave where he got the information from, please see his reply below. I have now added this information to my review of the album. Cheers Dave

___________________________________________

Hi Allan,

The answer came originally from the album or cd Echoes. This was never mentioned on the original cd, 'I can see your house from here'!. Apparently Phil Collins saved the day.

Quote,
To both the band and onlookers alike, Andrew Latimer wanted to re-do the track because one intro note was too flat. Protestations exploded, but it was Phil Collins who saved the day. When invited by producer Rupert Hine to add his unique touch of percussion style, he to agreed that "Ice" was perfect and needed no dubbing. ' Ice' was originally called "Endangered Species,"

I think I would like Camel to visit either Canada or England, I've never seen Camel in concert.

Thanks Dave

___________________________________________

My Story

I can gladly say that since I first contacted you, I have got all the Camel Cd's. I have always been keen on Camel, since I first heard them on the Old Grey Wistle Test, back in 1975. My first record was Snow Goose. At this time, my favourite groups were ELP, The Nice, Refugee, Greenslade, Colosseum 11, Genesis, Brand X and Nova.

By the early 80's, someone lent me an LP of Tangerine Dream, since that period I got extremely hooked on this group. In the past 10 years I had not heard much of Camel. In the meantime I had Stationary Traveller, Nude, Mirage and Pressure Points. Not forgetting my original Camel LP Snow Goose which I replaced to Cd.
During the 1990's another band came to the scene which sounded similar without the heavy guitars solo's was Alan Parsons Project. It was only since 1999, whilst travelling to the States, that I bought another Camel Cd, Echoes which listed quite a few tracks I had not heard of.

To someone new to this brilliant band, I would highly recommend this double Cd, as this includes most of the cd's that Camel released up until Dust and Dreams.

Since playing a lot of this echoes cd, I was getting back into Camel again. Because I live in Canada, Camel are not recognised and it is not that easy to buy any Camel cd's in either HMV or Blockbuster, which are our biggest chains.

Since browsing the web, I decided to start collecting the whole of the Camel releases. Around July 2002 I placed an order `for Dust and Dreams and Rajaz from the Uk.

By late August, I went home to visit family and friends back in England, my parents had received Dust and Dreams and Rajaz. At first I preferred Dust and Dreams due to the few tracks on Echoes. By the end of the two week vacation, I started to enjoy Rajaz. During my visit I decided to order Nod and a Wink, via the internet in UK. I had a week left, hoping to receive this new cd before I go back to Canada. Whilst visiting my brother in Sheffield, I wanted to look at some record or cd stores. I found the Live Record and Paris Collection, which I bought. I also saw Nod and a Wink, Which I almost kicked myself for, due to the fact that I had orded this on the internet and placed an order. By the time I left, I had to wait almost a month. In the meantime on the arrival in Canada, I placed an order for Harbour of Tears and Coming of Age, DVD.

During November, I placed another order, Gods of Light, Breathless, Moonmadness and Single Factor. By this time I receieved the DVD and Nod and A Wink.. I've been hooked on the DVD and have played ANAAW quite a lot.

I have just receieved their first album Camel, Today. Which Concludes my collection up to this point. My problem is that I"ve been bombarded with all this new stuff and having to see a specialist, due to my addiction to Camel!.

All I want to do is see Camel in concert.

Thanks Dave

Rajaz comments - Dave, I hope it wasn't me that made you to spend all that money updating you Camel collection. On the other hand its well worth the investment !!

Hello Allan,
Thanks for your Mail. Just got my original copy of 'A Nod and a Wink' with Bonus Track. Got it at WWW/CDNOW.com in the USA. Took a long time though because they shipped it from Jamaica (wonder why ?). Another intresting adress for special things (also some Camel) is EIL.com in the UK (Esprit International Ltd). They specialize in rare editions etc...
No problem in publishing my e-mail. You know our kind of music (not too commercial) you have normally not very easy access to and you have to know some extra channels to get what you want.
In France for instance your have MUSEARECORDS, in Holland CDISTRIBUTIONS, in Sweden PROGRESSRECORDS (they all have web-sites).
Going through a very busy period but if I can help just let me know and I'll see what I can do.
Problem is that my e-mail is not very often available because I have 2 grown sons who also want to get hold of it, and as usually Dady is the lastest...(here should be a laughing icon, but I don't know how that works - should learn it though)
Anyway hope to hear from you very soon
Best Regards
Jef

Rajaz comments - Yes Jef I have the same problem with my kids, not ideal for running a website.

Hello Allan and a happy new year to you!

And it should be a happy new year if Camel go ahead with the proposed tour as waiting three to four years to see them live again is certainly a long time. I don't know whether you are aware of this, but Channel 4 are repeating the Progessive Rock Top 10 on Friday 3rd January at 1.55 a.m. which features our very own Camel. And, if you've seen it already, I'm afraid to say that I was one of the two fans interviewed at the start (I say afraid as we had partaken in one or two too many Stella's!). You'd be amazed as to how many people have ribbed us about our 30 seconds of fame, but knew so little about Camel! We have endeavoured to educate them otherwise!

I think the website is amazing and I will be revisiting soon to give my own personal views of each album, but can i just pick you up on one point - 10cc did not record Oh Well, it was Fleetwood Mac, but who cares anyway! There is one thing I hope you and other Camel fans may be able to help me with and that is I have replaced my old vinyl collections with CD's with the exception of Pressure Points. Do you know where I might be able to get my hands on it!

Thats all for now Reagrds Joe

Rajaz comments - Can anybody help Joe to obtain a CD copy of Pressure Points. I had the same problem and ended up buying a second hand copy. Sorry about the error I must have had too much veno!! when writing that review, I have now corrected it.

Hi Allan
I have to admit the NZ location is a bit of a cheat, I moved away from the UK last year, but am still listening to Camel and enjoying their music - I don't suppose they'll ever tour down this way!

I rediscovered Camel just recently, my parents used to listen to them (I remember Pressure Points and Snow Goose were their albums), and I hadn't heard them for about 8 years until I found one of the old tapes, I put it on and all the memories of those years came back - it was quite an experience - and I've been listening ever since.

Anyway take care, thanks, Simon Taverner

I truly feel Andrew is THE tops right now (i.e. it doesn't get any better than this). He should be be up there with Elton John, P. McCartney, E. Clapton as far as quality/recognition of performer. We both know he blows most of them away in the talent category. His singing is much much improved as well.

I originally stumbled across camel following the careers of David Paton and Chris Rainbow. In case you are not a fan, at least visit: http://www.thelibrarydoor.com/thelibrarydoor/pilotpages.htm and check out the new release of twos a crowd. The lyrics are alittle nonsensical ('ll admit) but, enjoyable nonetheless.

I am also looking to get the inspiration for your site - Rajaz and Nod and a wink as well. Do you know what the inspiration for the name of the release? I am wondering if that was a trait of P. Bardens. By the way, if you get the Pressure Points video - look for his guest appearance towards the end - incredible!

I will look ti contribute to your site where I can. By the way, my wife hates my music, as well. I was able to drag her to the APP Concert and that's about it. My 5 year old daughter LOVES to listen and dance to the my music. Hauntingly familiar - huh!!!

Name : Bill Merriman
Town : Crystal Lake Illinois
Country : USA

Name : Abdo Moudawar
Town : Beirut
Country : Lebanon

Name : Mark Wiebelt
Town : New Orleans
Country: USA