By the time he hit the stage on 11th May 1984, Andy Latimer, head honcho of English prog rock band Camel had taken the band through something of a revamp at a time when progressive rock was in a state of flux. The final member from the original line-up, drummer Andy Ward had been forced to retire following the recording of the Nude album in 1981, due to “personal issues” including an injury to his hand, leaving Latimer to steer the ship single handed during the recording of 1982’s Single Factor. More changes were on the cards, and by the time of recording its follow up two years later, only vocalist Chris Rainbow remained from the Single Factor sessions and Latimer had to rebuild the ship (of the desert) anew for Stationary Traveller. Pressure Points: Live In Concert is the live album recorded at Hammersmith Odeon on that late spring evening in support of Camel’s 1984 studio album and was originally release in November the same year on ten track both vinyl and CD and fifteen track VHS (remember them). Cherry Red/Esoteric now bring the full fifteen track audio as well as the video together for the first time on this 2CD/multi-region Blu-ray as part of their continued remastering and expanding of Camel’s worthy back catalogue.

With a line-up including Latimer (guitar and vocals), Ton Scherpenzeel (keys), Chris Rainbow (vocals and keys), and Paul Burgess (drums) from the Stationary Traveller recordings, alongside the appropriately named Colin Bass on bass and vocals and Richie Close on keys, the band took to the stage to rapturous applause, before the crowd fell silent as their heroes headed into the opening track from their new release, the subtle instrumental ‘Pressure Points’ from where this live album acquired its title. The opening track allows each musician to shine, but none more than Latimer himself. This set really is a showcase for that new studio collection and in all features eight of the ten tracks listed on Stationary Traveller, only omitting the two further instrumentals, ‘Missing’ and ‘After Words’. Before we continue travelling in that stationary direction we are treated to a trio from, probably Camel’s best 80’s offering, Nude, represented by ‘Drafted’ which introduces the Rainbow/Bass vocal team with a sound characteristic of the “Footloose” dominated popular culture at the time, centrepiece instrumental ‘Captured’ and ‘Lies’, which sees Latimer coming over all Gilmour in the vocal department. Continuing on vocals, Andy L. heads back to his latest offering for ‘Refugee’, followed by ‘Vopos’, full of dark imagery over 80’s electro pop and ‘Stationary Traveller’ where Latimer adopts the pan-pipes. The stationary traveller’s journey continues on ‘West Berlin’ with its layered vocal reflecting a John Wetton vibe and ‘Fingertips’ rounding off disc one with some gentle AOR augmented by Mel Collins Saxophone. Many sight Genesis as being the blueprint for bands like Marillion from the neo-prog movement of the early to mid eighties but when you hear the gambolling keyboard flourishes on The Single Factor‘s ‘Sasquatch’ much is revealed of Camel’s influence on those musicians. ‘Wait’ from I Can See Your House From Here (a personal favourite) dips back into the 70’s (just) as Latimer’s fingers fly across the fretboard with rhythmic precision, before we return to Stationary Traveller for one last time for, ‘Cloak and Dagger Man’, which is squarely aimed at the “Heartbeat City” generation, and period essential ballad ‘Long Goodbyes’. Of course the band can’t leave the stage without giving the enthusiastic crowd what they really want, and the players take the time machine back to The Snow Goose, for ‘Rhayader’/’Rhayader Goes to Town’ with Collins once again laying down his “sax”pence worth, and bringing the crowd to their feet. Latimer then introduces “a very, very old song” and apologises for an eight year wait, before the final song of the set is met with screams of approval and ‘Lady Fantasy’ from Mirage makes its long overdue return to the stage. Although this line-up misses Peter Bardens original vocal backing, ‘Lady Fantasy’ is still twelve minutes of proper prog rock. As with A Live Record six years earlier, Pressure Points marked a juncture in Camel’s continuing history, this time highlighting their work in the 80’s (as Never Let Go would also do in the 90’s) and in-spite of the Blu-ray revealing the typical close format camera angle trademark of the period, with both audio and visual now housed in one package this is a great time to excavate that history.

Camel would never be as prolific again, only releasing four more studio albums up to their final studio offering, A Nod And A Wink in 2002. They returned to the road with another brand new line-up in 2018 to celebrate the 1976 album Moonmadness. However any future activity was curtailed following the cancellation of Camel’s 2023 “50 Years Strong” tour due to Latimer requiring back surgery, at that point the future of the band seemed in some doubt and it would appear that despite recent rumours/fake news revealing that the current line-up featuring multi-instrumentalist, Peter Jones (Tiger Moth Tales, Cyan) and Denis Clement on drums who teamed up with Latimer and Bass for the 2018 tour would be releasing a new concept album, and weaving more live Camel magic in support, at time of publishing there has been no new updates from the Latimer camp on any future plans. In the mean time relive the 80’s Camel with this competent live set.

• Reviewed By Peter Brockwell.
• Pressure Points: Live In Concert is released via Cherry Reed Records/Esoteric Recordings  on 28th March 2025
• The Official Camel Website
• (4) Facebook

Track List:

Disc One:

1. Pressure Points

2. Drafted

3. Captured

4. Lies

5. Refugee

6. Vopos

7. Stationary Traveller

8. West Berlin

9. Fingertips

Disc Two:

1. Sasquatch

2. Wait

3. Cloak and Dagger Man

4. Long Goodbyes

5. Rhayade

6. Rhayader Goes to Town

7. Lady Fantasy

Disc Three: Pressure Points – The Concert Film

1. In the Arms of Waltzing Fraulines

2. Pressure Points

3. Refugee

4. Vopos

5. Stationary Traveller

6. West Berlin

7. Fingertips

8. Sasquatch

9. Wait

10. Cloak and Dagger Man

11. Long Goodbyes

12. Rhayader

13. Rhayader Goes to Town

14. Lady Fantasy

15. In the Arms of Waltzing Fraulines