Peter Bardens

Peter Bardens - Heart to Heart -1979 - Arista

The late Pete Bardens, b.June 19, 1947, in London may not be a household name to many music lovers, but he made an invaluable contribution to rock music In the mid sixties he had played in groups with Rod Stewart, Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood, and had played keyboards with the legendary Van Morrison's "Them." His great claim to fame came in the spring of 1972, when with bass player Doug Ferguson, drummer Andy Ward, and guitarist Andy Latimer, he formed the great archetypal progressive rock group, Camel, where his brilliant keyboard-playing was a major force in Camel's success. Pete co-wrote all the songs with Andrew Latimer, for Camel's legendary 1975 "The Snow Goose" album, the sales of which resulted in Camel selling out concert halls all over Europe. Pete left Camel in 1979, and in that time he had played a mega part in the huge success of Camel, both as a composer/co-composer and as a great organist. "Heart to Heart " demonstrates Pete's keyboard virtuosity, and his fine songwriting, and is very similar to Camel's music in that it contains some great melodic parts, as well as the prog rock and jazz elements that Camel are famous for. It was said by one reviewer that Peter Bardens' music " rarely ventures beyond the tenets of pop music and tends to suffer as a result." This statement is certainly open to debate as although there may be a commercial veneer to the album, it still has got many strong progressive rock and jazz rock elements, and is definitely not "Pop" music. He may have written "On the Air Tonight", which was definitely a strong commercial song, but this was the exception rather than the rule. You should buy Camel's superb and innovative 1975 album, "The Snow Goose," on which Pete co-wrote all the songs with Andrew Latimer. Pete Bardens' keyboard work on this musical opus is dazzling, and check out his 1970 album, "The Answer" on the great ChrisGoesRocks blog

@ http://chrisgoesrocks.blogspot.com/2007/09/peter-barden-answer-1st-album-uk.html

Please post your comments on Pete Bardens to A.O.O.F.C. In some ways he is like Gary Brooker, in not getting the recognition that he deserved. You can also check out some of Gary Brooker's work on this site.

TRACKS

A1 Julia 3:53
A2 Doing the Crab 4:00
A3 Slipstream 6:04
A4 Raining All Over the World 4:22

B1 Jinxed 4:19
B2 After Dark 4:24
B3 Slow Motion 3:48
B4 Tune for Des 1:49
B5 Heart to Heart 4:50

MUSICIANS

Peter Bardens: - Keyboards, Vocals
Mel Collins: - Sax
Gus Isadore: - Guitar, Vocals
Chris Karan: - Percussion
Stan Scrivener: - Bass
Peter Shade: - Backing Vocals
Peter Van Hooke: - Drums

BIO (Wikipedia)

Pete Bardens (June 19, 1944 - January 22, 2002) was one of the founding members of the British progressive rock group Camel, playing keyboards. Born in Westminster, South London, England, he often played the mellotron and synthesizer while working with the band, and wrote the majority of the songs while he was there (usually along with guitarist Andrew Latimer). He had a previous experience between 1966 and 1967 with the "Shotgun Express", a group featuring Rod Stewart, Peter Green and Mick Fleetwood. In those years, he was also keyboard player with Them for a while. He left Camel in 1978, had a solo career that led him into electronica. In 1984 he was a member of Keats. During the late 80s and early 90s, he released a number of solo electronic albums including the moderately successful Seen One Earth in 1986. His first single from that album, "In Dreams", enjoyed heavy airplay on FM rock stations in the USA and Australia. In 1988 he followed this with Speed Of Light, on which his long time friend Mick Fleetwood guest featured on several tracks on drums. "Whisper In The Wind" and "Gold" were released as singles in the U.S. Prior to Camel, his band Pete B's Looners (or the Pete B's) included several musicians who would go on to form Fleetwood Mac, including Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green. Bardens died from lung cancer in Malibu, California at the age of 57.

MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST

Young Peter formed his first pro band in August 1963, The Cheynes, with Mick Fleetwood on drums and future The Spencer Davis Group guitarist Phil Sawyer. They played a fairly interesting rhythm and blues style and recorded three singles. Thereafter Van Morrison asked Peter to join and replace Jack McAuley for the job on the organ in the fairly successful Them from Belfast, North Ireland. Peter was only a member of Them for six months and then soon dropped out again. Now 19 years old, he pursued setting up his ideal band, founding Peter B's Looners, which gave him a chance to play jazzy soul instrumentals. Around that time he briefly joined the early Fleetwood Mac to help record the track "Outrage", a first appearance together with another band for an occasional session job. Also, it is handed down that he joined a band named Shotgun Express for a very short time in 1967, fronted by Rod Stewart and Beryl Marsden. After the demise of that formation Peter pursued a new project in 1969 which yielded an album of the same name, The Answer. Many consider this debut album to be Peter's best work, and it was followed by the 1971 released self-titled (Peter Bardens) follow-up album. Yet, in the next year Peter was invited to join the freshly founded Camel who originated in Surrey. Since that time Peter dropped the "r" from his first name, only appearing as "Pete" since then. By the end of 1973 the group signed up with MCA Records and released their eponymous first album shortly thereafter. Already in the subsequent year the band switched record companies, signing a deal with Decca. Album #3, The Snow Goose can be considered their international breakthrough, putting the band on the top ranks on the list of progressive rock acts. Interestingly, the next release Moonmadness achieved less success in the UK than in America. Unfortunately, during the recordings to the Rain Dances album conflicts between Camel mastermind Latimer and Pete arose, culminating in more tensions throughout the making of Breathless (1978). After those recording sessions were finished Pete Bardens called it quits and left the group. Parallel to these proceedings he joined his former Them band mate Van Morrison and contributed keyboards for the Wavelength album. Bardens now recorded a next solo album which resulted in the 1979 release Heart to Heart, his only solo album for another eight years. Interestingly, in 1983 he was asked to join Keats, a project put together from musicians of The Alan Parsons Project. The driving force behind putting this group together was Eric Woolfson with the intention to create a career for the musicians apart from working for Parsons. According to statements of Ian Bairnson it was Eric who asked Pete to join, since he already had very good writing credits, but interestingly, Pete never recorded with The Alan Parsons Project. Parsons confirmed this fact and recalled that Pete Bardens had become an issue through a suggestion of saxophone player Mel Collins (who was also previously a member of Camel). Unfortunately Keats remained a one-release project only and Pete pursued other projects and recorded solo material. Susequent to the adventure with Keats he discovered and produced Willy Finlayson in 1984/85, who scored the international hit "On the Air Tonight", a Bardens composition. In 1987 he resurfaced with Seen One Earth, followed by the 1988 Speed of Light (including a guest appearance of Mick Fleetwood) up to the 1994 release Big Sky. Interestingly, the latter album contains Pete's own version of "On the Air Tonight" with Neil Lockwood doing the lead vocals. After the release of Big Sky he founded the band Mirage together with Caravan members, playing material of Camel, Caravan and their individual musicians. The formation was rearranged in 1995, now called Pete Bardens' Mirage. Unfortunately neither line up ever recorded a studio album. The reasons for Bardens' leaving of Mirage in 1996 are unknown, yet it's up to speculations whether it was already due to a diagnosed brain tumor. It came as a shock to his fans when Pete died prematurely on January 22nd, 2002 in Los Angeles. Only weeks after his death the last album with new songs was published: The Art of Levitation, again, with the participation of Mick Fleetwood on drums and Pete's daughter Tallulah for vocals. [ shortcut: [Artist6437] ] © 2000 - 2007 rateyourmusic.com s.42