UK rock band Camel is returning to Israel for 50th anniversary show

UK progressive rock legend Camel will be returning to one of its strongest fan bases – Israel – as part of its “50 Years Strong” anniversary tour.

The show, the first since the band sold out the Zappa Shuni Amphitheater for three shows in 2018, will take place at the even grander Caesarea Amphitheater on May 22.

Guitarist Andrew Latimer formed Camel in the heady days of 1971 when British bands were expanding rock’s boundaries with excursions into classical, jazz, and Baroque and incorporating long instrumental passages, experimental synthesizers and non-rock instruments like the flute.

Camel did that all and more, and its mid-1970s albums Mirage, The Snow Goose and Moonmadness became FM rock mainstays and established the band in progressive rock circles (i.e., it didn’t have any hit singles). Its complex sounds struck a chord in Israel as well, where the burgeoning kibbutz hippie scene latched onto the long solos, the dreamy music and the philosophical lyrics.

By the mid-’80s, Camel quietly faded away, but Latimer brought the band back a decade later and sporadically released new music amid occasional tours. Health issues, including a rare progressive blood disorder that involved a bone marrow transplant, curtailed Latimer’s activity for many years, but following a slow and full recovery, he’s revived Camel and has spent the last decade touring sporadically.

Latimer is joined by two long-standing musical colleagues, bassist Colin Bass and drummer Denis Clement. Multi-instrumentalist Peter Jones, who debuted with the band on its Japanese tour in 2016, has become a mainstay on keyboards.