TIGER MOTH TALES

A Visit To Zoetermeer

TLatterday Camel man Peter Jones live in Holland.

he opening song from this Dutch concert, Toad Of Toad Hall, takes the listener straight into the colourful relationship between Peter Jones’ music and the fantasies of childhood. It’s both charming and endearingly daft: his vocal impression of the titular amphibian seemingly channels Brian Blessed, while his deft, colourful and melodic keyboard playing shows why Jones was asked to join Camel in 2016.

His band then run through a number of ballad-like songs culminating in the appropriately comforting Hygge, which feels more shaped by Jones’ pop past.

But it all moves up a gear on the second half with

The Ballad Of Longshanks John, with its folk dance embellishments, and the group peak on the 14-minute Tigers In The Butter, with Mick Wilson snarling on bass and guitarist Andy Wilson cutting loose towards the close.

Yet, while Jones and his band play with energy and brio, they always look at the bigger picture, leaving breathing space for Jones’ song stories. And in the case of The Merry Vicar they demonstrates that English humour can somehow translate culturally even at its most eccentric.