Flying Away
Peter Jones gives an update on what’s happening with Camel and his extracurricular work with Francis Dunnery.
Over recent years, Jones has become rightly feted in prog circles for his vocal and keyboard prowess, something that’s led to his inclusion in both Camel’s and Francis Dunnery’s live bands. With Camel, this culminated in an appearance at the Royal Albert Hall in 2018.
“The whole tour was wonderful,” reminisces Jones with affection. “We really bonded into a family unit and by the time we got to the Royal Albert Hall, we couldn’t have been much tighter. It was programmed into us. It was fantastic and so many fantastic artists have played there. Obviously, Camel did back in the day so it was great for Andy and was almost a homecoming kind of thing. It was a fantastic night and of course it’s brilliant that we’ve got a record of it on the DVD and the CD. I listen to that occasionally just think, ‘God, that’s me up there.’”
Camel are returning to the stage in 2023, something that Jones is clearly anticipating with glee, even if he is somewhat reticent when probed about the potential for a new Camel album.
“I’m looking forward to that [tour] and I’ll be smiling from ear to ear. We keep in touch about that and kick a few ideas around us to what we are going to do, because obviously it’s the 50th year anniversary tour. As for a new Camel album, it has been suggested by literally everybody that I have spoken to. It would be wonderful. I’m trying to think of what Andy Latimer would say here. Probably that we can never rule it out but on the other hand we can’t commit to any update on that either.”
As for a reunion with Francis Dunnery, there would appear to be no definite plans, although Jones does recall with some terror the rehearsals prior to the Once Around The World Tour.
“It has been fun, of course, but it can wear your brain out a bit sometimes. I don’t mind
admitting that is some hard stuff to do. There was a point at the end of the first day of rehearsals when I thought, ‘I’m the weak link here, this is bad. I’m struggling like hell.’ That did get me down a bit but over the next couple of days things picked up and I think that by the skin of my teeth I got away with it. Francis has talked about doing some sort of studio thing and I think he has really enjoyed working with the band doing the It Bites material. Francis has lots of ideas going on at any given time so we’ll have to wait and see on that as well. So with Francis, there are no plans as yet but I hope we will do some more It Bites stuff.”