Peter Bardens

Peter Bardens (19 June 1945 – 22 January 2002) was an English keyboardist and a founding member of the progressive rock group Camel. He played keyboards, sang, and wrote songs with Andrew Latimer. During his career, Bardens worked alongside Rod Stewart, Peter Green, Mick Fleetwood and Van Morrison. He recorded eleven solo albums.

Career Bardens was born in Westminster, London, England, He moved on and formed Peter B's Looners which eventually morphed into Shotgun Express, a band that played soul music and featured Rod Stewart, Peter Green, and Mick Fleetwood. Fleetwood later said Barden's recruitment into the band kick-started his musical career. They released a single "Man in the Moon"/"Long Time Coming". The first single from the album, "In Dreams", was met with commercial success as well. The song enjoyed heavy airplay on rock stations in the U.S. and Australia, where Triple M Brisbane, the most popular radio station in the country at the time, added it to their playlist. In 1988, he followed this with Speed of Light (1988) which featured Mick Fleetwood. "Gold" from this album was released in the U.S as a single and found some success on MTV.

He released Water Colours in 1991, and Big Sky in 1994. Also in 1994, with his former Camel bandmate Andy Ward and former members of Caravan, he formed the band Mirage for a brief European tour. A subsequent, all-American version of the band, with only Bardens and guitarist Steve Adams from the original line-up, did more touring in 1996.

His last concert, subsequent to being diagnosed with a brain tumour, was in Los Angeles in the summer of 2001. Other performers who joined him at his concert included Mick Fleetwood, John Mayall, John McVie, Sheila E. and Ben Harper.

Bardens died from lung cancer in Malibu in January 2002, at the age of 56, and is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. A double CD, Write My Name in the Dust: The Anthology 1963–2002, was released after his death and included tracks recorded throughout his career.

Discography Solo studio albums

1970 – The Answer 1971 – Peter Bardens ('Write My Name in the Dust' in the U.S.) 1976 – Vintage 69 1979 – Heart to Heart 1987 – Seen One Earth 1988 – Speed of Light 1991 – Water Colors 1993 – Further Than You Know 1994 – Big Sky 2002 – The Art of Levitation 2005 – Write My Name In The Dust: The Anthology 1963–2002

Solo singles 1971 – "Homage to the God of Light" 1987 – "In Dreams" 1988 – "Gold" 1988 – "Whisper in the Wind" 1991 – "A Higher Ground"

Studio albums with Them The Angry Young Them (1965)

Studio albums with Van Morrison Wavelength (1978)

Studio albums with Camel Camel (1973) Mirage (1974) The Snow Goose (1975) Moonmadness (1976) Rain Dances (1977) Breathless (1978) The Single Factor (1982) (guest)

Live albums with Camel Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (1974) (Camel + Various Artists. Includes 19-minute version of Camel's 'God of Light Revisited''')A Live Record (1978) (live, various venues 1974, 1975, 1977)Pressure Points: Live in Concert (1984) (live, 11 May 1984, Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK)On the Road 1972 (1992) (live, venue unspecified)Gods of Light '73-'75 (2000) (live, various venues'')

Single with the band Solo "Solo" (1985)