Peter Bardens (19 June 1945 – 22 January 2002) was an English keyboardist and a founding member of the British 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.
 |
| The Cheynes |
Bardens was born in Westminster, London, England, to Marie Marks and Dennis Bardens, the latter a mystery novelist and biographer, and grew up in Notting Hill. He studied fine art at Byam Shaw School of Art, and learned the piano, before switching to the Hammond organ after listening to Jimmy Smith. Fired by the burgeoning blues movement in west London, Bardens recruited an apprentice drummer called Mick Fleetwood whom he had heard rehearsing in the garage of a house three doors away from where he lived. With the intention of joining a group, Fleetwood had moved to London in 1964 to stay with his sister.
 |
| Peter B's Looners |
Bardens and Fleetwood formed the Cheynes, playing pop R&B of the type popularised by Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry, securing a residency at the Mandrake club off Wardour Street in Soho, and releasing a couple of singles. The group split up when Bardens was offered the job of keyboard player with the Irish R&B group Them, which featured the vocalist Van Morrison. Then he formed an instrumental group performing material by the likes of Booker T and Mose Allison that he named Peter B's Looners: Mick Fleetwood was once again on drums; Dave Ambrose, whom Bardens had met at the Byam Shaw, played bass; and on guitar was a player Bardens had discovered called Peter Green. The group released one single, "Do You Want to Be Happy for the Rest of Your Life", and played the circuit of mod soul clubs.
 |
| Shotgun Express |
Bardens then brought in a pair of singers, Beryl Marsden and an unknown, Rod Stewart, and renamed the group Shotgun Express. A hardworking roadshow soul revue, playing Motown-type covers, Shotgun Express had a minor hit with "I Feel the Whole World Turn Around Underneath Me". After Bardens had fired Stewart for being "awkward" and John Mayall had poached Green to join his Bluesbreakers, the group split around 1967: Mick Fleetwood followed Green to John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, soon departing with John McVie to form Fleetwood Mac; and Dave Ambrose joined the Brian Auger Trinity – later, as an A and R man, he would sign the Sex Pistols, Duran Duran, and the Pet Shop Boys, among many other acts.
 |
| Camel |
From August 1968 to February 1970, he formed The Village with featured future Elvis Costello and The Attractions bassist Bruce Thomas and Bill Porter (drums). They released a single "Man in the Moon"/"Long Time Coming". In 1970, Bardens recorded The Answer, an album featuring Peter Green and Andy Gee. Bardens recorded an eponymous album in 1971 which was released in the United States as Write My Name in the Dust before forming Camel in 1972. Dominated by Bardens's keyboard-playing, Camel was an archetypal progressive rock group, capable of selling out concert halls all over Europe after they successfully adapted a Paul Gallico children's story, The Snow Goose (1975), for their third album.
Camel had three more hit albums, Moonmadness (1976), Rain Dances (1977) and Breathless (1978), before punk rock rendered their style of music redundant in the UK. Although Camel continued to be successful overseas, Bardens left the group in 1978, and for a time once again played with Van Morrison. Bardens formed a group called Keats, whose only album, released in 1984, employed the talents of the conceptual producer Alan Parsons. In 1985 he recorded the single "Solo" with the band Solo, and in 1986 he produced a Leo Sayer version of the song. But he left London that year to live in Malibu, California, releasing a solo album, Seen One Earth (1987). which found chart success in the United States. The first single from the album, "In Dreams", was met with commercial success as well.
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. Reuniting with his great friend Mick Fleetwood, he worked on soundtracks, which amply suited the visual sense he brought to his keyboard work; he continued to perform around southern California, and recently completed a new record, The Art of Levitation.
In the summer of 2001 at a 2,000-seater venue in Los Angeles, Peter Bardens played his last show, after having been diagnosed as suffering from a brain tumour. On stage with him were John McVie, John Mayall, Sheila E, Ben Harper and Mick Fleetwood. "He never became a huge star," said Fleetwood, but he was always known as one of the better keyboards players in the world.
Bardens died from lung cancer in Malibu in January 2002, at the age of 56, and is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
(Edited from article by Chris Salewicz @ Independent &
Wikipedia)