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".
Bardens continued to release a number of solo electronic albums including 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. 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.