Camelle Hinds

A talented singer/songwriter, Camelle Hinds first burst onto the music scene with Britfunk band Central Line in the late 1970’s…

As one of the original founding members along with Steve Salvari, Henry Defoe and the late Lipson Francis, Camelle had previously been in a band called TFB (Typical Funk Band), which also included Kenny Wellington who went on to form Light of the World and drummer Errol Kennedy, who later joined Imagination.

After these departures and the subsequent recruitment of Linton Beckles and Jake Le Mesurier (both of whom have since sadly passed) a new identity as Central Line was created. By 1979 they had been signed to Mercury Records and of all the bands involved in the burgeoning Britfunk scene of the 1980’s, they were the ones who came closest to exporting the movement across to the USA.

Central Line’s first single was ‘What We Got (It’s Hot)’ leading to tours with Roy Ayers, The Real Thing and Grover Washington Jnr. However, after the follow-up single flopped a re-think was needed and in February 1981 ‘(You Know) You Can Do It’ became a UK Top 40 chart hit. They then hooked up with producer Roy Carter (ex-Heatwave) to produce the classic ‘Walking Into Sunshine’, which did well in both the US and UK dance charts & was followed by ‘Don’t Tell Me’ and ‘You’ve Said Enough’ (both getting into the UK Top 60).

But Central Line’s biggest hit came in January 1983 when ‘Nature Boy’ peaked at No.21 in the UK, but by this time the Britfunk scene was in decline and the group achieved only one more hit, with ‘Surprise Surprise’ (June 1983), before disbanding.

Camelle then turned to singing and songwriting chores and by 1986 he’d formed Hindsight along with Henri Defoe for Circa Records. They released a series of singles and an album followed entitled ‘Days Like These’. Camelle then went solo and became a much sought after session singer/bassist, working alongside Acid Jazz co-founder, Chris Bangs and playing bass for Heaven 17 and the legendary Jimmy Ruffin.

He has since toured with the likes of Paul Weller and released the LP ‘Soul Degrees’ (Victor Records, Japan) which contained the much sought after track ‘Sausolito Calling’, considered by many connoisseurs as a soul jazz classic.

His appearance in the collection of Brit funk all stars who made up Beggar & Co (The Original Light Of The World) at Summer Soulstice on the day, was a pure crowd pleaser and we look forward to welcoming Camelle back to the event sometime soon…