Brooker, Dunn, Pegg, Phillips, Whitehorn
with Matilde Isabella Arenholt Mosekjaer
If you were able to be at this show, please send photos, and souvenirs to
webmaster@procolharum.com for
sharing with the wider world
I Told on You
A great opener still
Pandora's Box
Man With a Mission
‘You’ Can't Say That
Sunday Morning
GB explains that he sings this song in
another person's voice: 'I'll be acting.' 'Not for the first time,' says GW.
GB explains that he was in the Evita film. The song then starts 'When
I leave home every Friday ...' Applause for this number is rapturous and
quickly ... as on many occasions in the show ... coalesces into a unified
quick quaver-pulse.
As Strong as Samson
Stirring applause also; GB then plugs the
Procol Merch Stall, in particular the Fiftieth Anniversary 'Unique
Entertainment' badges
Businessman
Crowd claps along from the opening notes ...
they know this material well. As GB said afterwards, the band could have
kept time by that clapping.
A Salty Dog
Fires (Which Burnt Brightly)
With soprano
solo! Pre-show Matilde, who's known the band's music all her life, was
showing clips of own vocal work backstage on an iPad. She sang a few live
notes of Fires, then Roland from BtP (just before his merch duties began)
accompanied her on the dressing-room piano as she sang the famous scat solo
all through, in her rich coloratura. Subsequently Josh 'banged through it' with
her again, whereupon it was suggested to the Commander that she might
participate in the show. 'Are you up for it?' said Gary. 'Yes' said Matilde.
Her appearance on stage was heralded only by a very businesslike Thomas
Wyler adjusting the height of Matt Pegg's mic stand mid-song, then, just before the
final chorus, the black-clad blonde-haired figure strode on stage and
brought the house down with a performance of brio, serious poise, and sensuous
confidence. As GB put it afterwards, 'She went for it!' Matilde ...
who sang A Salty Dog with the Procols many years ago at soundcheck
... graduated from the
Royal Academy of Music,
in nearby Aarhus,
in June 2017. Among
her other musical work (including ‘Babysalmesang’ … early-months music
workshops for new-borns) she works with the vocal group Concordia and trains
the Danish Police Choir of Eastern Jutland. Her father has been a Procol fan
since 1967 and she saw her first PH show at age twelve; in her own words she
was ‘adopted by the band’ at age fifteen and has thus known them well for
half her life. Referring to her unplanned feat of musical bravado (or bravada perhaps?) in front of a sold-out hall of Procol aficionados, she
told BtP, ‘I was not nervous, though my hands were shaking. I felt totally
calm, as if I were among family. Procol are absolute heroes of mine and this
evening was something that’s going to remain big for me, I know it.’ Gary Brooker remembers just three previous live performances of the demanding
Christiane Legrand vocal solo (whose originatrix recorded it off the top of her head
after hearing the backing-track just twice!): one performance by chanteuse
Christiane herself, in the
1970s in Paris with Procol; one by Jane Clare (then just 18) with the Palers’ Band (Guildford Civic Hall, 2000); and one by Katie Hockley (also
with the Palers’ Band, in Zoetermeer NL, 2016)..
Last Chance Motel
Homburg
Hilarious and appropriately rambling intro to
the next song, about the status of Batman in the 60s; he may have been in
black and white, and the special effects unconvincing, but 'with a couple of
joints and some acid inside you' his antics were an inspiration. 'Batman
isn't actually real,' Gary concludes. 'But if he was, he'd get
Trump'. Mighty applause for that ....
Rambling On
Somewhere in this set, a
nano-version of 'Keep a Knocking' ... just about eight few tantalising beats
Neighbour
Gary explains about neighbourly
rivalry. 'Maybe your neighbour has a nicer wife ... no, if you're Danish,
you've got a nice wife (cheers from the audience). If you're Norwegian, then
it's a problem
Grand Hotel
Splendid! Complete with Victor Borge antics
at the piano
Conquistador
The Only One (fantastic performance, and
response)
'Thank you for a lovely evening,' says GB, 'I only wish we could give you
something in return.'
A Whiter Shade of Pale
Unusually for this tour, the '500 years of
falling basslines' tour: Albinoni, JS Bach from Leipzig; Percy Sledge. Bob
Marley ... the reception for AWSoP was, it need hardly be said,
sensational.
| 17 | songs altogether: | 1 | From Procol Harum | 1 | from Shine on Brightly |
| 1 | From A Salty Dog | From Home | from Broken Barricades | ||
| 2 | From Grand Hotel | 1 | From Exotic Birds and Fruit | 1 | from Procol's Ninth |
| From Something Magic | 1 | From The Prodigal Stranger | from The Well's on Fire | ||
| 7 | From Novum | 2 | non-album tracks |
Many more concert notes were written, in a pitch-black auditorium ... almost entirely illegible / palimpsested in the morning. Sorry. |
|
|
A marvellous show, memorable for superb music, hilarious
banter, an extraordinary guest appearance and, it must be said, most
unimpressive lighting. Geoff Whitehorn was obliged to dodge comically
about, while soloing, to try and get get into the spotlight provided ...
sometimes the band was in absolute darkness ... sometimes there were
blinding lights on the audience. The show was a triumph 'irregardless'
(horrible new word one now hears even on the BBC) ... and maybe this
Randers show suffered by comparison with the beautiful, dynamic
and imaginative lighting at the Portalen gig the night before.
Otherwise, though, it was a lovely venue with nice staff and great
sound. Backstage aftershow snaps by Linda Clare |
|||||