Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

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Gary Brooker: artist in profile

Reported in Corriere di Novara


Ci mancava soltanto che Antonio Costa Barbe', l'eclettico avvocato-musicista, diventasse ambasciatore italiano nel Regno Unito!...

All we needed was this; that Antonio Costa Barbé, the eclectic lawyer-musician, should be appointed Italian ambassador to the UK!

Naturalmente si e' trattato di un "incarico" squisitamente musicale: Costa Barbe' era al Barbican Centre di Londra lo scorso martedi 7 dicembre, invitato da Roland Clare e dal Procol Harum Fan Club (Beyond the Pale, http://www.procolharum.com) per un evento inusuale: infatti la prestigiosa associazione culturale del Barbican ha voluto assegnare a Gary Brooker, leader dello storico complesso, un prestigioso riconoscimento per i suoi meriti compositivi ed artistici nel mondo della musica pop.

Naturally, it was an exquisitely musical "responsibility"; Costa Barbé was at London's Barbican Centre last Tuesday 7 December at the invitation of RC and the Procol Harum Fan Club (Beyond the Pale) for an unusual event; the prestigious cultural association of the Barbican wished to offer Gary Brooker, leader of the historic band, a prestigious [sic] recognition of his artistic and compositional skills in the world of pop music.

A oltre tre anni di distanza dallo storico concerto che ha visto Gary Brooker ed i Procol Harum (noti da noi per il successo di A Whiter Shade of Pale, Senza Luce ) suonare con la London Simphony Orchestra, Costa Barbé e ritornato a Londra per salutare il compositore e conoscere di persona gli amici del Club - molti ultraquarantenni, che oggi svolgono le piu diverse attivita'- con i quali, in questi mesi, si e' tenuto in contatto via posta elettronica.

More than three years after the historic concert which saw Gary Brooker and Procol Harum (known to us for the success of AWSoP, "Senza Luce") play with the London Symphony Orchestra, Costa Barbé returned to London to greet the composer and meet face-to-face friends in the Club - many of them over-40s, who now pursue all sorts of activities - with whom, over the months, he has been in contact via e-mail.

Costa Barbé + Brooker : photo by Peter Christian

" Non avrei mai pensato - ci ha detto l'avvocato, parlando con l'animo emozionato del musicista- che un giorno avrei stretto la mano ed intervistato il Maestro rock che piu' ho ammirato fin dalla mia adolescenza. A 16/17 anni avevo formato il gruppo dei Fuochi Fatui, e dopo lo studio passavo ore al pianoforte, a trascrivere da disco brani "difficili" come A Salty Dog e The Dead Man's Dream per proporli al pubblico novarese nei nostri concerti per beneficenza."

"I'd never have thought" - the lawyer told us, speaking with the animated soul of the musician - "that one day I would shake hands with, and interview, the rock Maestro whom I had admired the most since my adolescence. At the age of 16 or 17 I formed the group the Will-o'-the-Wisps, and after school I would spend hours at the piano, transcribing from records "difficult" pieces like A Salty Dog and The
Dead Man's Dream
so as to present them to the Novarese public at our charity concerts."

Ad uno di questi, nel maggio 1971 al Borsa, era presente Oscar Luigi Scalfaro. (NdR: ex presidente della Repubblica Italiana, nativo di Novara)

One of these concerts, at the Stock Exchange in May 1971, was attended by Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (Editor's note: former
president of Italy, born at Novara).

"Fu proprio in quell'occasione che la nostra cover di Dead Man's Dream fu incisa su nastro, dal vivo. Adesso quella cassettina - con una mia trascrizione del brano, perche' Gary giura, scherzando, di non ricordarsi di tutti quegli accordi!- e' nelle sue mani: ed il Maestro ha giudicato positivamente quella nostra esecuzione giovanile."

"It was on this very occasion that our cover of The Dead Man's Dream was recorded on tape, live. And now a cassette of it - with my transcription of the piece, because Gary swears, jokingly, that he can't remember all those chords! - is in his hands; and the Maestro has judged our juvenile performance positively."

All'amico Roland Clare, professore di letteratura inglese in una scuola superiore di Bristol e riconosciuto Webmaster del Fan Club, Costa Barbé ha portato una copia del Corriere di Novara del febbraio 1996 - dove davamo notizia del concerto al Barbican- ed una scatola di biscottini di riso novaresi. "Freschi di pasticceria: una alternativa, graditissima da Roland, alle tante libbre di articoli elettronici che alimentano in Internet la nostra passione musicale".

Costa Barbé took to his friend Roland Clare, teacher of English Literature in a secondary school in Bristol and official Webmaster of the Fan Club, a copy of the Corriere di Novara from February 1996 - in which we covered the Barbican concert - and a tin of Novarese rice biscuits. "Fresh from the bakers': an alternative, most welcome to Roland, to the usual tonnage of electronic articles which feed our musical passion over the Internet."


Many thanks to Martin Clare for this translation; he adds, 'I still can't quite work out how I think the English translation of the first bit should be, but in French the exact equivalent of the first four words would be "Il ne (nous) manquait seulement que ...", so I hope this gives you some sort of more accurate fix on it? Or else, of course, quite simply not.


Brooker at the Barbican 1999: index page More PH lore from the same Italian newspaper

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