BtP's Curry Night with Procol Harum
Pictures from Alan Garmonsway's camera
A little while before the Islington concert, 'Beyond the Pale' asked for a
show of e-hands from anyone who would like to do something interesting after the
band had played. Such was the response that we were able to book an entire
Indian Restaurant the Rajmoni in Islington's Upper Street (thanks,
Kamal) and invite band, crew and management to join us as our guests.
It was very nice indeed to be able to thank Procol Harum in this way for a
wonderful year of musical activity: the joint-hosts, who in a sense represented
all PH fans, were Elspeth Allison [Scotland], Charlie
Allison [Scotland], Christine Ayre [England],
Sam Cameron [England], Peter Christian [England],
Stefano Ciccioriccio [Italy], Linda Clare [England],
Roland Clare [England], Al Edelist [USA],
Alan Garmonsway [England], John Grayson [England],
Sue Green [England], Dave Knight [England],
Axel Leonhardt [Denmark], Juliette Leonhardt
[Denmark], Mike Masterton [England],
Jill McMahon [USA], Don Milione [USA],
Jens Anders Ravnaas [Norway], Sue Reid [England],
Unsteady Freddie [USA] and
Ken Stasion [USA]. Thanks to all of these
for funding the feast and making it such a happy occasion: it was nice to see
how many of the fans were known to the band Gary indeed made a point of
recalling people's places of origin, family news and so on, and mysteriously
dubbed Peter Christian 'Del-Boy' ... an indication of the merriment of the
evening.
Our guests were Gary Brooker and Franky, Matthew Fisher, Geoff Whitehorn and
Annie, Mark Brzezicki, Matt Pegg and Tammy, Chris Cooke; Keith Reid and partner
sent their apologies, as did Carol Fisher and Mark Lundquist; and the crew,
Graham, John and Derek, were embroiled in technical tasks that looked set to
stretch long into the night after the last notes of music had been played. It
was nice also (at risk of starting to sound like Hello magazine, which
BtP has of course never perused) to welcome to the feast Gary's own guests, Wix
Wickens and Margo Buchanan, and Spencer Zahn (he of the Grand Hotel and Echoes
in the Night artwork) and his partner. The photographs on this page were
taken by Alan Garmonsway, and you may also note the reflected image of Jutta
Buedel, who arrived with a friend in the later part of the evening.
|
|
|
Palers reached the Restaurant some while
before the band and dutifully refrained from eating
until our guests were present. But not, as the picture shows, from
drinking ... |
|
|
After the webmasters had welcomed the guests and thanked
the co-hosts, the band responded.
First and, it must be admitted, most hilariously
the Commander himself, who was on superb form despite having had such a
long day, from The Palace onwards ... |
|
|
|
Mark Brzezicki was next, since the band
spoke in alphabetical order. He was not certain
whether or not he should stand up, for fear of bashing his head on the
ceiling. Mark spoke
briefly but very warmly about the friendships in the band. |
|
|
|
Matthew Fisher thanked everyone for their
support ... and provided a dramatic
colour-contrast with the restaurant's unforgettable dιcor |
|
|
|
Mpeg with a remarkably tiny drink
expressed a fervent hope that the future would hold
more Procol music for everyone ... as Mark had indeed done before him. |
|
|
Geoff agreed again ... and added that it was great to
know that the fans were 'as bonkers as we are'.
He also made the claim that 'they
know the songs as well as we do, as we heard at
BB King's Club in the Summer'. Hmm ... |
|
|
|
Procol Manager Chris Cooke wore a telling
shirt: 'I can only please one person each day.
Today is not your day. Tomorrow doesn't look good either.' Nonetheless,
his work with
the band has evidently pleased many people per day since Procol
started the 2003 tour |
|
|
|
Toward the end of the evening a fair bit
of signing was done, and Procol were given various
albums recorded by some of the co-hosts ... which we hope compensated the
band for the fact
that Palers'
Project No 2 is not available yet. |
|
|
|
Alan Garmonsway had himself pictured with
two keyboard-heroes ... Matthew in very appropriate rainwear |
|
|
|
... and Gary in the stellar tee-shirt |
|
|
|
Alan also insisted on photographing this
aged duo from Bristol, attending
probably their twenty-first Procol Harum show together since 1972 |
(thanks, Alan!)