As 'Beyond the Pale'
resumes normal service following the 2007 Christmas break, and
the Christmas puzzles, the
BtP team would like to reflect briefly on a
very interesting Procol year gone by.
Jens and Roland, who run the website from Norway and the UK, met at the 1997
30th Birthday Celebrations, organised by
Diane and John from Shine On. Our
decision at that time to launch a new Procol Harum website reflected a
lifetime's addiction to the band; but we never expected it to lead to a decade
of real-world friendships with such excellent fellow-fans, and with
so many of the band themselves.
Our
website was effectively ten years
old on 19 July 2007 and the
following day it was our great pleasure to introduce
Procol Harum in a top central-London
music venue for a sell-out show that we had booked and promoted
ourselves. This fortieth anniversary
celebration didn't attempt to copy the 'reunion' format of the
groundbreaking thirtieth gathering, but it was as satisfying in its own way:
and it showcased Procol's new, vibrant, line-up for the first time on home
terrain. As well as thanking the band for fitting this celebration
into their schedule and for playing a
fine show in such extreme conditions, we would like to thank their manager,
Chris Cooke, for his tremendous help – and our families for their kind
forbearance.
It was a great delight to see
so many fans from overseas at this
occasion, and at the 'Procol
Rarum' evening that followed, when Gary and
co (with Keith's amiable participation at the end) presented some
excellent rarities from the Brooker / Reid catalogue. The
illustrations on this page show the Bristol Blue glass plaques that were
presented to Gary and Keith to mark forty years of their on-going
collaboration which has, as we remarked
from the stage, 'enriched the world'.
One of the most unexpected features of these ten years has been all the
opportunities for fans who are also players,
who have really enjoyed getting together and playing Procol material, often
with family members. This year we met in Southend and rehearsed in
sweltering heat for four fantastic days; the results were heard at the 40th
Anniversary Party at St John's Smith Square, and a subset of those players
had the unforgettable privilege of opening for Gary Brooker and Friends in
the evening. Hats off to Dave Ball and Geoff Whitehorn, whose hearty
participation in our 'amateur' activities was both gracious and inspiring.
Months of effort go into organising these international gatherings, during
which time our bankers hold their breath; happily, fan support remains
so strong that all efforts are repaid, and we have stayed out of the
Debtors' Prison.
We
have also had a lot of great feedback following the opening of the
much-improved Procol Online Store,
from which tee-shirts, recordings, and great reading-matter speed
out to Procol fans all over the world. Thanks to everyone! As well as
George
Lovell's Procol Book and the
Palers' Project
recordings, we've had the pleasure of selling Procol Harum's excellent
new anthology Secrets of the Hive, with
liner-notes (and title) by Roland
from BtP – on a not-for-profit basis. This has been their first-ever
career-wide retrospective and Salvo, their record label, paid impressive
attention to detail; the remastering
has brought out musical details one
never heard before. Salvo also produced
AWSoP as a vinyl 45 rpm record
and a CD EP, and these have proved
very popular too. We have high hopes for
their ongoing re-release series.
Meanwhile, Procol themselves have continued to play live in various countries: strong new material has been aired and some very desirable songs (like The Milk of Human Kindness) have come out of the Harum vaults. The new line-up has been stormingly received in Germany, the UK, Italy and the Netherlands this year, and with orchestra and choir in a most spectacular setting in Sweden. Many friends have met, and been made, at all these concerts; new tee-shirt designs have been snapped up. No new material has yet been recorded, and we also live in hope of seeing the official orchestral recordings made in Denmark in 2006: so far only the live A Whiter Shade of Pale has seen the official light of day, thanks to iTunes.
In addition, Gary Brooker's other band,
No Stiletto Shoes, played three UK gigs just
before Christmas, sounding better than ever and
raising a worthy sum for charity.
Their live CD
is still available and, characteristically, some of the proceeds go to another
charity too. When a group of fans
had a Christmas lunch with the Brookers and some of the band we were able to
represent to 'The Commander' how much his music means worldwide, and to
express a fervent hope that
Procol will tour again in 2008. We know how much it would mean to our Fellow
Travellers if the band could cross the Atlantic too. At present, however, the
Procol slate is blank for 2008, and we keep our fingers crossed for favourable
omens before long. As always, fans who have subscribed to
our (very) occasional 'Fresh Fruit' newsletter
will be the first to know the moment we learn anything new: meanwhile
The Beanstalk continues as a respected and
genial international forum reflecting all shades of opinion about this
remarkable band.
So we conclude with good wishes to all, and hearty thanks to
Gary Brooker, Keith Reid,
Geoff Whitehorn, Matt
Pegg, Josh Phillips and
Geoff Dunn for the great and promising music of
the last twelve months.