Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

PH on stage | PH on record | PH in print | BtP features | What's new | Interact with BtP | For sale | Site search | Home

Thanks to many Procol Harum fans

for your very generous donations to a new music charity fund


Martin Clare (1956–2011)   On 25 July 'Beyond the Pale' published the first links to a new website (kindly hosted by Jens Anders Ravnaas) that commemorates Martin Clare, brother of one BtP's webmasters, who unexpectedly died on 3 July, aged 55. Martin was a frequent contributor to this website, a major Procol fan, and played (bass and piano) in The Palers' Band.

Martin was latterly a music teacher (guitar, piano, flute); he would often discount his fees for pupils from households hit by the recession, and his family has launched a charitable fund, in his memory, to continue this work, subsidising instrumental tuition for the young people of Fairford UK, where he lived.

We were absolutely delighted and overwhelmed by the generosity of the donations that BtP readers sent, following that announcement. Large and small, the sums rolled in from all over the world, and the fund – including other 'live' donations – already stands at over £2,500. With this capital we can make a real difference to the lives of many young musicians for a good time to come, so Thank You Very Much, kind BtP readers.

Paler DJ Rob Barnes kindly used part of his radio show on 30 August to relay thanks to all Procol fans listening, and our (edited) clip of this makes good listening: click here (you will also hear a webmaster typing a message to the DJ in the opening seconds)

In the show Rob explained his selection of Gary Brooker's poignant Trick of the Night (we wonder how many times that piece has been aired on the radio). It's also the song sung by Martin's brother Roland (with his son and nephews, in a special choral arrangement) to a full congregation of about 300 people just before the Commendation that concluded Martin's Memorial Celebrations.

Here in the UK we're now researching for a philanthropic sponsor to match the sum collected, pound for pound, so the Martin Clare Music Fund can do more good for longer.

So – if any further BtP readers would now like to make a donation, whatever the size, to promote something so musical and worthwhile, it might now produce a double benefit. Thank you all again.


Martin Clare Music Fund | Click here if you'd like to send a donation


PH on stage | PH on record | PH in print | BtP features | What's new | Interact with BtP | For sale | Site search | Home