BJ Wilson, Procol Harum's great percussionist

On 20 November a member of the BtP team, at Gary Brooker's invitation, travelled to a location in Southern England where Procol Harum were preparing for their orchestral performance at The Dominion Theatre in London on 24 November: the specific purpose of this visit was to enable the Commander to sign, and dedicate, the nine drumheads depicted below – and our picture shows him diligently fulfilling that promise. The work-in-progress is in fact balanced on some of the internal struts of his faux grand. Behind the photographer guitar, bass, Hammond and drums are fine-tuning the skeleton of one of Procol's best-loved stage numbers. If you can see anyone in the reflection, it's probably John Magner, who is scooting about making sure things work. [Once the indisposition of Geoff Whitehorn was made public, it was possible to amend the wording of this article to explain that in fact the Matt, Josh and Geoff D were teaching Simple Sister to stand-in guitarist David Colquhoun]. Outside this ombrageous rehearsal space (which must be a good forty miles from the ocean) a ruined boat, rotting tractors, and numerous substantial, friendly cats characterise a somewhat other-worldly scene. The nearest manmade landmark is an extensive cemetery. These details are probably not sufficient to send even the most avid Procoholic stalker to the right place ... so Procol Harum may continue to rehearse in peace, and we're sure they'll surprise us all on Monday night.