Gary Brooker and Keith Reid interviewed on ABC TV

Michael Carson • aired 11 September 1973

Michael Carson
When Whiter Shade of Pale came out I remember all the DJs were saying ‘Make the most of this, it’s the only record you’re going to hear from these guys because they’re only together just for this one session.’ Was that ever the case?

Gary Brooker
No no, never. It was … the rumour was around at the time that the record had been made by a bunch of session people, that … it one of those rumours that got started and we tried to put down, but couldn’t. In fact we formed ourselves as a group two or three months before and had rehearsed about fifteen songs, and went in to make one of them. And … and that one came out. Er … you know it wasn’t as if we just made a record and then formed a group or anything. You know … we were well established … to ourselves, anyway.

Keith Reid
If I might interrupt. There were other things like that really because for example the people who were responsible for our record company, in England anyway, the record did very well initially, you know it came from nowhere, I think it came to the chart at Number 13 or something; and the newspapers, you know the trade papers, they thought that it had been hyped into the chart, had been bought into the chart. And They were ringing up you know the man in charge of the company and saying, you know, ‘We’re not gonna … we know it’s a hype … and it was ridiculous because I was kind of having to kind of defend something which was a fact. So a lot of things like that can happen, you know, people decide that it’s … to take that kind of attitude. It sells newspapers.

MC
Keith you play a most unusual rôle with Procol Harum. In fact you’re not a musician but you write all the words for the group, starting right back from A Whiter Shade of Pale.

KR
Right, Yeah

MC
How did this come about?

KR
Well it comes about really because … Gary and I originally got together to write songs, with no intention to have a group, you know, just to be songwriters and get people to record our songs. And we didn’t really have much success in getting people to [chuckles] record our songs so from that we decided to form a group, you know, kind of as an extension of our working together … and – well – therefore that continues, you know, Gary and I still work together, and that’s it.

 MC
You have a most unusual sound. Of course your organ sound is famous. You seem to use organ in a different way from a lot of groups.

GB
Well I think possibly, from the sound point of view … I mean it’s a perfectly standard organ, there’s nothing special about it, it’s only a Hammond organ. But I think when you’ve got five instruments like we have, the organ doesn’t have to play all the time, as it would, say, in a four-piece group. It would be necessary for the organ to provide a backing all the time. Same as if you get it down even lower with, say, a group with bass, drums and guitar, the guitar will play an entirely different thing to what it would play in our group. ’Cos he’s got to be there all the time, making sound.  Same with the organ. So in our group the organ, or the guitar, or the piano, can play much more melodic and effective things, because it doesn’t have to be there all the time.

MC
You’ve been playing a lot with orchestras, haven’t you, and in fact the Grand Hotel song, on the album, is with orchestra and choir. Is this what you’d r4eally like to … would you like to go further in that direction?

GB
Well I think you know, it’s very hard to … we’ve only … we like to do orchestral jobs, but … you know … we’ve done them whenever the opportunity has come up. If somebody’s invited us, which is the way it usually happens. Then we’ve always gone and done it. But it’s a very difficult thing to organise. For a start, a lot of symphony orchestras don’t like the idea, you know conductors don’t like the idea, the directors of the orchestras don’t like the idea … very … very … very few people actually get around to inviting a group to play.

MC
And the fourth to the fourteenth of September you’re touring Australia, right?

KR
Right, we’re going down under …

GB
Er, fifth, fifth of September, is that what you said?

MC
I can’t remember.

GB
Yeah, fifth of September, I hope it is anyway, I’m going over there then.

More Procol Harum history at 'Beyond the Pale' | Procol on tour in 1973 | Watch the clip on YouTube