Back to the Past

Susanne Johansen • Procol Harum at Copenhagen's 'Saga' • 30 January 1992

Time stood still. It was turned back, and it passed too quickly. The air was filled with nostalgia, blended with hash smoke. And it was all ... awesome.

Procol Harum's re-formation album, The Prodigal Stranger, I can always manage without. But not so the past! And fortunately the past was in pole position when Procol Harum took the stage at Saga. Frontman Gary Brooker wasn't the only person there who had his work cut out, counting the grey hairs. The major part of the audience had passed forty a good while back, and probably hadn't been in a concert hall since the band's last visit.

"I haven't seen them since '68 at Tivoli, and that was brilliant: They're the memory of my earlier life,' as one of these nostalgic gentlemen expressed it when he bumped into me. And I'll drink to that!

Another man nearby claimed that they hadn't played tightly enough;  but to be fair, trying to update the 60s to the 90s would have been embarrassing, and cramped the band's style. I'd much rather hear believable and honest versions of masterpieces like Conquistador, Homburg, Shine on Brightly, The Devil Came from Kansas, A Salty Dog, and not least A Whiter Shade of Pale, which Procol Harum delivered, and which was definitely also what the elderly audience had come for.

With adoration, and with many years of pent-up energy, we hailed Procol Harum. And it could easily have gone on for hours. As the radio broadcaster Erik Kramshøj put it on his way out, 'That was fab – fabber than I'd expected.'

Photo caption: the reformed Procol Harum delivered an awesome and nostalgic concert at Saga yesterday evening. [Click the article to enlarge it]

Thanks, Jan (trans. Jens/Roland)