Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

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... Give me access ...

Winding up the April Fool's Day fun for 2000


Subscribers to the Procol list received the following message from Jens …

Hi to all Palers, this is a rush message to all the maillist subscribers.

To avoid a possible attack from hackers, we have decided to move 'Beyond the Pale' to a new URL with restricted access. To get all the details, including instructions of how to be granted access to BtP under it's new domain name, please look here: http://www.procolharum.com/newbtp.htm

Shine On!
Roland and Jens

For an April Fool's gag that was first thought of in Norway at lunchtime on 31st March, the 'removal' of BtP to GoldenMusic.net was a remarkable world-wide success. It rode the tide of current anxiety about hacking, spamming and so on, and it capitalised on some fans' belief that BtP is just as likely to be targeted as the White House! We were flooded with delightful requests to be included in the new order of Beyond the Pale: some of them are printed below.

Last year (when BtP was 'taken over' by JJ Pink and his abominable website) we put up a bit of the correspondence we'd had, and someone (I forget who) was momentarily upset by it. Once again, Palers, we're here in a spirit of fun and friendship, and let's not forget that these messages prove that – when it comes to the crunch – a lot of us put our loyalty to our favourite band before checking the calendar. And there's nothing to be embarrassed about in that!

This year's requests ranged from the plaintive to the extremely whimsical, and the self-authentications extended to BtP-contributions, knowledgeable Procol neighbours, and ownership of Greg Panfile albums! "I'm saddened that anyone would be so malicious as to try to hurt such a benign and loving tribute page" was a lovely note, as was the message from someone who had never sent an e-mail before in her life. Our favourite request came from the 'anatomically correct' blonde who was thoughtful enough to specify her blood-group: and the one we most regretted was … <wince>the long-distance 'phone-call</wince>

Remember, if your reply is here on the page you're the only one who knows the identity of the sender, apart from Jens and Roland who have already passed out of mischief-mode for another year, and would in any case never betray a fellow-Paler. So we start with the only named respondents on this page … the ones who saw through us … ranging from the elegant Marvin, the hilarious Bert, through to the no-nonsense Marcelo, to the ranting AJ and his platoon of imaginary Moody Blues fans …!


So, many thanks to everyone for their warm wishes and their continuing endorsement of the work of BtP … whose purpose, let's remember, is to spread the word of Procol, share the fun, and get that band out on to the concert platform once again!


BtP: 2000 April Fool page

BtP: 1999 April Fool page

BtP: 1998 April Fool page


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