Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

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From Pam Quinn's scrapbook

Portraits of Diz Derrick


There's something Ringo-like in this shot of good-natured clowning. Diz's glistening face speaks of high jinks in this room … another bedroom? … with its curiously contrasting pair of framed pictures, and its glimpse of an unidentifiable gloss-haired pinup.

The wallpaper and curtains are very characteristic of their time; incidentally it's not the same room that Brooker, Wilson and Trower are pictured in.

Diz looks a lot younger here, as he chooses a record. He's passed over Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, who didn't make a very significant impact on the Paramounts' style! It could be a Shadows record that he's choosing …

The wireless, above, is tuned to the BBC's 'third programme' on the medium waveband, signifying that there's a lover of classical music in the house (or conceivably a cricket fan, in the summer months).

The over-large ring on Diz's middle finger can't have made it easy to play the bass … he's wearing it to play in the Selmer photograph, but not on the beach! It does appear on and off in other pictures too, and there are shots in which Gary wears a ring on the same finger too.


Pam doesn't remember anything particular from the furnishings in this sequence, but the twin beds made her think of the room shared by Barrie and his brother Richard. Frans Steensma feels that the sequence from which these pictures come was '… probably made at Barrie's house in Derby Road, Ponders End.' (more from Frans here)


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More from Pam Quinn's scrapbook


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