Procol Harum for the USA?

Findings, a month on ...

Late in 2002 'Beyond the Pale' was asked to run a survey, to enable Procol Harum to send some data to US promoters with reference to the possibility of doing some North American dates between 20 April and 4 May 2003; this we did, with the caveat that the publication of the questions didn't promise or guarantee that the band would actually get offered suitable gigs in the USA.

Here, a month on, are some survey results. Discarding multiple entries, we received responses from only about 250 American people (from among 1,400+ individuals who daily visit the website from around the world), to whom we shall directly e-mail any upshot. BtP will of course also publish details of any US dates on our What's New page as well, the moment they are confirmed at the Procol end.

Pattern of responses

Your names ...

We had some responses proclaiming that 'I don't do marketing surveys', or words to that effect, but many thanks to the following people who did take the trouble to write in constructively: we hope that their enthusiasm will prove to have had some effect ...

Al, Alan, Alan, Alexandra, Allen, Andrew, Andrew, Anthony, Arnie, Arthur, Barry, Barry, Bert, Beverly, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill, Bob, Bob, Bob, Bob + Cathy, Boyd, Bradford, Brent, Brian, Bruce, Bruce, Bruce, Buddy, Carl, Cathy, Charles, Charles, Charles, Christopher, Christopher, Craig, Dan, Dana, Danny, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, David, Delbert, Denis, Denis, Dennis, Dennis, Don, Doug, Doug, Ed, Ed, EJ, Eli, Elizabeth, Eric, Evan, Evangelina, Francis, Fred, Fred, Freddie, Fritz, Gabriel, Gary, Gary, Gary, Geoff, George, George, George, Gerard, Greg, Greg, Greg, Harold, Harold, Harold, Howard, Ileana, Jack, James, James, James, James, James, Jan, Jay, Jaye, Jeff, Jeff, Jeff, Jeremy, Jerry, Jill, Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim, Jimmy, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joel, Joey, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, Jon, JP & Lynn, Judith, Karen, Karl, Ken, Ken, Kerry, Kevin, Kevin, Kris, Kurt, Larry, Larry, Larry, Larry, Len, Libero, Linc, Mara, Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark, Marvin, Matt, Matthew, Meyer, Michael, Michael, Michael, Michael, Michael, Michael, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Nancy, Nathan, Neal, Nick, Nika, One-Eye, P T, Pam, Pat, Pat, Pat, Patrick, Patrick, Paul, Paul, Paul, Pawel, Pepper, Peter, Philip, Pierre, Raymond, Rex, Ric, Richard, Richard, Richard, Richard, Richard, Richard, Richard, Rick, Robert, Robert, Robert, Rodger, Rodger, Ron, Ron, Ross, Russ, Russell, Sam, Sandra, Scott, Scott, Scott, Silvio, Skip, Stan, Stephen, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steve, Steven, Stewart, T&L, Tad, Terry, Thomas, Thomas, Thomas, Tim, Timothy, Timothy, Tito, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tony, Tony, Tony, Vince, W T, Wayne, William, William,

In what decade were you born?

15.6% of the respondents said that they had been born in the 1940s; 70.3% were from the 50s, 9.8% from the 60s, and the remainder from the 70s and 80s. Only one person told us to mind our own business.

Would you be happy to see Procol Harum play live in North America again?

Scarcely surprisingly, everyone was very positive about the possibility of Procol Harum dates in Canada or the USA (24.8% said they were ecstatic).

What state do you live in, and what town or city would you ideally like to see Procol play in?

People tended of course to suggest that the band should play in the cities/states where they live, and these are the states most of the answers came from:

How many people would you bring to a PH show (include yourself)

The figures, if borne out in practice, are very pleasing

How far would you travel to hear PH play?

These responses are a bit less encouraging and suggest that a lots of people would be disappointed, no matter where the band were able to offer a concert:

If Procol played a convenient venue more than once on a tour, would you turn out for more than one show?

57.9% said they would attend more than one show; 38.5% said they possibly would go to multiple shows, while 3.6% said they would only go to one concert

Do you like the idea of Procol Harum playing a limited number of club style shows ?

74.8% said they preferred a club-style venue, while 24.8% said it didn't matter to them so long as they could secure tickets. Only one person answered that he preferred a large venue.

When did you last see Procol play in the USA?

A good percentage of people have seen the band lately, which is encouraging.

"Use this space for any comments you may have about PH touring"

There was a good number of useful comments and they were all forwarded straight to PH management. Thanks.

What is your favourite Procol Harum album?

Every album received at least one vote, but it was a very conservative poll, with a marked preference for the Regal Zonophone years, the band's most varied (and arguably therefore least-consistent?) LP garnering more than a quarter of all votes.

Do you plan to buy The Well's on Fire ?

The very first person to respond declared that she did not intend to buy it, but we might guess that this was a mistake; otherwise everybody answered that they planned to buy it, apart from twelve suitably-cautious souls who intend to wait and see if they like the songs when they hear them in full.

How often do you visit 'Beyond the Pale'?

Did you hear the pre-release song-excerpts from The Well's on Fire

Pretty-well half the people had heard the excerpts, but another 49 said they hadn't known anything about them. This presumably means that they are among the 'very seldom' visitors to 'What's New' at 'Beyond the Pale', and happened to drop by on a day when the survey was announced; and that they do not look back at all in the list of daily updates, nor notice the countdown banners at the head of the pages; and that they do not receive, or do not read, the 'Fresh Fruit' newsletter. So this was an interesting result for the webmasters

49 people also said that they had not tried, and 33 people who had tried said that they had had difficulties getting the clips to play.

Do you intend to get Lost in the Looking-Glass to hear 40 great new versions of Procol songs for 22 dollars, and support 'Beyond the Pale' financially?

This was a very interesting section of the survey.

Over 10 percent of people claimed that they already had the album, though rather few of those had in fact ordered it, leaving over a dozen people whose survey feedback is not unshadowed with doubt.

8.8% of people said they did not want to support BtP (and many of those also said that they visited the site daily. Perhaps they do not realise that it is just two fans who run it, and who pay to store 3,000 pages and as many pictures on a rented server ...)

2.8% said they had ordered the album, but that it was still in transit.

17% said they preferred to support BtP in some other way ... and to those kind people we say thank you, and please click on the black button near the top right of our What's New page, to make your donation.

A tremendous majority (61.6%) said they did plan to buy the album: to which we say, many thanks, kind people, and we certainly look forward to sending the album out to you ... the ordering page is here.

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