£1m war over Whiter Shade

A ROW over who wrote the pop classic A Whiter Shade Of Pale is to be fought out in court.

The Sixties anthem by Procol Harum, one of the world’s most played records, has sold 10million copies.

Frontman Gary Brooker said he wrote it with lyricist Keith Reid after hearing Bach’s Air on a G String on a Hamlet cigar ad.

But band organist Matthew Fisher, 60, claims the song’s mournful melody is his work.

Fisher, a computer programmer in Croydon, South London, is claiming a £1million share of copyright and past sales and will put his argument before a High Court judge in London next week.

Brooker insisted last night that the 1967 song was written even before Fisher joined the band.