Procol HarumBeyond the Pale |
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Chris writes to 'Beyond the Pale' (2 March 2022) with this amusingly-structured, literary, and interestingly moving memoir sparked by Gary Brooker's death.
May I add an extract or two from a recent e-mail exchange with an unnamed
person?
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Well your honour
It was like this
Rob and me was in this band and there was a battle of the bands at a local dance
place at the top of Pier Hill
Who cares who won but Pete who ran the place had a cunning plan to put me and
Rob with the best drummer around and a local singer who was quite popular
but sung mostly white rock
I think it was Rob and Pete who applied Machiavellian theory to economy with
truth, to steal Gary Brooker from another little combo who had a brilliant
guitarist
Theft accomplished we started playing gigs as Bob Scott and the Paramounts. None
of the band sang, just Bob
Bob left and we had a madman who jumped on the piano but he was funny
Then one day we didn't have a singer in the middle of rural Essex where they
still 'ad an accent like.
We split the vocals between us and at
the end of the evening we pointed to Gary and said "You're it"
Then Robin's dad bought a seafront café in Southend just away from the funfairs
and we rehearsed there, played on Sundays and did gigs elsewhere
Our mate Wilk stocked the juke box with things you wouldnt normally hear: Jimmy
Reed, James Brown, Booker T, Bobby Bland etc etc.
We were still only around 16
The café had motorcycle enthusiasts (Triumph 110s were the order of the day and the mods had their Vespas)
Never a moment of trouble. The music united everybody
As times went on some of us would
maybe stroll down the road to a pub also on the seafront and hear older chaps
talk about carburettors
Then back to the Shades
I did my 'O' levels but when 'A' levels approached I wanted to secure a place at
Uni so I suggested a chap at Westcliff High who could play play guitar and piano
and I thought he'd be fine. Mick wanted to get married and he left and then they
found BJ. Meanwhile I became a jazz snob -- Miles, Monk, Coltrane
In 2005 there was reunion at the Cricketers Hotel in Westcliff, one of the
places that Robin and I had started rehearsing in easy before drinking (not that
Robin was a drinker).
BJ had gone anyway so it was the original four -- AND the Rockerfellas who
started in 1956 (from Romford). Robin always wanted a band like that -- piano,
bass, guitar, drums. Tony played piano and sung
Talk about a time loop
Now there are only Robin and me and we don't communicate
Great memories
And now we know … Can’t have been hard to pick that voice as the one to go
with…
I read in one obit of the moment in the Appeal Court when the judge asked him
to play the melody of Whiter Shade of Pale as he had written it before
the addition of the organ counter-melody.
He played it end-to-end and apparently the silence was so thick it was almost
unbreathable.
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Hi there
The funny thing was that Gary was not known as a singer then -- just a piano
player and a good bloke, but the rest of us were shite as N Gallagher would say
Unlike, say, Winwood who sounded mighty from the word go
If you listen to Paramounts records
you can hear he could sing -- in fact their recorded version is possibly a bit
better than the Stones' one. And his voice got a lot of groundwork in during the
Paramounts' career.
I really think that meeting Keith, which triggered him into writing his own
stuff, brought out another layer or two on him
I thought the progress they made on the first three Procol Harum albums was
astonishing.
Keith's influence is amazing -- BJ became a great drummer (as opposed to a good
one)
Robin was challenged by the gothic structures but they brought some very fine
playing out of him
I was flabbergasted when I was asked to take over bass and organ!
Bass, yes ... but replacing Matthew was like taking over from Lionel Messi, who
wasn't even born then ... but looking backwards I would be happy to approach Ray
Parlour's standard (a team player, not a star). Matthew was irreplaceable but he
hated touring
That's about it (end of e-mails)
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So that's more or less how I remember it
You have done a great job on the site.
Very best wishes,
Chris
Chris
Copping's main page at 'Beyond the Pale'
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