Shine On - The Best of the Whalers

Artist profile: Chris Copping

Shine on Brightly (Brooker / Reid) , Conquistador (Brooker / Reid)

Procol Harum's own Chris Copping recorded these tracks, which predate the Prodigal reunion and the onstage 'modernisation' of some of the Procol repertoire, purely for the love of it! Shine on Brightly was laid down in 1987 at a now-defunct 16-track studio in Melbourne, Australia, and engineered by John French: Ron Boromeo sings, with Erana Clark and Vicki Copping on backing vocals. Chris played keyboards and programmed the drums, updating the 'traditional' bass line with some subtle syncopation ('Sounds more dated than the original!' he quips now). Conquistador features Chris and Ron with Trevor Courtney (drums) and Procol's Dave Ball, whose acoustic guitar, in tandem with some changed chords in the chorus, contributes a nice Hispanic flavour; the spoken material came straight from a TV film. Conquistador was recorded in 1988 at RBX in Melbourne by Marty Pullan, who also worked on 2000's Copping / Brooker reworking of the neglected Procol classic, So Far Behind.

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