Shine on Brightly ... Plus!

Procol Harum: Shine On Brightly ... Plus! (Westside) *****

Reissue from Sixties baroque psychedelists.

Less than a year since Westside's best-selling three-disc anthology, the same label begins to reissue the same early Procol Harum albums singly, bolstered by even more additional tracks.

A cheek? Not a bit of it. As Shine on Brightly heaves into view once again on a welling tide of Hammond sound from Matthew Fisher, sounding even more baroquely magnificent than it did last time round, a big grin begins to spread across the listener's phiz and all is forgiven.

For newcomers, this is the one featuring the anguished metaphysical epic In Held 'Twas in I, an acknowledged influence on Tommy. Of eight extra tracks, the most vital for fans will be Alpha, the previously unissued first collaboration between Gary Brooker and Keith Reid. But dig, too the phenomenal Seem to Have the Blues (Mostly All the Time) and imagine how stimulating it must have been even for major rivals to have this huge sound on the same bill as them in those distant days of multi-act evenings.

Madly great music from the psychedelic zenith of the sixties.