Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale

Christmas Quiz 2015

The handsome prizes!

Each year at Christmas, following the Scandinavian custom, BtP sets twelve days of Procol puzzles which great numbers of the band's adherents follow with much interest and merriment ... at the end of the trail is typically a tiny answer, which you send in by e-mail to the webmasters, to win one (or more?) of the prizes below. The puzzles start on Christmas Day.

However ... one very wet summer's day in 2015 BtP received a couple of plaintive requests from two members of Procol Harum, that they wished we would set 'some puzzles that we can actually solve.' OK then: with that in mind, we've come up with something this year (all will be revealed soon) which, compared with last year's puzzle, will be a piece of cake. The twelve days of Christmas will take participants on a little tour through twelve classic albums, asking small details about their content or appearance; all the information is at 'Beyond the Pale', the only Procol Harum work of reference you'll need.

This year's fine freebies are, we trust you'll agree, quite as desirable as those from 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 or 2014: special thanks to Procol Harum and all the other kind donors. Click here, in due time, to view the schedule of winners

A	Esoteric 2CD 'Procol Harum' : remastered with fifteen bonus-tracks (thanks, Vicky)
B	Esoteric 3CD Shine on Brightly : remastered with twenty bonus-tracks (thanks, Vicky)
C	Procol Harum 2LP on de luxe 140 gramme yellow vinyl: Live from the Union Chapel
D	Winterbach tee-shirt [men's style, Extra-Large, red] signed by all five members of the band (thanks, Gary, Geoff, Matt, Josh, Geoff)
E	I'm Coming Home: DVD of The Paramounts in concert, 2005 (Brooker, Trower, Copping, Brownlee) in PAL or NTSC to suit your regional requirement.
F	Esoteric 2CD A Salty Dog : remastered with twelve bonus-tracks (thanks, Vicky)
G	Esoteric 2CD Home : remastered with eleven bonus-tracks (thanks, Vicky)
H	Winterbach tee-shirt [women's style, Large, red] signed by all five members of the band (thanks, Gary, Geoff, Matt, Josh, Geoff)

Competitors should rank the above prizes in the order they favour them, and send in their preference – all eight letters, please! – with the solution to the puzzles. Your message will look something like: "The one-word answer is [x] and my prize preferences are AGBHCDEF".

We shall allot the first three prizes on a beat-the-clock basis, where the earliest correct response earns its first choice of prize and so on; after that all subsequent correct entries received in the next 48 hours will be placed in the BtP Homburg and the remaining prize-winners will be drawn by a suitably Glamorous Assistant, all being well.

In the somewhat unlikely event of there being fewer than eight winners, the first people to submit correct answers will get more than their fair share of the prizes!

The quiz starts on Christmas Day and runs through to Twelfth Night. You can join in at any time, if you have a pencil and an internet connection.

How to play | The solution | Winners | First question