What was new at 'Beyond the Pale'

Hallowe'en: One hundred and thirty-six nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

Added three interesting Paramounts graphics, which you will find on re-reading the articles here, here and here (thanks, Claes)

October 30: One hundred and thirty-six nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK

Added a thoughtful review of Something Magic (thanks, Unsteady Freddie) ... but where does the idea come from that TWatT '... is largely derived from a musical theme of an early album ... this inclusion on side two was warranted because no one remembered the earlier work'?

October 29: RIP Tom Dowd  One hundred and thirty-eight nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

As Canada and the USA hold their breath hoping that some transAtlantic dates may be added to the Procol Harum 2003 tour-schedule, we add a page about a family encounter with Gary and Matthew after a Florida Procol show (thanks, Judith)

October 28:  One hundred and thirty-eight nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK

Added another good review of the Edmonton album, now available on CD re-release (see here to order) (thanks, Unsteady Freddie)

October 27: One hundred and forty nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

Added a page about the three original Cochise albums, recently released on CD for the first time on Spiral Records: a must for fans of Mick Grabham's pre-Procol band. (thanks, Robin)

October 26: One hundred and forty nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK

Added an obituary and details of two services (AWSoP will be performed at both) to Peter Froning's page

Added a gruesome specimen to our 'Nasty Mess' page, which records some bizarre spellings of 'Procol Harum' (thanks, Beverly; watch out, Jonny!)

Added a snippet about band-naming to this page: look for 'The Muhammad Alis' or 'The Queers' (thanks, Ken)

If you're interested in some boots from the Ray Royer era of the band, scroll to the bottom of this page (thanks, Claes)

October 25: RIP Peter Froning, Procol-fan and globe-trotter; read more here

Added (search for 'Shalimar') an episode of Mutant X, and (search for 'Multicultural') a piece about census protocols, to the AWSoP in General Parlance page (thanks, Joan)

Added a 1968 Procol / Bee Gees feature (thanks, Thorsten)

October 24:

Added news of a one-off UK gig for Gary Brooker's No Stiletto Shoes in Southend, 21 December 2002 (thanks, Paul). If by chance you do not know about the Shoes, read BtP reviews of their gigs in Southend here or here , or in deepest Surrey here (and some movie clips here)

Added a picture of three original Paramounts, at the recent 2002 Shoes gig (thanks, Chris)

October 23:

Added a tour date here (thanks, JP Hovercraft)

Added news of the co-producer of the new Procol Harum album, PH2003 (thanks, Chris)

Added a Prock Harson illustration (thanks, Larry)

October 22:

Beware the Ides of March!

Added some Procol Harum dates for next year ... at which we shall be able to hear material from the new album played live! (thanks, Chris)

October 21:

Added something pretty odd ... there is a Procol Harum song with one title but five different sets of words ... read the fifth set to have come to light (thanks, Martin, and thank you Martin / Nicholas)

October 20:

Added another memoir of Procol Harum at the Crystal Palace Garden Party in 1974 (thanks, Dave)

October 19: Happy Birthdays to Keith Reid (1946) and Pete Solley (1948)

Added to the page of Common Parlance instances of the words 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' ... search for 'Mocha' / 'Caterina' / 'Toronto' / 'pundits' / 'Jacobite' and 'moleskin' (the last being intrinsically very interesting!) (thanks, Beverly)

October 18:

Added some snippets, and some screenshots, from the Gary Brooker interview broadcast last night on Swedish television (thanks, Jonas)

October 17: This evening: Gary Brooker interview on Swedish Television: more details here

Added to the page in which fans suggest 'meanings' for the words of A Whiter Shade of Pale. Click here and search for 'sixteen mysteries' to see whether you think the enigma has been solved at last. (thanks, Tim)

October 16: Tomorrow: Gary Brooker interview on Swedish Television: more details here

Added an mp3 snippet from the latest work that Chris Copping is doing ... search for 'Finisterre' ... you heard it here first! (thanks, Chris)

Added some genial feedback to the foot of this recently-uploaded page (thanks, Ernie)

Added a link to this Keith Reid interview so that you can remind yourself what Pan's People looked like ... what would British pop culture have been without them? (thanks, Sam)

Reminder: Edmonton and Broken Barricades were re-issued in August on Repertoire CD: order from here. Also all Procol's 'A' and 'B' sides (including Albinoni and Blue Danube) on one triple CD: order from here

Now it's time again to vote for BtP in the IMA People's Choice awards. See banner above.

October 15:

Added, to the Melody Maker band breakdown, the section devoted to Chris Copping (thanks, Phil)

And look out, tomorrow, for a BtP exclusive ... an extract from Chris's latest composition, hot from Australia!

October 14:

Created a page for the forthcoming Procol Harum album (codename The Well's on Fire), and added one fan's useful opinions and speculations as to its content (thanks, Rich)

October 13:

Added, to the Melody Maker band breakdown, the section devoted to Mick Grabham (thanks, Phil)

While you're at it, why not re-read BtP's Mick Grabham interview in which he flatly contradicts one of the claims made on his behalf by the Melody Maker piece above?

October 12:

Added a page looking back at some of the dodgy rhetoric with which the Something Magic album was promoted (thanks, Unsteady Freddie)

Fans ask BtP whether any 'lost songs' of Procol Harum will appear on their forthcoming album. We don't know. Gary Brooker told BtP in June that he was planning an all-new set for the new album, and specifically said he didn't plan to record A Robe of Silk and so forth. We did get the impression, though, that he had been re-listening to the Something Magic Miami demos ... remind yourself about these by re-reading the recently re-vamped article, Something Missing

October 11:

Added, to the Melody Maker band breakdown, the section devoted to Alan Cartwright (thanks, Phil)

October 10: Happy Birthday Alan Cartwright, 1945

Added some more interesting pictures of Procol Harum on stage from 1971 (thanks, Unsteady Freddie)

October 9:

Added a very nice, illustrated memoir of the Grand Hotel promotional party (thanks, Beverly, thanks Barry)

Did you see the pictures of Procol Harum in the studio in yesterday's upload? One or two early birds may have missed that particular worm (thanks, Matthew)

October 7:

Added some suitably morbid French words that have been written for a Canadian version of A Whiter Shade of Pale, with a useful suggestion for recreational karaoke (thanks, Martin)

Have you got a Procol Harum anecdote to contribute to a forthcoming book? If so, please see here (thanks, Marley)

With tonight's upload we complete our first five years of daily additions to 'Beyond the Pale'. Thanks to all for reading and contributing – please play some suitable music, loudly, all day, and in a public place, to celebrate ... and come back tomorrow to find out how Procol Harum themselves spent the day ...

October 6:

"A good singer with a good arranger and producer could do just as good a job on any of our songs as we do ..."

Added, to the Melody Maker band breakdown, the section devoted to Keith Reid (thanks, Phil)

October 5:

Added several Palers' responses to our questions about the Shrine Poster in our pictorial miscellany(thanks to Dave, Frans and Scott among others ... Shrine on!)

Added another excellent 1969 stage photograph from Atlanta (thanks, Ron)

Added a poster from June 1967 to the early gigs list (thanks, Dave)

Added a couple of clippings mentioning Gary Brooker to the Ringo index page (thanks, Beverly)

Updated several links referring to Chris Copping's recording work with Mark Hilton, here and here(thanks, Mark)

October 4:

"It's better to be popular somewhere for something than not to be popular anywhere for anything ..."

Added, to the Melody Maker band breakdown, the section devoted to Gary Brooker (thanks, Phil)

October 3:

Added, to the 1974 tour list, a poster for 1 May 1974 (thanks, Dave)

Added a graphic tothis Hispanic page (thanks, Christian)

Added a link to the sad story of ALSoP played at a young girl's funeral (thanks, John)

Added a picture sleeve for another AWSoP cover, by the suspiciously-named Procro Magnum (thanks, Larry)

Added details of yet one more AWSoP cover (search for 'Guillory') (thanks, Kenny)

October 2:

Added the index page for the famous Melody Maker band breakdown feature from 1973, which really had some inexcusable mistakes in it (thanks, Phil)

October 1:

As promised on The Beanstalk, added some excellent pictures of Procol Harum on stage during the Home / Barricades era(thanks, Unsteady Freddie)

Read what was new on this website in previous months