What was new at 'Beyond the Pale'

 January 31:

Added a page of pictures showing Procol fans at Islington in December. (thanks, One-Eye)

Added a page about recent changes, and projected improvements, here at 'Beyond the Pale'

Added a page of pictures showing the Procol soundcheck at Islington in December. You can also have a look at your contract with Eagle Rock Entertainment (thanks, One-Eye)

Renind yourself about that False Grand Piano that Gary Brooker plays on grand occasions

January 29:

Added a page of excellent Procol portraits from a fine German gig last year (thanks, Mike)

Added a 1972 ticket, from Ohio, to this page (thanks, Craig)

January 28:

Added a Danish ticket here (thanks, Michael), and several tour dates here (thanks, Mark Ritucci)

Did you ever see Procol Harum play with the Hammond stage right and the piano stage left? Added a brightly-coloured illustration here (thanks, Dave)

January 27:

Added an unexpected page about Procol Harum at the Abbey Road café (thanks, Charlie)

Look back at other pictures sent to BtP at the same time by Geoff Whitehorn (thanks, Geoff)

Remind yourself of some other Procol / Beatle pages.

Read about the Paramounts at Abbey Road too!

January 26:

Added an interesting Norwegian review of The Well's on Fire (thanks ***)

*** The source for this article has been lost. Please mail us, and due credit will be given on BtP

More news about Henry Scott-Irvine's Procol Harum film: it will contain excerpts from the Fisher-scored film Separation; and an interview with Procol producer Chris Thomas is scheduled for this week among many others.

Your own footage of Procol Harum could be in this documentary. If you have filmed the band yourself, at any era, use this e-mail link to inform Henry about it ... even a brief clip could help tell the Procol story.

January 25:

Added a page of pictures showing Procol Harum on stage at Esbjerg on the most recent tour (thanks, Carsten)

January 24: Welcome back, Cerdes!

Added photographs of setlists from Gary Brooker's most recent gig (thanks, Thwigby)

Added a nice snippet about Gary's guide vocal, to this page about Brooker and Reid's Harlequin (thanks, Charlie)

If you don't know this rare song (played a few times at Procol shows this century) there's a version on Lost in the Looking-Glass: click here to listen.

January 23:

Added a curious photomontage and the answer to a fan's question (from 15 May last year) about a 1992 concert (thanks, Tony)

Remind yourself of the Procol 1992 tour schedule that is here ... maybe you know something more that could be added to it?

January 22:

Added a piece from 1973 that foretells the Grand Hotel tour (thanks, Phil)

Please dig in your archives, get your scanners going, and send us more Procol Harum history from magazines and papers you've been hoarding all this time!

All the prizes from our Christmas Competitions were sent out by mail from the UK last week to the Triumphant Victors (thanks, John; thanks, Linda). If and when you receive yours, please let us know briefly.

January 21:

Added some good onstage pictures from Procol's recent show at Regensburg in Germany (thanks, Ethan)

Do you remember Ethan's 'tuneful little crustaceans from the cyber-abyss'?

Nice news of progress on Henry Scott-Irvine's Procol Harum film ... with six hours in the can during the last week, he has footage of Procol members, spanning all line-ups, talking with great warmth about the songs. Lately he was filming various Paramounts and Procolers in Southend, and had the opportunity of introducing Geoff Whitehorn to Robin Trower. "I think I know this man, though I've never met him," Geoff began. Both guitarists play on camera, we understand.

Your own footage of Procol Harum could be in this documentary. If you have filmed the band yourself, at any era, use this e-mail link to inform Henry about it ... even a brief clip could help tell the Procol story.

January 20:

Added some good onstage photos from Tubingen (thanks, Achim)

Watch out for the new ballet / opera from Paler Jeremy Gilien, a major fan of Matthew Fisher and Procol Harum. Civic Duty is a circus farce based on the recent crazy gubernatorial election in California, and it's coupled with a more intimate modern ballet called Circus of the Canyons. 'I do sneak in bits of 'Twas Teatime ... , AWSoP, and quotations from Rimsky-Korsakov, Schumann, Beethoven ... ' says Jeremy. The work premières at the State Playhouse of California State University, Los Angeles, at 8 pm on Thursday 22, Friday 23 and Saturday 24 January at 8 pm, with a matinée at 3 pm on the Saturday also.

Added a link to John Peel's opinion about a cover-version of A Whiter Shade of Pale (thanks, Ian). Remind yourself of our list of AWSoP covers.

January 19: BtP may now be updated more than once each day: so do check back

Added a Procol ticket from Japan ... interesting specimen ... here and here ... (thanks, Takayuki Niki)

Has the Palers' Band ever played to a public audience, as opposed to preaching to the converted? The answer is here ...

January 18:

Added another example of the phrase 'A Whiter Shade of Pale', used almost arbitrarily by journalists (search for 'Wyman') (thanks, Jonas)

Added some alarming untruths about Procol Harum from a recently-published book (thanks, Peter) 

Added 99 Degrees, a hitherto-unknown Keith Reid song, to our schedule of Reid's non-Procol collaborations (thanks, António) ... is anyone in a position to send us a note of the words?

Very interesting news! We learn from film-maker Henry Scott-Irvine that he has started work on a new Procol Harum documentary, for which plans have been in the pipeline for a long while. Henry is the founder of Shine On and in many ways the catalyst for the present huge wave of Procol interest. An established professional with twenty years in the rockumentary business, he was responsible, with Westside Records, for the 30th Anniversary Procol Harum Boxed Set which sold 30,000 units worldwide, spawning the subsequent Procol Harum ... Plus!, Shine on Brightly ... Plus!, A Salty Dog ... Plus!, Home ... Plus! and the Pandora's Box album containing first-album songs in stereo: all these collections got great reviews in the music press and did a lot to help Procol Harum's public profile.

For the new film he has some rather amazing interviewees lined up. Please note the following points:

• Your own footage of Procol Harum could be in this documentary. If you have filmed the band yourself, at any era, use this e-mail link to inform Henry about it ... even a brief clip could help tell the Procol story.
• Fans saw some of Henry's his rare archive footage at Islington very recently. There is a lot more where that came from.
• At Redhill in 1997 we saw his Whiter Shade of Pale documentary ... very interesting! This has not seen the light of day commercially, but parts of it, we understand, will appear in the new film.

January 16: Starting 2004, BtP may now be updated more than once each day: so do check back

Added a page of pictures taken on the recent Procol tour to Japan (thanks, One-Eye)

 January 15:

There are still more pictures from the Palers' Festival in the summer! (thanks, Jan)

January 14: .

Added a page about Gary Brooker's first gig of this year, in which he was joined on stage – at the Guildford Civic Hall – by quite a few interesting friends!

The Guildford Civic is of course where the first-ever Palers' Convention took place, in 2000

Remember the 'Still There'll Be More' petition that BtP handed to Gary last time 'Gary Brooker and Friends' played the Guildford Civic? A lot has happened in Procoldom since then, and a lot of people who wrote in that petition have since met at numerous gigs, and, of course, played together. Equally there are some familiar names on that document who have not been heard from for quite a while ... where are they now?

January 13: .

Added the first ticket to our 2004 tickets page ... let us hope there will be many more!

Let us remind you of the excellent Procol Harum live DVD: The Best of Musicladen Live, now re-issued.

Also have a look at this interesting Procol Harum DVD, Procol Harum EP:

    Also available from Amazon UK

January 12:

'... and Geoff is revealed, bundled in foetal position with a light dusting of lentils, and cradling his 'emergency' bottle of Bells ...'

Added an untimely account of Procol Harum at Bramhall, Cheshire, in the summer of 2002. Occasionally a BtP report goes 'under the carpet' for one reason or another: sometimes, as in this case, a file gets corrupted and we have to wait 18 months before some suitable strategy can be found for unravelling it.

January 11:

'One of the standout concerts we saw was Procol Harum in 1967, not least because of the murder, and our meeting Robin Trower and Barrie Wilson.'

Added an excellent memoir of Procol on their first visit to New York City (thanks, Peter)

Beyond the Pale would love to print more concert memoirs like this one – please write in

Remind yourself of another concert from the same year

Added a link to a Procol Harum article on this page.

January 10:  

Added some after-gig pictures from the recent Procol gig at Aalborg, Denmark, in which Gary Brooker flies high in the air and we get to see a webmaster's bottom (thanks, Lene and Henrik)

These last months BtP has acquired a much larger audience with many new visitors. By the mails we get we can tell that many of you don't know about the fantastic live DVD Procol Harum released in 2002. So here is a link to the page that details everything about this DVD, including where to buy it.

We are pleased to learn that The Olsen Brothers were appointed Honorary Members of the Royal Danish Society of Procoholics in the interval of the Amager Bio show on 6 November (thanks, Niels-Erik)

Added some performance pictures from Vejle (thanks, Carsten)

January 8:

Added a note about the Procol film-show that was screened informally for Palers the day after the Islington show (thanks, Henry)

If your name is on the Christmas Puzzle winners' list, please send us your snail address so that your prize may be duly despatched.

Added some good pictures from Procol's most recent gig in Copenhagen (thanks, Bøje)

Added a page showing which of this year's BtP prizes was most favoured. And if your name is on the winners' list, please send us your snail address so that your prize may be duly despatched.

 January 6:

Added a page giving the solution to this year's BtP Prize Puzzles, and a list of the people who sent in correct (not incorrect) entries. The draw has been made from the BtP Homburg and the list of winners is here.

If your name is on the winners' list, please send us your snail address so that your prize may be duly despatched.

Thanks to everyone who took part, winners or not. We hope everyone had a lot of fun. Thanks also to all the kind people who gave the prizes, and to Hans Teutiger himself.

Added the Final Dose of the Christmas puzzles with lavish prizes, and the famous 'Thirteenth Directive' which tells you exactly how to win, and what to do with the answers you have accumulated during the twelve days of Christmas. Follow this instruction, and you will merely need to mail a one-word answer to 'Beyond the Pale', along with your prize-preference list, which will look something like : "Prize preferences: IACKBOJFGEMNDH". We hope everyone has enjoyed the trail ... do read the directions carefully before submitting! ... (danke, Hans, noch Einmal)

Reminder: BtP will allot the first three prizes on a beat-the-clock basis, with the earliest correct response earning its first choice of prize and so on; after that all correct entries received in the next twenty-four hours will be placed in the BtP Homburg and the remaining dozen prizewinners will be drawn by a suitably Glamorous Assistant.

Best of luck to Gary Brooker and Friends for tonight's long-sold-out 'Last Fling' performance as the Guildford Civic opens its doors for the final time: BtP hopes to report on the entertainments, which promise to be full of surprises.

Added the Penultimate Dose of the Christmas puzzles with lavish prizes ... (thanks, Hans)

Have you chosen which prizes you most favour? Check out the instructions here. You will need to make your mind up in advance, in order to be able to send in your answer as soon as you read tomorrow's clue. The message will look something like : "Prize preferences: IACKBOJFGEMNDH". The last clue will be accompanied by a simple instruction telling you what to do with the answers you have accumulated during the twelve days of Christmas. Follow this instruction, and you will merely need to mail a one-word answer to 'Beyond the Pale', along with your prize-preference list. Do read the directions carefully before submitting!

Reminder: BtP will allot the first three prizes on a beat-the-clock basis, with the earliest correct response earning its first choice of prize and so on; after that all correct entries received in the next twenty-four hours will be placed in the BtP Homburg and the remaining dozen prizewinners will be drawn by a suitably Glamorous Assistant. Prizes will of course be awarded at the absolute discretion of Roland and Jens, who run 'Beyond the Pale', and whose decision will be final; their families are not eligible to enter. In the somewhat unlikely event of there being fewer than fifteen winners, the first people to submit correct answers will get more than their fair share of the prizes.

Added Dose Ten of the Christmas puzzles with lavish prizes ... (thanks, Hans)

Added Dose Nine of the Christmas puzzles with lavish prizes ... (thanks, Hans)

Added Dose Eight of the Christmas puzzles with lavish prizes ... (thanks, Hans)

Read what was new on this website in previous months