What was new at 'Beyond the Pale'

March 31: Happy Birthday (1951!) Henry Spinetti!

' … an eternal tour …'

Added a snippet about Procol Harum and Vivian Stanshall in Bristol; remember BtP's page about Stanshall / Procol?

Please go to this BBC webpage and vote for A Whiter Shade of Pale in another survey. Entries close today, so grab this last chance, so please don't delay. DJ Richard Allinson will be presenting a full run down of the Top 100 over the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, 29 – 31 May, on BBC2 Radio (thanks, Carol)

Are you following the clues to win a signed copy of the famous single on CD?

Win the CD single of A Whiter Shade of Pale, with live bonus tracks Repent Walpurgis and A Salty Dog, signed by Gary Brooker (see 24 March below for further info). Make a note of the answers as they unfold: eighth clue is here

March 30: Happy Birthday Dave Ball (1950) !

Added the words for Keith Reid's House on the Beach … (thanks, Gunnar; thanks, Knut)

Win the CD single of A Whiter Shade of Pale, with live bonus tracks Repent Walpurgis and A Salty Dog, signed by Gary Brooker (see 24 March below for further info). Make a note of the answers over the next few days: seventh clue is here

March 29:

'...the fact that the original [AWSoP] was used on Diana Moran's Keep Fit With The Green Goddess video in no way detracts from its awesome lighter-waving power.' Full story of this interesting Mojo survey … and remind yourself of another Mojo survey from seven years back …

Win the CD single of A Whiter Shade of Pale, with live bonus tracks Repent Walpurgis and A Salty Dog, signed by Gary Brooker (see 24 March below for further info). Make a note of the answers over the next few days: sixth clue is here

March 28:

Added the words of a Keith Reid song released in March 2004 (thanks, Anders): easier to imagine this as the words of a Procol Harum song!

Win the CD single of A Whiter Shade of Pale, with live bonus tracks Repent Walpurgis and A Salty Dog, signed by Gary Brooker (see 24 March below for further info). Make a note of the answers over the next few days: fifth clue is here

The BtP forums Guestbook, Beanstalk and Still There'll be More have all been discontinued by the free provider, Everyone.net, without prior warning. They were probably losing too much money. BtP had plans for moving the service anyway, as Everyone.net had too many pop-up ads. We shall shortly move 'Beyond the Pale' to our own dedicated server, and new forums will be established after this has been brought into service. The Beanstalk mail-list and 'Fresh Fruit' newsletter are unaffected.

Added the words of a Keith Reid song released in March 2004 (thanks, Anders): can you imagine this as the words of a Procol Harum song?

Win the CD single of A Whiter Shade of Pale, with live bonus tracks Repent Walpurgis and A Salty Dog, signed by Gary Brooker (see 24 March below for further info). Make a note of the answers over the next few days: fourth clue is here

March 26:

'Reid is wordy and theorises at length. Brooker is gruff …'

Added a 1975 piece in which Keith Reid talks about his rôle in Procol Harum (thanks, Mortimer)

Win the CD single of A Whiter Shade of Pale, with live bonus tracks Repent Walpurgis and A Salty Dog, signed by Gary Brooker (see 24 March below for further info). Catch up with the last two clues below, and make a note of the answers as you go along: clue number three is right here

March 25:

Added news of a hitherto-undocumented song lyric by Keith Reid (thanks, Gunnar)

As BtP readers will know, we have been featuring some archival clippings from a collection that doesn't include all sources and dates. Luckily, we have been put in the picture! You will find that the proper attributions have been added to recent pages here, here, here, here, here and here (many thanks, Frans)

Win the CD single of A Whiter Shade of Pale, with live bonus tracks Repent Walpurgis and A Salty Dog, signed by Gary Brooker (see 24 March below for further info). Make a note of the answers over the next few days: second clue is here

March 24:

Added the very interesting notes that accompanied the recent CD re-release of the Live at Edmonton album (thanks, Jill)

Oops! To our embarrassment, we find there is a prize on the BtP shelf that should have been included among the Christmas Puzzles booty. It's a CD single of A Whiter Shade of Pale, with live bonus tracks Repent Walpurgis and A Salty Dog, and it's signed by Gary Brooker specially for the website. (thanks, Gary)

So here's a quick mini-puzzle in a few instalments, and the names of everyone who gets the right answer in by noon, Central European time, will go in the BtP Homburg. An impartial drawing will be made and the signed single will be sent to one lucky winner. Make a note of the answers over the next few days: first clue is here

March 23:

Added a page about the four tracks we didn't hear on Homburg and Other Hats (thanks, Craig)

Have another look at the Mojo 1995 article referred to above … some very interesting material there.

Added a note about four tracks you won't hear on Procol Harum live at the Union Chapel

March 22:

Added a page about Gary Brooker's recent Albert Hall concert (thanks, Andrew)

Added a page containing Gary Brooker's comments about the above concert, and some song-verses written by himself (thanks, Gary!)

Remember these pictures of No Stiletto Shoes :-) ?

March 21:

Added the liner notes, and a nice graphic, to our page about one of the best Procol Harum compilation albums (thanks, Hilary)

Remind yourself of two other sets of liner notes by the same writer, on Procol Harum compilations here and here

Added a page of pictures and nice captions from Procol Harum's most recent gig in Zurich (thanks, François)

'We're going to Zurich,' said Gary Brooker in 1967 … a classic exchange with a British DJ

March 19:

Added the excellent cover artwork for the new Procol Harum DVD! (thanks, Chris)

A brief reminder of other legitimate Procol Harum shows that you can own on DVD: 1971's Beat Club set (with two bonus tracks!), and 2001's Live at Copenhagen. Regrettably the Robin Copping 1970 film, The Procol Harum, is now sold out: it was formerly on sale from the Shine On Merchandise Page

Live albums, of course, are also available on audio CD: Edmonton 1971, BBC 1974, Utrecht 1992

March 18: Birthdate of BJ Wilson, 1947–1990

Added a good concert review – not without strange errors, though – of a Procol university gig from 1974 (thanks, Diane)

If you want to hear what Procol sounded like at the above concert, remember you can order the legitimate live BBC recording made just a week later

March 17:

Added a contemporary review of Exotic Birds and Fruit from 1974 (thanks, Marvin; and a nod to Bernard too)

More reviews of this album may be found here, here, here: play spot the odd one out!

March 16:

Added a Harum ticket from Copenhagen, here (thanks, Ole)

'Beyond the Pale' runs a newsletter, 'Fresh Fruit', which you can receive by signing up here. Our regular 1700+ subscribers know that we send it out only when there is Procol Harum news to impart – we don't want to burden your mailbox otherwise – and there has been a lull following Procol's outstanding tour schedule in 2003. But make sure you are signed up, though, as we start to await news of the Procol Harum 'Live at the Union Chapel' DVD, and the new double album from the Palers' Project. 

March 15:

Added a page of portraits from the Procol Harum / No Stiletto Shoes gig in Surrey just before Christmas (thanks, Ben)

What's the earliest photograph of the present Procol line-up on stage together? Could it be here?

Added a good concert review from 1974 (thanks, Petunia)

Added a graphic to this concert review from 1974 (thanks, Obie)

March 13:

Added a fourth page of illustrations from the No Stiletto Shoes / Procol Harum gig in Surrey just before Christmas (thanks, Ben)

Take another look at the Shoes in 2000

Added a page of links showing the real relationship between Procol Harum and the author of this piece of AWSoP praise

Remember the original 'Potted Pops' review of A Whiter Shade of Pale, which BtP made into a tee-shirt?

March 11:

Added a third page of photographs from the No Stiletto Shoes / Procol Harum gig in Surrey just before Christmas (thanks, Ben)

See an early picture of Bronzie with Procol Harum, 1992

March 10:  

'Harum played as the great thinking rock’n’roll band.'

Added a page about Procol Harum rising to the occasion in the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre (thanks, Dithyramb)

You may know that BtP has a fine archive of references to Procol Harum down the years from the UK's New Musical Express. Yet new pieces occasionally come to light, such as the one mentioned above.

March 9: Happy birthday Robin Trower (1945)!

Added a reportlet on December's Procol Harum gig in Zurich, Switzerland (thanks, François)

Remind yourself of Procol in Zurich in 1976

March 8:

Added a second page of images from the No Stiletto Shoes / Procol Harum gig in Surrey just before Christmas (thanks, Ben)

Remind yourself of the gig where Frank Mead, from the Shoes, was a member of Procol Harum

John Rose writes to BtP: I'll be celebrating Matthew Fisher's 58th birthday (today) and Robin Trower's 59th (3-9-45) on this week's Hidden Treasures show by playing lots of their music. The show is broadcast tomorrow (and every Monday) from 12-4 PM CST at http://uicadio.ws/. You can request your favourite tunes by emailing me at rose60612@yahoo.com or calling 312-413-2191 during the show. I hope you can join me!

March 7: Happy birthday Matthew Fisher (1946)!

Added an apparently ingenuous piece of enthusiastic praise for A Whiter Shade of Pale before it was a hit (thanks, Diane)

Remind yourself of this paranoid rhapsody, BtP's only other page (apart from the above) with the letters 'tony' in its URL

March 6:

Added a review of Procol Harum in Zurich - probably the best gig of the 2003 tour (thanks, Hanspeter und Peter)

Check out this page, where Hanspeter's own interpretations of Procol music are revealed: undoubtedly this album from The Whalers was the ancestor of much Palers' Band activity

March 5:

Added a page of pictures from the No Stiletto Shoes / Procol Harum gig in Surrey just before Christmas (thanks, Ben)

Graham Broad was the Shoes' drummer on this gig ... remind yourself of his British début with Procol Harum

Added a brief review of Procol Harum in concert in Houston, USA

Added another reference to 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' in a non-Procol context ... search or scroll down for 'Hammerhead' (thanks, Judith)

March 3: Celebrating one year since the fantastic The Well's on Fire was released ('o-three, o-three, o-three' as Gary likes to put the date)

Added (in response to comments on BtP's 'Beanstalk' forum) a page about the TransAtlantic cover of In Held ('Twas) in I (for Cathy)

Note that the new Palers' Project 2CD, due in the Spring, contains covers of In Held 'Twas in I and also of The Worm and the Tree

Added a review of the above TransAtlantic album (thanks, Joan)

March 2:

Added the setlist of an eclectic and exciting radio show given by Procol Harum thirty years ago ... (thanks, Colbourn)

Added another cover of A Whiter Shade of Pale ... sung by Erika Stucky (thanks, Jochen)

March 1:

Added a couple of interesting Procol tickets from Toronto concerts twenty-two years apart, here and here (thanks, JP Hovercraft)

You might like to see the variety of news items from 1 March in past years at 'Beyond the Pale': many interesting links to follow from the following pages:

Read what was new on this website in previous months