What was new at 'Beyond the Pale'
March 2009
March 31:
Happy Birthday Henry Spinetti (1951)
Procol Harum in Concert
download: click here: a brief
connectivity problem has been corrected by the company that hosts the soundfiles. To our knowledge the concert is also
available from play.com, amazon
UK, itunes and cdon.com, but in most cases in lower
bitrate resolution. The version including all of Gary's introductions etc will,
to our knowledge, not be available elsewhere.
Added
a fascinating and historic article (mostly, it seems, an interview
with Bobby Harrison) from Record Mirror
(thanks, Anvil; thanks, Kenneth)
It confirms the brilliant
research by Marcus Gray about the identity and history of the Procol
Harum cat (see here) and also
shows how very early in the band's career Gary and Keith were
apparently regarded as 'first among equals' by other band members.
Intriguing to read Mathew Fisher's reported drug-opinions too, and to
hear Ray Royer speaking from inside his trousers (his own trousers, that
is).
March 30:
Happy Birthday
Dave Ball (1950)
Added an illustration and publication dates for
a Procol Harum compilation album
(thanks, Per)
Added extra information here
(thanks, Per)
March 29:
Added an editorial response and
a fan's letter about the omission of BJ
Wilson from a recent poll of drummers
(thanks, Dan)
March 28:
RIP Reg Isidore
Added tracklisting and illustrations for a
hitherto-unlogged Procol Harum compilation from 1989
(thanks, Per)
March 27:
Happy Birthday Matt Pegg (1971)
Procol Harum play Brønnøysund in sixteen weeks'
time
Added a page about the
arrangements Matt and Procol Harum have to make for the current recordings
(thanks, Matt and Josh)
March 26:
Procol Harum studio news: 'The recording of the first song
is progressing well, and there are plans to continue the process with two more.
2009 may be the year of the
revisited album – except for
the Ledreborg DVD
–
but 2010 should bring a new album if plans go to thing (spoonerism intended)'.
(thanks, Chris)
Added a page about Line Records'
Gary Brooker triple-CD box set
(thanks, Per)
March 25:
Added illustrations to two reviews of A Salty
Dog (thanks, Anvil)
Treat yourself to a nice
Hammond demo (thanks, Kjell Tore)
|
Coming soon, a very early Procol interview in
which the six members of Procol Harum
– Harrison, Knights, Brooker, Fisher, Royer and Reid –
are described in brief character sketches.
So, who is which? Use your skill and judgment to
match the names above with the characteristics below,
and when you read the 1967 article in a few days' time you'll see the
answers
|
|
a lot of belief in himself |
can be very erratic |
a very boring person
|
|
exasperatingly childish at times |
made a very strong impact |
seems apart from everything somehow |
March 24:
In five days' time Procol Harum's
second Ledreborg orchestral concert – currently
available on audio CD, and scheduled for
release on DVD – will be available as
an audio download (two different versions) from 'Beyond the Pale':
details here
and
here
(thanks, Chris)
This means that currently-available Procol downloads are the
two Ledreborg versions, and the Italian
One Eye
to the Future album. We understand that
One Eye
... will remain available
only until the next Procol download (no details available yet) comes
online ... so get it while you can.
March 23:
Added a 2009 song (Brooker/Reid) to this index page
March 22:
Added an illustrated page giving food for thought
about the running order of the Exotic Birds and Fruit
album (thanks Per)
The
1962
Brooker / Trower / Copping / Brownlee acetate eBay auction
closes today
March 21:
Added more shots of Procol Harum in
Norway, 1974 (thanks, Ragnar)
Don't forget the
Paramounts Poison Ivy 1962 acetate eBay auction
closes tomorrow
Pre-orders are rolling in to the BtP store for the two
re-mastered Procol re-issues including
Understandably Blue (1967) and A Robe
of Silk (1968): we'll be sending these out to you as soon as stocks
reach us from Salvo Records (hoping to beat Amazon!)
|
For the past two months BtP has run a nationality-counter that
logs the number of individual computers that log on to this
'What's New' page (which we reckon to be
the page most likely to be read by real Procol
fans, rather than casual enquirers surfing in from a Google search or similar).
Here are the
countries, listed in descending order of Procoholics-per-head of
population: Denmark 1,473; Norway 426; United Kingdom 3,815; Sweden 392;
Switzerland 311; Finland 154; Oman 80; Netherlands 271; Bahamas 5;
Germany 1,004; Italy 687; America 3,480; Austria 88; Ireland 42; Canada
295; Belgium 81; Iceland 2; Australia 129; Spain 193; Puerto Rico 13;
France 193; Bahrain 2; Venezuela 59; Slovenia 4; Poland 68; Uruguay 6;
Croatia 6; Argentina 53; New Zealand 5; Portugal 12; Swaziland 1; Peru
23; Estonia 1; Chile 12; Japan 72; Costa Rica 2; Brazil 61; Czech
Republic 3; Israel 2; Lebanon 1; Greece 2; Slovakia 1; South Africa 5;
Hungary 1; Serbia 1; Turkey 7; Malaysia 2; Cote D'Ivoire 1; Romania 1;
Ukraine 2; Russian Federation 5; Indonesia 7; Mexico 2; Thailand 1;
India 1.
Note that someone who visits this page seven times in a week, from their
home PC, scores once only on the counter. These eight weeks' outcome is shown in the
diagram, right. |
Numbers of individual computers
accessing this page
in the past eight weeks from various countries
Any surprises here?
Let us know. |
March 20:
Procol Harum play Brønnøysund in seventeen weeks'
time
'Kaleidoscope, Salad Days, and Good Captain Clack ...
none of these songs are terrible'
Added a review of a now-deleted Procol Harum
re-issue
... and here's a link to the brand new reissue
which contains one Procol Harum recording from 1967 that has never surfaced
before.
March 19:
Don't forget the
Paramounts Poison Ivy 1962 acetate eBay auction
Added two gig snippets ... one here
(thanks, Serge) and one
here (thanks, Chris
Copping)
Added a reel-to-reel snippet here
(thanks, Bill)
Paler Sev Lewkowicz writes to BtP: 'I have joined a club where
you get to remix Peter Gabriel-associated songs, and have done
a remix of Games Without Frontiers. If you have a moment please
follow the link and give it a listen. I'm not sure whether you can vote on it if
you aren't a member, but if you can, please do!'
March 18: Birth of Barrie James
Wilson (1947)
The
Paramounts Poison Ivy 1962 acetate eBay auction is
going strong (good
luck, all bidders)
Alternatively, would you like to help the 'Children with Leukaemia' charity
by acquiring a guitar signed by Brooker, Clapton and
Rutherford? Added some Norfolk news, sent in by
several correspondents (thanks, all)
Amended this page about Procol
Harum's 10.5th album
Corrected a Portuguese infelicity here
(thanks, Teresa)
March 17:
Added another
page to the AWSuit index
(thanks, Thomas)
A Procol-fan/drummer writes from Germany (having driven,
twice, to the Netherlands to find an early copy of the Live at Ledreborg
CD): 'I totally agree with Rob Barnes's critique (below, 4 March);
there's only one thing I would like to mention:
I never was a fan of Mark
Brzezicki, but to my great surprise on this record his drumming fits
perfectly to every song! BJ wouldn't have done a better job!
March 16: Procol Harum were in
the studio yesterday, and 'it went very well' according to manager Chris Cooke,
addressing fans via the Procol e-mail list (join
here). Procol 'expect to
be back there very soon'.
The
Paramounts Poison Ivy 1962 acetate eBay auction is now
under way: first-ever recording by
Brooker, Trower, Copping and Brownlee (good
luck, all bidders)
Updated BtP's 'For Sale' page to include the two
new Salvo remaster/reissue CDs,
Procol Harum
and Shine
on Brightly – pre-order now for April delivery
Added a
first glimpse of the first Salvo reissue, of Procol Harum 1967, with
its surprising cover, and a highly-coveted rarity among its eleven
bonus-tracks (thanks, Chas)
Added a
first glimpse of the second Salvo reissue, of Shine on Brightly, with
a highly-intriguing rarity among its eleven
bonus-tracks (thanks, Chas)
Ides of March:
March 14:
Added another Procol Harum setlist
(thanks, Evan)
Read some
comments about the youthful Fisher at this
show
March 13:
Procol Harum play Brønnøysund in eighteen weeks'
time
Added a page of
good photographs from Procol Harum's first-ever visit to Norway, with
the Dave Ball line-up (thanks,
Ragnar)
March 12:
Added a
review of Trower and Bruce at Karlsruhe
(danke, Hans; thank you, Peter)
March 11:
Added a final page of
photographs from a recent Robin Trower gig
(thanks, Hans)
A
Procol-fan/organist writes from Norway: I just downloaded
One Eye to the Future,
and that is amazing! Can't remember hearing them this tight ever,
with beautiful details, twists, fill-ins and humour. No offence to
Matthew's past playing (and certainly not his composing!), but Josh is
truly amazing here.'
March 10:
Added a second full fan-review of
Procol Harum in Concert with the Danish National Concert Orchestra and Choir
(thanks, Charlie)
March 9: Happy Birthday
Robin Trower
Added a page about the imminent
eBay sale of a rare Procol-related item
(thanks, Mick)
You could soon be the owner of the first-ever studio
recording made by Robin Trower, Gary Brooker, Chris Copping and Mick Brownlee
Added another (disturbing) instance to the
AWSoP common-parlance page
... search for 'Women's Murder'
(thanks, Barbara)
March 8:
Added a picture and a link to
the Ledreborg DVD Page ... Amazon is
claiming that 11 May will see its release, and you can pre-order.
Added a soundclip here, evidence of a second song
to share words with Into the Flood and Gone
Too Far (thanks, Antònio)
March 7: Happy Birthday
Matthew Fisher
Added a page recording a 2009 chart
triumph for A Whiter Shade of Pale
Added news of two new Procol Harum CDs in the
offing (thanks, Chris)
March 6:
Procol Harum play Brønnøysund in nineteen weeks'
time
'... the swirling maelstrom of guts and gore ...'
Added a first fan-review of
Procol Harum in Concert with the Danish National Concert Orchestra and Choir
(thanks, Richard)
Enjoy some concert-reviews by the same
correspondent
Drumming and click-tracks ...
interesting stuff here (thanks, Peter)
March 5:
Added some words, to this indispensible page,
that will be handy for Procol fans visiting the Ukraine
(thanks, Vladimir)
Greatly improved the two newest illustrations
on this page
(thanks, George)
Added a note about the
Night of the Proms CD
(thanks, Fred)
March 4:
Added an interesting illustration to
this page
(thanks, Koji)
Procol Harum's manager wrote as follows on 'The Beanstalk',
the Procol Harum message-line (click
here to join the chat):
'The band's on good form. Two days routining with a producer has been better
than good. The studio is (in my opinion) totally Procol ... everyone's up for it
... we're not just working on the original albums and the best box set you're
ever likely to hear (and see) ... in a week with a new audio CD available ...
and with a new DVD (which I think you'll be very pleased with) due out within a
couple of months ... I thought it pertinent to let people know that we're not
resting ... ' [excerpted]
Rob Barnes writes to BtP:
' The Live at Ledreborg CD
recording is simply superb in every respect. I have all the other 'live'
recordings with which to compare, but this takes the band to another level. It's
oft been said in the recent past that 'Gary's voice has never sounded better'.
This time Gary's voice really has never sounded better. Everything about
the album is sharp, tuneful and fresh. All those concerned with the performance
and production deserve a hearty 'hurrah'. Bring on the DVD – and I think I'll
have to find a way to wire my TV into the hi-fi.'
March 3:
Today's the sixth anniversary of the release of Procol Harum's last studio
album, The Well's on Fire:
so it's good to be able to reveal that the band are strongly rumoured to be
going into the studio to record again, this month.
Meanwhile, added booklet-illustrations from
the live Ledreborg CD, released yesterday – see if your own picture is there
...
March 2:
Today: release of the new Procol Harum CD!
Click here to get it
Added a setlist/review of
Trower, Bruce and Husband in Nijmegen
(thanks, Frans)
March 1:
Added another Procol Harum setlist
(thanks, Evan)
More from Annie Lennox about Procol Harum here
Who will be the 700th member of the Procol Harum group
on
Facebook ?
More What Was New
