What was new at 'Beyond the Pale'

April 30, Walpurgisnacht: more to read than usual ... hope nobody minds!

Added a real 'Beyond the Pale' special, as a world-spanning bevy of contributors offer their superbly personal and frequently-contradictory celebrations of Repent Walpurgis

April 29:

Added a scan of the audience-handout from Procol Harum's magnificent orchestral gig at London's Rainbow Theatre in 1972: Mick Grabham's début with the band – in at the deep end! 

Added a tiny piece concerning Prairie Madness and Matthew Fisher (thanks, Joan)

April 28:

'I quite like the Moody Blues' ... added a very revealing NME / Brooker interview from 1971 which scotches en passant the possibility of remixing the first album in stereo (many thanks, Sam Cameron)

April 27:

Updated the list of non-English language versions of Procol Harum songs

Added the Italian text that was given to A Whiter Shade of Pale: read the English translation of this dodgy story. (Thanks, Antonio CB & Amelia Wisloch)

April 26:

Added scans of some European 45 rpm picture-sleeves with commentary by Yan Friis (thanks again, Yan)

April 25:

Another fine review of Gary Brooker on stage with the Ringo All-Starrs last year (thanks, Annabel Gill)

April 24:

First, please read a Procol Harum Public Service announcement that we're posting at the request of GB's office and Michael Ackermann of Whaling Stories

Added another dose from the 1990 Danish Radio interview in which we learn about R&B, Charity Gigs, and the writing of Delta which our Little Richard impersonator 'attacked with my usual ferocity' (thanks, Niels-Erik)

April 23:

Added a comparison of two variant (official!) releases of Rambling On (thanks, Yan Friis and Matthew Fisher)

April 22:

Goldmine magazine recently published a new letter from Joan May which reworked points she had sent BtP about Goldmine's review of the PH 30th Birthday Anthology from Westside records. The letter contains a nice plug for 'Beyond the Pale' too!

A point of interest: if you are planning to buy Within our House by the Gary Brooker ensemble, there are still copies of the original recording available from Gary himself; the Repertoire re-issue liner suggests that the original edition is sold out but BtP understands that this is not the case.

April 21:

Which PH composer turns to Bach for inspiration? Added another section from Gary Brooker's 1990 Danish Radio interview, about Fishing, Bach and the future (thanks, Niels-Erik)

Shine On news: we understand from Diane Rolph that the new Shine On is ready to go to press but for the Ringo tour dates which are still not available. Shine On have received a few anxious messages wondering where the new issue is: there's no need to worry, and nobody has been removed from the mailing-list. As it's a free sheet, it doesn't make economic sense to send it until the prime news is in. UK readers may like to know, however, that the Shepherds Bush Empire is the only scheduled British gig for the all-Starrs.

And Procol Harum friend No 100 will now be revealed!

April 20:

Anyone got Geoff Whitehorn's solo album? How many Procols in Snafu? Added a mighty and thorough survey, up to 1985, of sessions that Procolers played on

Added some details of Mick Grabham incunabula (all today's stuff thanks to Yan Friis)

April 19:

Proudly expanding our range of international contributions, we add a good report from Poland's Tylko Rock on Gary Brooker among the Ringo All-Starrs at Jones Beach in 1997. (Thanks, Pawel and Mirek Plodzik)

Also reorganised the Ringo pages in general

April 18:

'I don’t think one could ever really conceive of reforming Procol.' Added another instalment from Gary Brooker's 1990 Danish Radio interview, about Post Procol times (thanks, Niels-Erik)

Also corrected a flaw in Redhill reports This Old Cat and 'who played what', thanks to the sharp ears of one of our regular contributors

Here's a link to a whole slew of Robin Trower Tour dates ...and here's an informative RT page from California ... and an RT column mentioning PH, GB, Paramounts, etc. (thanks Joan May!)

And Yan Friis has done a review of Gary Brooker's Within Our House for Akers Mic (a Norwegian record shop) – Sorry! You need to be able to understand Scandinavian language!

April 17:

Added quintessentially late-60s graphics to our Onstage index-page and the Set-lists page (thanks, Dave Lee)

And Larry Eskridge has told us about one more Trower gig in the near future.
 

April 16:

Added the Chris Welch liner notes – interesting, and not uncontentious in places – from the Repertoire reissue of Within our House (many thanks to Jon Tso)

Added news of another Robin Trower gig (thanks, Alan)

There's interesting news for Trower fans at the 'Beyond the Pale' guestbook for today, 16 April (thanks, Joan)

April 15:

Added thirty or so Procol Harum covers (25 of them various AWSoPs, many of which must be excruciating!) (thanks, Sam Cameron)

And have a look here to read about yet another Ringo concert (hopefully with Gary Brooker in the line-up)

April 14:

Added another interview from Antonio Costa Barbé: this time he talks to Nicholas Dodd about conducting, film-scoring, and ... Procol Harum (thanks Antonio!)

April 13:

Added a great EMI official portrait of the Paramounts (thanks, John Overall)

Updated the list of countries from which 'Beyond the Pale' has received visitors

April 12: the anniversary of 1971's great WPLJ radio show, bootlegged as The Elusive Procol Harum

'Keith tends to sit there for about two hours and then comes up with one more line.' Added another part of Gary Brooker's 1990 Danish Radio interview, about working with other Procols which can be 'quite a painful process'. (thanks, Niels-Erik)

Tidied up the page devoted to the Procol's Ninth tour programme

Added a snippet about Eight Days a Week (thanks, Sam Cameron)

April 11:

Added some more fine Procol Harum pictures from Larry Pennisi's archive (thanks, Larry)

April 10:

'The late Wilson was one of rock's most underrated percussionists' comments a perceptive Keith Reid interview recently sent in by Joan May. Read about Robin Trower's 'ear-splittingly loud' playing, and find out who was 'probably the most talented musician' Keith ever worked with.

April 9:

Following on from yesterday's instalment, added an interview from Danish Radio which explores the Brooker / Beatle relationship: especially as regards Eight Days a Week. (thanks, Niels-Erik)

April 8:

Paul McCartney and his wife Linda said some very favourable words about A Whiter Shade of Pale

April 7:

Balletomanes will thrill to these photographs of Gary Brooker's Delta, as performed in Copenhagen.

April 6:

Should 'Beyond the Pale' reproduce a clumsy, spiteful, dismissive review of the music that its visitors love? Or should we suppress adverse opinion, and distort Procol history? 'Nothing but the truth' is the only policy that makes sense here ... and anyway, who's going to believe such nasty pieces of work?

Forget it, and enjoy some electric guitar links!

April 5:

Added some clarification about the 'stone church' Hammond organ preset ...

Added a picture to the Dave Knights page and a brief comment by Gary Brooker

April 4:

Added some more great Procol Harum pictures from Larry Pennisi's archive (thanks, Larry)

April 3:

Added a flawed review of Homburg and Other Hats from Q magazine

Added a footnote to the story of the Shine on Brightly artwork (thanks, Jonas)

And to round off April Fool's day: congratulations to Joan and Christina for seeing through our fantasy story about the Norwegian strike. Thanks to everybody for their support by mailing travnaas@online.no and even by sending letters to the Norwegian embassy in New York!

And finally, thanks to Jens's son, Torjus, for the use of his e-mail address and for forwarding the mails to the webmasters at BtP. As a tribute to him, we supply a link to his Metallica website. Please make a visit, to help his counter tick like BtP's.

April 2:

We are still online!

In case you didn't know that there was another album named 'A Salty Dog' which had different tracks on it from the original, read the latest addition to our list of Procol Harum compilation-albums (thanks, Dave Lee)

Added information about the variant sleeves for Shine On Brightly (thanks, Yan Friis)

April Fool's Day:

Please read this first

Read what was new on this website in previous months