What was new at 'Beyond the Pale'

August 1998

August 31:

Added bits of two guitar-wiz interviews that touch on A Salty Dog and A Whiter Shade of Pale: Dave Gilmour (thanks, Joan) and Jimmy Page (thanks, Sam)

And Larry Eskridge has explained the odd thing on Barrie's jacket on the Something Magic album

August 30:

A Whiter Shade of Pale has been played in Dublin (thanks, François) and in Moscow !

Added a reference to the Phil Lynott AWSoP (thanks, Sam)

Vote in the Wall of Sound albums poll: details here

August 29:

Happy birthday Chris Copping and Geoff Whitehorn

Added a huge five-part piece from Crawdaddy, which mixes trippy pretentiousness, Christian exegesis and a pinch of gullibility with a fair dollop of great Procol history. Well worth reading! 'Matthew was an important part of the group and the change was made with a great deal of apprehension.' says Gary Brooker (thanks, Joan)

August 28:

Gary Brooker on erotica ...Keith's 'sex and violence' phase ...

Added a very revealing interview in which Ritchie Yorke talks to Gary, Keith and Barrie just before Broken Barricades is released. Track-by-track commentary ... Playmate of the Mouth recorded live in concert, Luskus Delph like Sleepers Wake? (thanks, Yan)

August 27:

Added a splendid eulogy from New Musical Express, 1970: Ritchie Yorke reports that PH are 'best group in the world right now' and predicts that Home will go to No 1. Ritchie Yorke did a lot for PH, even recommending them for the Edmonton gig: but he didn't get this prediction right, sadly.

And here is the complete (?) list of tour dates for Bill Wyman and his Rhythm Kings (featuring Gary Brooker and Graham Broad of Procol Harum fame)

August 26:

The Mammoth Task: Procol Harum news in its chart context, kindly extracted for BtP from the New Musical Express of 31 years ago today by Yan Friis: further befuddlement regarding live concerts, the birth of 'Straight Ahead' productions and the threat of legal action by Jonathan Weston.

Added exciting information about a forthcoming Keith Reid Limited Edition book

August 25:

Added a small review of the 30th Anniversary Anthology, which likens 'this most cherished of bands' to Orson Welles (thanks, Sam)

August 24:

Added a brief article detailing a 70s UK tour undertaken by Procol Harum

Added another brief article detailing another 70s UK tour undertaken by Procol Harum

Added a further brief article detailing the final tour dates of Procol's first incarnation (thanks, Diane)

August 23:

Added a wonderful portrait of the band to our page for the Home album: if you didn't buy this on vinyl (shame on you!) you may not have seen this picture before. There are some good links to enjoy at the foot of the same page ...
 

August 22:

Added a graphic and some text barely mentioning Procol Harum at the Fillmore East in 1971 (thanks, John O)

Added a tiny piece from The Times about Missing Markers in rock (thanks, Sam)

August 21:

Added a set-list from the PH concert at Philadelphia, 1971, that was bootlegged as Shine On Procol Harum

August 20:

Added a review of two of Procol Harum's ecstatically-received ground-breaking Polish concerts in 1976 (thanks Dave Lee)

August 19:

The Mammoth Task: Procol Harum news in its chart context, kindly extracted for BtP from the New Musical Express of 31 years ago today by Yan Friis: Denny Cordell and Regal Zonophone, BJ and the talking cabbage.

August 18:

Added a set-list from the PH concert at the Fillmore East, 1970: without Fisher and Knights the repertoire has changed very significantly ...

Added more concert dates for the Rhythm Kings tour

The Redhillers are coming forward: more seat numbers from Harlequin added.

August 17:

Added detail of the 1971 broadcast, on Australian television, of the Copping PH video. 'The group's leader, Gary Brooker, comments throughout,' is the off-putting claim from a contemporary TV guide (thanks, Dave Lee)

Added a snippet to the Procol Harum diary about August 1973 single releases

By request, we have added more persons to the 'Seating Plan' from the Redhill party. Although intended as an instrument to help us find each other at Redhill, it might now serve as a 'Guestbook' of people that attended that unique party. So if you were at Redhill, and wish to be included in the seating plan, mail us.

August 16:

Added a pair of illustrations to our page for the Something Magic album: if you didn't buy this on vinyl you may not have seen these pictures before.

How many mono LPs did Regal Zonophone release? Have a look at the Regal Zonophone webpage, which lists the 'progressive' catalogue with serial numbers, so you can see what bookended the Procol records, and find out the Salvation Army too (thanks, Sam)

Started a section for tour dates of the Bill Wyman and The Rhythm Kings tour featuring Gary Brooker

August 15:

Added a tiny review underestimating Matthew Fisher's Journey's End

Added an exiguous reference to AWSoP from Ian Hunter (thanks, Sam)

August 14:

Added a set-list from 1976 at which Procol Harum played an encore with bewildering Brit genius Vivian Stanshall (thanks, Dave)

Added two more Norwegian covers of AWSoP (thanks Per) and more details about the Kaare Norge AWSoP cover (thanks Niels-Erik)

August 13:

Added a BtP feature about the reissued Route 66 album, produced by and featuring Matthew Fisher: a chord here, a word there betrays the band's distant kinship to Procol Harum: but in fact there's an actual tiny quotation – for those with X-ray ears – from something you've loved since 1968!

Added a page about Angel Air, which has quite a roster of ex-Procolers' recordings on its books: BtP will be reviewing some more of these in coming weeks.

August 12:

The Mammoth Task: Procol Harum news in its chart context, kindly extracted for BtP from the New Musical Express of 31 years ago today by Yan Friis: the first album comes out in the US; an 'amicable' settlement with Royer and Harrison

Added the first reviews from Ringo and his All Starr Band at Skanderborg, 10 August 1998. Some are good, some are bad, and some squirrels stole the beer (thanks to Niels-Erik Mortensen)

August 11:

Added a graphic and some text reporting Procol Harum at the Fillmore East in June 1969 (thanks, John O)

Added a message about Barrie Wilson to 'Beyond the Pale' from Bob Siebenberg (thanks, Bob)

Last call for Jeff Gold from California: your entry in the fans' list had a flaw: please re-enter it.

August 10:

Added a page about Keith Reid's collaboration with Felix Cavaliere, former Young Rascal (thanks, Larry)

Added a paragraph to the Paramounts' index-page (thanks, Frans)

Added news about the setlist for the '98 All-Starr Band (thanks, Marvin) and about the Edmonton CD for sale (thanks, Joan)

August 9:

Added a Home review from Rolling Stone: 'Reid is the master of the compact line in pop music' but 'haven't we had enough of these pseudo-cerebral / Katzenjammer covers?' (thanks, Doug Callowhill)

And also added a snippet from Rolling Stone about Procol Harum's Burbank concert on the Something Magic tour (thanks, Diane H Wells)

Added another post-Procol collaboration of Keith Reid's, and corrected the heading on Robin Trower's page (thanks, Frans)

August 8:

Added the second part of Yan's journalistic archæology: the rest of the NME's Paramounts' coverage, illustrated, and ... particularly interesting ... speculative recreation by Yan of the pop melting-pot from which A Whiter Shade of Pale emerged: prime stuff! (thanks again Yan!)

August 7:

Can you think of a recording made in 1969 involving Wilson, Fisher, Trower and Knights, but not Brooker? All this and more on a fascinating and scholarly page brimming with Procoliana

Added more on Professor Copping again (thanks, Frans, for this and the above)

Added more on Dave Bronze (thanks, Dave, for filling us in)

August 6:

Added another fascinating piece of journalistic archæology from the tireless Yan Friis: he has extracted all the NME's Paramounts' coverage – with graphics – from the first year of their recording career (many thanks, Yan)

Added still more detail to the foot of the page about You're the Voice (thanks, Catherine) and another post-Procol collaboration of Keith Reid's

Added yet another AWSoP cover: this time for classical guitar and strings (thanks, Niels-Erik) and one Swedish version of Homburg (thanks Per)

August 5: another bumper night at 'Beyond the Pale'!

The Mammoth Task: Procol Harum news in its chart context, kindly extracted for BtP from the New Musical Express of 31 years ago today by Yan Friis: AWSoP sliding down the charts but still riding high in the US.

Added even more Procol Harum cover versions + a link that will let you hear some of the AWSoP covers in Real Audio (thanks, Mathias Gidlof )

Added a link to a fantastically-detailed David Bowie site where you can glean the dates of pianist Matthew Fisher's Ziggy gigs (thanks, Joan)

And on Chris Copping's page we have added a link to a presentation of his current musical activities (thanks, John Annable) and some great detail about his first Procol gigs (thanks, Frans)

August 4:

Added a contemporary advertisement for Broken Barricades from Crawdaddy: Procol Harum have always been 'slightly more cerebral, more disposed to darkness than the competition' (thanks Joan)

Added even more details about PH covers, from karaoke to psychobilly (thanks, Sam and Joan)

August 3:

Added lots of AWSoP detail to the list of PH covers (thanks, Sam) and particulars of two less-commonly covered numbers: Kaleidoscope by The Litter and Conquistador by Killdozer (thanks, Snake Robertson and Per Hermansen)

Added the words of an Italianised Procol Harum song which, for once, follows Keith Reid pretty closely: they come from an interesting 1998 album featuring translated covers of many classic songwriters: Brooker (and Reid) in their rightful company (thanks, Antonio)

August 2:

Added an excerpt from a 1992 radio interview, in which Matthew Fisher expounds on the origins of his AWSoP organ line, which the interviewer insists on referring to as the 'introduction' (thanks, Joan)

Added detail to the page about Keith Reid's other No 1 hit (thanks, Sam)

One more AWSoP cover: Herbie Mann (thanks, Henry S-I)

August 1:

Added a significant 1969 article, 'Shining on Brightly' from Crawdaddy Magazine.

Jon Mendelson expected the group to be 'surly, brutish, hostile, contemptuous and boorishly self-conscious artists' ... 'using little snatches of the classics and Dylan for want of their own ideas ...'. He decided these opinions were groundless ... even Keith Reid turned out not to be 'the most incorrigible ogre alive.' (thanks, Doug Callowhill)

Read what was new on this website in previous months