What was new at 'Beyond the Pale'

June 1999

June 30:

Added some covers to this page including the first Danish AWSoP ('a swinging and pleasant musical alternative'), a Long Gone Geek, and a Whisky Train featuring Bill Lordan: hear one of them here (review here) (thanks, Niels-Erik, Michael, Robert, Fred and Sam)

June 29:

Added a page of very good black-and white Procol portraits – including Keith Reid at the microphone – from a private collection (thanks, WRES2345)

June 28: Happy Birthday to 'Undertaker' Dave Knights (1945)!  Read about his 'other' band ...

Added a comprehensive and provocative account of the magical allusions and associations of the Procol oeuvre (thanks, Sam)

Added this just in case conspiracy-theorists feel short-changed by the above.

Gary Brooker on stage at the Albert Hall tonight with Roger Daltrey's Rockestra ...

June 27:

'To this very day I feel a tingling of melancholic panic when I hear the first organ chords of A Whiter Shade of Pale.'

Added a reference to AWSoP in an American novel (thanks, Niels-Erik)

What two records did Thomas Pynchon put on the old Wurlitzer jukebox after he failed to blow up a statue of Queen Victoria? Full story here (thanks, Sam)

June 26:

Added a very interesting page from a new Paler who assesses four 'odd songs' rejected from Procol Harum's early albums (thanks, Ross)

June 25:

Swimming Against the Tide: first 1974 Procol Harum news in its chart context, kindly extracted for BtP from the New Musical Express by Yan Friis: a very long and plain-speaking assessment of the career of a band 'endowed with every shade of virtue and good intentions – and a sense of strategic intelligence that is barely more than cretinous'. A new single (well-received) and a small tour (not so) precede the release of the new album.

June 24:

Added a Rhythm Kings review from a Procol Harum fan who was frankly less than impressed – nothing but the truth on this website! (thanks, davelee)

June 23: RIP Screaming Lord Sutch

Carol Bellantoni has blessed BtP with another of her beautiful Procol Harum-inspired paintings: Shine On Brightly (thanks, Carol)

Also added illustrations to a page you might enjoy re-reading, as it details some of the origins of the 1995 PH US tour (thanks, Robert)

June 22: Happy Birthday Bobby Harrison – 60 today!

Why not re-read some of the BtP Harrison features here, here and specially here?

Added another reference to AWSoP in a Norwegian novel (thanks, Niels-Erik)

Here's the brilliant original page on this subject

June 21: Happy Birthday Mark Brzezicki!

Added a page for completists, about Gary Brooker and the Rockestra concerts in 1979 (thanks, Miguel)

June 20:

Swimming Against the Tide: final 1973 Procol Harum news in its chart context, kindly extracted for BtP from the New Musical Express by Yan Friis: Procol Harum wowing Brighton and announcing a big London gig, while Matthew Fisher brings out a 'mediocre' single with 'faulty' melody from his 'predominantly melancholy' solo album, and gives a revealing interview.

June 19:

Added a page about singer-guitarist Chris Merola, who can indeed be heard on a couple of Prodigal Stranger tracks (thanks, Chris)

June 18:

Added a fine page of research about The Imponderable Strangers: who did what in the Prodigal small print? (thanks, Sam)

June 17:

'... the only real things are those which you feel in your heart ...'

Added a lovely page about Ringo's 'One-Starr Band', entitled Goodnight Mr Barney Brooker (thanks, Jose)

By the way, if you are ordering the Brooker / Wilson / Trower / Copping Liquorice John album, the address to use is 56 Brecknock Road, London N7 0DD, UK (see here), despite what you may read on the CD covers of both A Salty Dog ... plus! and Home ... plus! (thanks, Diane)

June 16:

Added, amazingly, a version of Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone) by the lovely Jennifer Warnes to our page of Procol covers (thanks, Sam)

What does 'Procol Harum' mean? Added your first and only glimpse of the Arabic rationale to the foot of this page (thanks, Sam)

Added a link to an informal recording of the Deep Purple 1991 performance of A Whiter Shade of Pale for folks who collect every extant version ... and who will therefore want this and this as well ... (thanks, Sam)

June 15

Swimming Against the Tide: more 1973 Procol Harum news in its chart context, kindly extracted for BtP from the New Musical Express by Yan Friis: setbacks for Procol Harum as a showcase London gig is re-scheduled in the provinces, and a highly-uncharacteristic 45 is banned by the BBC.

We have almost 250 'Palers' on our page of e-mail contacts: entries are geographically organised, so you can visit it and make contacts with fellow-Procoholics in your area. If you would like your own name to be added, please enter the details by clicking here.

Please consider participating in the poll below (if you haven't already done so). The standing is even, and not much of a guideline to the webmasters until more Palers have voted.

June 14:

Added a fan's fascinating, brief account of 32 years of live Procoldom: including the whereabouts of some equipment stolen from the band! (thanks, Mark)

As a test, the last few days BtP has added some banners from Rolling Stone on the top of this page. Such banners can help finance BtP matters (like submitting BtP to hundred of search engines etc). But as the banners are a kind of commercial, not something usually associated with this website, we ask for your opinion:

June 13:

Added a Barbican date for Gary Brooker: check your diary now! You can follow links from this page to re-read our suite of pages about the Barbican concert (thanks, Diane)

Added a snippet from librarian Ejgil Søholm's Literary Calendar, published in Denmark. You can follow links from this page to re-read our details about Delta¸ Gary Brooker's ballet (thanks, Niels-Erik)

June 12:

Added an amusing page about a dead bat and a glimpse into the Brookers' 1971 bathroom (thanks, Beverly)

It sounds as though the Stoppard / Procol / Bach play in London at the moment is absolutely superb: review excerpted here, full thing in The Sunday Times (thanks, Sam)

Added an update on the status of the Keith Reid lyrics book, My Own Choice (thanks, Joe)

June 11:

Added illustrations here, here, here and here ... pages that are worth re-reading, and exploring from, in their own right (thanks, Beverly)

The recently-delivered 'Whaling Stories' newsletter contains a nice AWSoP snippet from Cher, as well as news of the Whalers' own double CD, and a message from the Commander asking us to have 'a little more patience ... and I will make sure you can hear something new before the Millennium celebrations are finished'. We don't reproduce the Whalers' newsletter at 'BtP' ... so join them!

June 10:

The end of an era: added a page of intimate and informal pictures taken at the very end of Procol Harum's 'Golden Decade' (thanks, Bert!)

And added a picture of Gary Brooker that was mistakenly not included in yesterday's upload (thanks, Yan)

June 9:

Swimming Against the Tide: further 1973 Procol Harum news in its chart context, kindly extracted for BtP from the New Musical Express by Yan Friis: a downbeat Brooker interview, the Robert's Box single reviewed (congas?), and paramilitary waltzing at the Felt Forum, while Grand Hotel puts the band in the US album charts for the very last time.

June 8:                                               Wotta woppa!

Added illustrations to Swimming Against the Tide: 1971 part 1, 1971 part 4 and a 648k one here (thanks, Yan)

'"We're here for the music and the fun," concurs Gary Brooker, once of Procul [sic] Harum, from beneath a flat cap which immediately dispels any doubts that these boys care about their image ...' More of this in a good Bill Wyman interview here (thanks, Sam)

Added more detail and another pricey poster to this page (thanks, Adrian)

'Zika nor nama!': added a link to a feature about Prodigal Miriam Stockley (thanks, Sam)

Refreshed pages here, here, here, here and here with improved illustrations (thanks, patient Richard)

Mildly upgraded our page about Dave Bronze, with information pinched from this interview in which Dave's PH remarks make very interesting reading! (thanks, Sam)

Added a link to a flute version of AWSoP ... and another to a reggae recording containing no fewer than four mixes of the song ... to our huge list of Procol covers (thanks, Sam and Peter)

June 7:

Do you want to buy some classy Procol Harum posters? Or maybe just look at them? (thanks, Adrian)

Added a curious little insight into the words of Pandora's Box (thanks, Phil)

June 6:

Added an intensely-felt and elephantissimally-remembered account of Procol Harum playing Palm Springs in 1969 (thanks, AJ)

 June 5:

'... a healthy shade of pale ...'

Added a newspaper review of the Rhythm Kings in London on Sunday night (thanks, Peter! Brooker and Tilbrook on the same bill, just down the road, and we didn't go? 'Well if I'd known then what I know now' usw ... )

Please send us reviews, pictures and souvenirs from other dates on this tour, especially if the support acts continue to be this classy!

Added a brief Procol concert review to the foot of a recent instalment of 'Swimming Against the Tide': the reviewer didn't like them much but they seem to have been better than King Crimson (thanks, Yan)

June 4:

'I've never had my heart broken in this way – at least not by a woman – it turned out to be a bloke.'

Make what you will of the above Brookerism, and more, as you read tonight's thought-provoking, whimsical and evocative report of Wednesday's Brooker / Wyman gig in Oldham (thanks, Sam!)

June 3:

Added a cloth-eared 1977 Rolling Stone review of Something Magic with a late '98 commentary thereon (thanks, Joan)

Do book to see the Rhythm Kings at Carlisle on Friday 4^th June! The venue is apparently suffering from the fact that the Stones are playing in Edinburgh the same night.

June 2:

Swimming Against the Tide: 1973 Procol Harum news in its chart context, kindly extracted for BtP from the New Musical Express by Yan Friis: Grand Hotel hits the shops, and the band hit the spot in concert; meanwhile Robin Trower makes his solo début.

June 1:

' ... a masterpiece of musical perfection and lyricism ...'

Added a superb 1973 review of Grand Hotel

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