What was new at 'Beyond the Pale'

October 1999

October 31: Hallowe'en!

There are Palers who feel hotly that injustice is rife in the world of song-composer-credits.

If so affected, perhaps you should not look at tonight's Hallowe'en Horror, the scandal of the Danish cover of A Souvenir of London ... (thanks, Niels-Erik)

Reminders: special deal on the Procol Live at the BBC CD ... book here for Gary Brooker at the London Barbican ... order your copy of Keith Reid's book ... see Barrie Wilson in the Classic Drummers' Poll. There's a LOT of Procol activity at the moment and it must be due in part to the huge interest in the band reflected by everyone who visits and contributes to this website!

October 30:

Added a review of Home ... Plus! from Record Collector (thanks, Tormod)

October 29:

If you get flashbacks to 1964 from the smell of Hammond oil, you will like this new page ... about the man who urged Matthew Fisher to buy his first Hammond organ (thanks, Joan)

Added some good AWSoP chart news to the foot of this page (thanks, Niels-Erik)

October 28:

While the Palers on the maillist discuss which of Procol Harum's guitarists is the best, we have added some more post-Harum pictures of Robin Trower, with a message from his ex-bandmate Bill Lordan (thanks, Bill and Robert)

October 27:

Added the latest news from Charnel House about Keith Reid's lavish-sounding volume (thanks, Joe)

October 26:

Added a new crop of tributes to Barrie Wilson, harvested from the mail-list and elsewhere (thanks, Joan)

BJ Wilson is at the moment standing at Number 1 in the Classic Rock poll of rock drummers. Well done Palers! We have until 30 October to secure him the Number One where he deserves to be! Please, Palers, Whalers, Mailers and fellow-Sailors, use your vote immediately and remember that you don't have to vote for anyone but Barrie ... we really have a chance here to get his name noticed ! Click here to vote!

October 25:

Added images and liner notes from the new Westside release, Pandora's Box, which contains the 1967 backing track of the same name, and the seven-minute mega-Walpurgis.

Reorganised the Westside index-page and the original 'Holy Grail' manifesto

October 24:

Added another great piece of Procol writing from Bud Scoppa: this one concerns Robin Trower's work on Repent Walpurgis and the erotic potential of Gibson and Strat (thanks, Joan)

Also updated our first Repent Walpurgis page (the second, here, is the index to a superb sequence of pieces you might enjoy)

October 23:

Marshalled our Conquistadors here, and refreshed our page about Procol Harum songbooks with two illustrations (thanks, Beverly and Tormod)

Updated our recent page about the Danish AWSoP ... which is very closely related to the other Danish version (thanks, Niels-Erik)

Don't miss Gary Brooker, El Gubernator, on the radio today

October 22:

Added booking information for two new Procol Harum events before the end of the Millennium!

(a) Special release-date and special price for the Live at the BBC CD, for visitors to this website (thanks Sue, Holly, and Strange Fruit)

(b) Booking is now open for Gary Brooker at the Barbican: see here for details. The hall holds 260 and we understand that the sponsors have first call on the tickets. So 'book soon' would seem to be a prudent motto. Incidentally there's no GB Christmas concert this year so the Barbican event will be the only 1999 get-together for Palers, Whalers, Mailers and fellow-Sailors.

Reminder to European listeners to set your tape-machines: on 23 October, a radio-programme: Gary Brooker in his own words (thanks, Steffen)

October 21:

Added a page that lets everyone see the surprisingly balanced setlist – in fact it looks like a deliberately-chosen retrospective – with which the 60s/70s Procol Harum bowed out in 1977 (thanks, Beverly)

Reminder to European listeners to set your tape-machines: on 23 October, a radio-programme: Gary Brooker in his own words (thanks, Steffen)

October 20:

Added a short BtP interview with Keith Reid in which he gives a little more information about his forthcoming book (thanks, Keith)

October 19: Happy Birthdays to Keith Reid (1946) and Peter Solley (1948)!

Added a fascinating illustrated page about Procol Harum's sine qua non, Keith Reid (thanks, Beverly)

BtP has just learnt that Gary Brooker's Barbican appearance is scheduled for 7 December 1999, not 6 December as previously understood (thanks, Diane)

October 18:

Added some intimate pictures of Procol Harum in about 1973 (thanks again, l'instable Frédéric)

October 17:

Added a good Matthew Fisher interview, whose provenance we don't know. Please mail us if you know when and where this was published, so that we can credit it properly (thanks, whoever sent this to BtP a long while back)

October 16:

Added a page that catalogues some personal reactions to the liner-notes of the recent Westside re-releases (thanks, Joan)

October 15:

Refreshed a page or two here and there with illustrations: here's a Hollywood Bowl pass (thanks, Beverly), here's a Shezan matchbook (thanks, Beverly) ... and here's Jens with Gary Brooker at his Swan Inn.

Corrected the opening line of So Far Behind (thanks, GB)

October 14:

Added the words of a German version of AWSoP ... if you were to read these words on their own, would you guess what tune they supposedly belonged to? (thanks, Juergen)

October 13:

Added a first glimpse of the new Procol Harum book (thanks, Dave and Mick)

October 12:

Added some heartening news about a new cover of A Whiter Shade of Pale that seems destined for the top of the charts (thanks, Niels-Erik)

October 11:

Added an 'honourable mention' for Barrie Wilson from the book Great Rock Drummers of the Sixties (thanks, Joan)

October 10: Happy Birthday Alan Cartwright!

Added some more praise for Barrie Wilson by a fellow-drummer (thanks, Howard)

October 9:

Added a memorial sonnet to the site. '... it might cause head-scratching because it's so fragmented and downbeat ...' says our contributor. But we feel sure we can trust anyone who loved and admired BJ to listen to it in the spirit in which it was made.

A Shade (thanks, Ross)

Added great news of a PH Fans' gathering in Copenhagen in November (thanks, Niels-Erik)

October 8: Happy Birthday Ray Royer (1945)

October 7:

Added a link to a new Robin Trower website. And why don't you also revisit the Robin Trower section of BtP?

Added two good pictures of Gary Brooker in 1979, one featuring the Procol-admired Lowell George (thanks, Unsteady Freddie)

October 6:

Added an illustrated setlist from Oslo, 1 February 1992 (thanks, Per)

Added a Danish cover of A Souvenir of London (of Malmø!) (thanks, Niels-Erik)

October 5:

Added a psychedelic love-paean to Procol Harum ... food for thought here! (thanks, Peter)

Added news of an imminent radio-programme: Gary Brooker in his own words (thanks, Steffen)

October 4:

Added a page with some very good action shots of Robin Trower, oasis of the 80s (thanks, Bert) 

October 3:

Added another nice page of European picture sleeves from Procol 45s. This is evidently a very popular feature at BtP so we will be pleased to hear from contributors who could send us more such scans

Also refreshed this index page with illustrations (double thanks, Tormod)

October 2:

Added a trio of 1971 Chrysalis promo shots of the band - one of them deserves some sort of caption! (thanks, Phil)

Our page of online fans now lists 270 Palers : to add yourself please click here

Great to find BtP listed as 'great example of a rock band page ... diachronic, trans-national sorrowful surrealism' on this excellent page, bulging with groovy brain-fodder (thanks, Ross)

October 1:

Added a not-so-positive Norwegian review of Gary Brooker's Echoes in the Night

Palers will remember that six months ago BtP seemed to be about to go under, and be taken over by the fab Wonder of Music website. It didn't happen, of course: We have now procured a copy of Rockin' John's masterpiece, which lived at a URL that has since expired, and we are storing it here in case anyone can face looking at it again.

Read what was new on this website in previous months