Procol Harum's NME coverage ...

19 July, 27 September, 29 November 1969

These excerpts from New Musical Express, kindly selected for 'Beyond the Pale' by Yan Friis, show fan support for the band, who still come across 'puzzlingly' in a feature interview.

NME July 19, 1969

Front page:
Feature on Jean-Luc Goddard’s One Plus One film with The Rolling Stones (headline: Stones film a last chance to see Brian)

Half page ad on Herb Alpert’s Warm album (A&M).

Headlines:

DUSTY FILMS IN FOREST AT MIDNIGHT
and talks about her American experiences
by Gordon Coxhill

As 'Saved By The Bell" reaches No. 19
HAPPY ROBIN NOT GLOATING OVER THE BEE GEES MISS
by Nick Logan

Tipped for charts by Derek Johnson

Move, Curly
Marvin Gaye, Too Busy Thinking About My Baby

NME Top 5
1. ( 2) In The Ghetto, Elvis Presley
2. ( 1) Something In The Air, Thunderclap Newman
3. (15) Honky Tonk Women, Rolling Stones
4. ( 6) Hello Susie, Amen Corner
5. ( 3) A Way Of Life, Family Dogg

From You To Us:

Listen

Don’t forget Procul [sic] Harum, or have your rubbish-buying readers forgotten that it was Procol, not Marmalade or Dave Dee, who won the Novello Oscar for the Best Disc of 1967?

And before you all start raving about the Hollies’ latest LP listen to the new Procol album, Shine On Brightly, now THAT deserves to get into the charts.

Now that Procol have (at last) returned home from America some sanity may also return to our charts.

Stephen Irvine, Finaghy, Belfast, Northern Irland.

[I normally don’t read through the readers’ letters (From You To Us), but I thought this one might be fun]

PROCOL PUZZLE
After the amount of knocking Procul [sic] Harum received about the time of their second hit Homburg, they couldn’t really be blamed for leaving for America. What is puzzling is the amount of time they have spent there and just why, a year and a half later, they have chosen to return home.

In an endeavour to answer these and other questions, I made the Edmund Hilary type assault on their manager’s eyrie flat off Oxford Street where Gary Brooker and Robin Trower were in discussion with their American co-manager, Ronnie Lyons.

Tea was dispensed by a decorative young lady and, while Gary adopted a somewhat safe and sure attitude, Robin opened up and laughed a lot.

"There was a lot of feeling against us," Gary admitted, "people didn’t like it when the group broke up after the hit and we sacked our managers. They thought we were behaving the wrong way.

"People are always ready to tell you what you should have done, they never tell you before you do it. I don’t think we deserved the criticism."

So they upped and awayed to the United States where much goodness awaited them. So much goodness that they stayed on and on and on. Until people back here began to think that the group had thumbed their noses at their British fans and weren’t interested.

Then came the Salty Dog album and single, a return to this side of the world, a free concert in Hampstead which was flocked to by thousands and a brilliant performance at the Lyceum’s Midnight Court.

"It was always planned to return to England," Robin replied to my obvious question. "We could stay in America and get a lot of money, but we felt that it was time to return. There are still places in America we haven’t played, even after all this time, but we wanted to come back."

"We want to let people see us and show them we’re not just a record group," Gary pointed out. "There aren’t many TV shows to do, so we’re picking some big concerts like the ones in parks."

Unimportant

At this point, Ronnie broke in to explain, "The money isn’t that important, as long as people are enjoying the music we’re happy to play. If, say, ten thousand people see us and like us, that pleases us."

This sort of "money doesn’t matter" statement has never ceased to amaze me and I’m not even sure if in the case of Procol Harum, who seemed pretty genuine about it when they said it, it is not a case of foolishness.

Be that as it may, Procol Harum are back and intend, one way or another, to let people see just what they are up to. They don’t seem to have changed their music, which is a good thing, and even Salty Dog is perhaps a classic in its field.

(no picture here, and no author by-line either.)

NME September 27, 1969

Front page: Double spread (front and back page) ad for The Beatles’ Abbey Road (Apple).

Headlines:

ALL THINGS EQUAL: DERV GORDON
Takes life as it hits him
JOHN HALL
I’m the clown of the group
by Gordon Coxhill

HUMBLE PIE EXPECTED TO GET KNOCKED
'Will people please stop calling us a supergroup’ pleads Steve
by Nick Logan

At home with sounds of love star Jane
by Richard Green
(Jane Birkin, that is)

PEDDLERS: FIFTEEN ABORTIONS BEFORE BIRTH and then it cost them £800!
by Richard Green

Tipped for charts by Derek Johnson
Fleetwood Mac, Oh Well

NME Top 5
1. ( 1) Bad Moon Rising, Creedence Clearwater Revival
2. ( 4) Je t’aime… moi non plus, Jane Birkin & Serge Gainsbourg
3. ( 2) Don’t Forget To Remember, Bee Gees
4. (10) I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, Bobbie Gentry
5. ( 5) Natural Born Bugie, Humble Pie

News pages

Faith, Pie, Fats, Fame, Led and Procol London Sunday shows?
(excerpt)
Blind Faith, Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie, Nice, Fats Domino, Georgie Fame and Procol Harum are among the artists being lined up for a year-long series of Sunday evening concerts at London Lyceum ballroom by promotor Tony Stratton-Smith. Several other top acts are also likely to appear.

The series begins on October 5 with Chicken Shack, Kinks and Van der Graaf Generator, and will continue each week with two star attractions plus an up-and-coming name.

Stratton-Smith told the EMI: "We plan to create the British equivalent of New York’s Fillmore East, with a free and easy atmosphere and a sense of community."

The shows will begin at 7.30 and run until 11 pm after which a discotheque session will commence. Closing time will be flexible. A supper licence has been granted for the duration of the series, which may be extended beyong the planned 52 weeks.

Other acts booked are Steppenwolf, Family and Griffin (October 19), Delaney and Bonnie, Indo Jazz Fusions and Rare Bird (26), Procol Harum, Georgie Fame and Graham Bond (26) [sic – but I think it should read November 2!], and Nice and John Mayall (9) …

NME November 29, 1969

Front page: Full page ad for Robin Gibb’s One Million Years (Polydor) 45.

Headlines:

Creedence’s Fogerty says: 'We stick to old rock’
by Richard Green

HARD WORK BOUGHT THESE LUXURY HOMES FOR THE TREMELOES
NEW HIT IS NEW START
by Gordon Coxhill

UPSETTERS, JIMMY CLIFF, MAX ROMEO, HARRY J. ALL STARS, PIONEERS –
REGGAE STOPS RACE PREJUDICE
by Alan Smith

KENNY ROGERS HAD MILLION-SELLER IN 1958
by Alan Smith

Despite disc slip in charts, John Lennon still an MBE!

Tipped for charts by Derek Johnson
Equals, Rub A Dub Dub
Robin Gibb, One Million Years
Diana Ross & The Supremes, Someday We’ll Be Together Again
Dusty Springfield, A Brand New Me
Cilla Black, If I Thought You’d Ever Change Your Mind

NME Top 5
1. ( 1) Sugar Sugar, Archies
2. ( 3) (Call Me) Number One, Tremeloes
3. ( 2) Oh Well, Fleetwood Mac
4. (14) Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday, Stevie Wonder
5. ( 5) Something, Beatles

News pages

POPLINERS
(excerpt):
… Italian Pop Festival (January 17-25) features Canned Heat, Bonzo Dog Band, Procol Harum, Family and Hardin and York…

Tail-pieces by the Alley Cat

… U.S. tour for Procol Harum in February…

And that was 1969.

All the great British groups of the era toured extensively during the autumn and winter, both in Britain and the US. Procol did nothing or, if they did, the NME did not find it very important. No reviews, no nothing. Not even the 'brilliant' concert at the Lyceum.

I also doubt that Procol got much out of their concerts in the States. The NME’s US correspondents always covered British success in the States, and they did write a lot about bands like Ten Years After, Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, you name ’em. But never Procol.

If the NME didn’t like Procol, it would explain everything. But in fact, the paper gave every single Procol release a very good review.

What on earth did the group do to itself?

Another thing: The record company. Why didn’t they advertise Shine On Brightly at all? And why didn’t they do the usual teasers on the A Salty Dog album. Just one ad. Then forgotten. Usually EMI kept on reminding the NME readers about their albums week after week after week.

And a theory: The American (and European) Shine On Brightly - sleeve is the original. The British cover is based on that one, and not the other way ’round. The US edition was released almost half a year before the British one.

Looking forward to 1970 …