Procol Harum's first year in the NME

Not a mention: 17 February 1968

These excerpts from New Musical Express, kindly selected for 'Beyond the Pale' by Yan Friis, show the kind of stuff that hit the newspapers when there was no Procol Harum news.

Front page: Full page advertisement for MCA Records’ four new releases: John Rowles (If I Only Had Time), Joe Brown (Bottle Of Wine), Brenda Lee (That’s Alright) and The Hobbits (Daffodil Days). 

Main feature headlines:

 WHY NO GOLD MEDALS FOR POP STARS IN GRENOBLE? by Andy Gray

 (among the stars in Grenoble: Traffic, Manfred Mann, Julie Felix)

 MOVE LEAD ROCK REVIVAL by Nick Logan

Carl Wayne talks about The Move’s new Teddy Boy image and their back to rock’n’roll style. Without knowing it, he sees right into the future:

‘If the Beatles took it up, and they have all the right conditions in which to experiment, then probably everyone else will follow.’

Only one week earlier The Beatles finished mixing their next single, the rock’n’rolling Lady Madonna!

And on the news pages Paul McCartney comments:

‘It’s not outright rock, but it’s that kind of thing – we think the time is right.’

Tipped for the charts by Derek Johnson:

Troggs, Little Girl
Dave Clark Five, No One Can Break A Heart Like You
Val Doonican, You’re The Only One
Lulu, Me, The Peaceful Heart
Donovan, Jennifer Juniper

NME Top 5:

1 (3) Mighty Quinn, Manfred Mann
2 (1) Everlasting Love, Love Affair
3 (5) Bend Me, Shape Me, Amen Corner
4 (4) She Wears My Ring, Solomon King
5 (2) Am I That Easy To Forget, Engelbert Humperdinck

(sorry, but nothing on Procol this week … )

Read more from the first year of Procol press