Procol Harum's first year in the NME

Trouble looming: 26 August 1967

These excerpts from New Musical Express, kindly selected for 'Beyond the Pale' by Yan Friis, show yet further befuddlement on the 'will-they / won't-they perform live' front; the birth of 'Straight Ahead' productions and the threat of legal action by a rejected manager. 

Front page: Pics of Mick Jagger ('the Rolling Stones crash in at No 13 with their latest, We Love You…’), The Monkees ('The Monkees, too, with Pleasant Valley Sunday leap to No 11…’) and Scott McKenzie ('… keeps the top spot to himself …’).

NME Top 3:

1 (1) San Francisco, Scott McKenzie
2 (2) I’ll Never Fall In Love Again, Tom Jones
3 (6) I Was Made To Love Her, Stevie Wonder

Billboard:
10 (9) A Whiter Shade Of Pale, Procol Harum

Tipped for the charts by Derek Johnson:

Traffic, Hole In My Shoe
Georgie Fame, Try My World
Manfred Mann, So Long Dad
Vikki Carr, There I Go

News pages:

Harum back on stage today – Regal label move definite

Procol Harum unexpectedly resume personal appearances this weekend – it has accepted a last-minute lightning tour of the Tivoli circuit in Europe, playing four major concerts at leading continental venues. The group opens at Brussels Tivoli tonight (Friday), followed by Gothenburg (Sunday), Stockholm (Thursday) and Copenhagen (next Friday (1^st)). These will be the Harum’s first live performances since June 5.

The group has declined an invitation to guest in German-TV’s colour spectacular in Berlin on September 2 and is returning to London that day. Procol Harum resume radio and TV engagements in this country next month but are unlikely to play any stage or ballroom dates here before December.

It was officially confirmed this week that the Harum have joined the Move on EMI’s Regal Zonophone label, which is to be the exclusive outlet for Denny Cordell’s productions. This was exclusively forecast in last week’s NME. Procol’s first single on the label, titled Homburg Hat, is expected at the end of September.

Cordell has formed a new record production company, Straight Ahead Productions, and all future signings by this firm will be issued through his new Regal Zonophone outlet. He will, however, continue to record Georgie Fame for CBS, Manfred Mann for Fontana and Denny Laine for Deram.

Although Regal Zonophone pop releases will be confined solely to Cordell’s material, EMI announces it will continue to issue Salvation Army discs (including the Joy Strings) on the same label.

Jonathan Weston has started proceedings, to be heard in the High Court next Wednesday, claiming reinstatement as Procol Harum’s business manager – or alternatively, substantial damages as compensation for his displacement.

Tail-pieces by The Alley Cat:

Although US sales exceeded half-million, Procol Harum didn’t reach No 1 there …

Read more from the first year of Procol press