Procol Harum's first year in the NME

Next to nothing: 27 April 1968

These excerpts from New Musical Express, kindly selected for 'Beyond the Pale' by Yan Friis, show nothing Procolian except a tiny name-check from label-mates The Move.

Front page;

Half page advertisement for Small Faces’ Lazy Sunday (showing student demonstrators facing lots of police, both on foot and on horse).

Half page advertisement for package tour: Herman’s Hermits, Amen Corner, Paper Dolls, John Rowles, Dave Berry, The Echoes

Headlines:

Easybeats’ chartless year was no financial worry

by Richard Green

FANS AND THE FUTURE – HOLLIES AND CLIFF SPEAK OUT by Keith Altham

 IRONIC TWIST BEHIND SHOW STOPPERS SMASH HIT by Nick Logan

 Tipped for the charts by Derek Johnson:

Solomon King, When We Were Young
Scott Walker, Joanna
Herman’s Hermits, Sleepy Joe 

NME Top 5

1 (1) What A Wonderful World, Louis Armstrong
2 (2) Congratulations, Cliff Richard
3 (5) Simon Says, 1910 Fruitgum Co,
4 (3) If I Only Had Time, John Rowles
5 (7) Jennifer Eccles, Hollies

WHEN A MOVE MOVES OUT Five people are left with a challenge
by Nick Logan

Move reports that they cut four numbers last night, one of them ‘a sort of Procol thing … '

Read more from the first year of Procol press