The Concert for George Harrison

Gary Brooker in the commemorative book

Here's a selection of quotations from Gary Brooker, as featured in the commemorative book of the concert, which took place on 29 November 2002

• Backstage, I think we were all in our little shells concerned about what was going to happen. You can rehearse all the songs but there's still the audience and the presentation which we didn't know anything about. We didn't know where the audience was coming from. After the event I spoke to people all around the world and everywhere I went somebody said, 'It was great, the Concert For George.' People came from the far corners of the earth – Poland, Japan, anywhere. There was always someone who would come up to me and say, 'I was there.'

• When I was asked to play piano I'd rather hoped that I might get to sing and of course there are many wonderful songs in George's repertoire. Now, the one I hadn't thought of was Old Brown Shoe. I was prepared in my head for everything else. It's a very difficult song to sing; it's totally George Harrison, and you have to become a different person to be able to sing it. It took me a long, long time to learn it and I still couldn't sing it like George. Even when I got the hang of it, it still sounded like me doing Old Brown Shoe.

• I first met George when we, The Paramounts, were the support act on the last Beatles UK tour in about 1965. So we were with them every day. They were having a tough time because they couldn't go out because of all the screaming girls. George was the one who would pass a joint: he'd always make sure we had something to smoke. Later I was living around the corner from Abbey Road Studios when George was making All Things Must Pass. I got a phone call and was asked if I could come round that day and play. It was a great session but pretty hectic and full of musicians with Phil Spector going mad. It was head down and get the job done. We recorded My Sweet Lord and Wah Wah that day. (But see here)