Procol Harum keyboardist plays in court

World Entertainment News Network, 14 November 2006

Former PROCOL HARUM keyboardist MATTHEW FISHER played in London's High Court yesterday (13NOV06) in a bid to prove he wrote the organ solo for the band's 1967 hit A WHITER SHADE OF PALE.

The British group's biggest chart success has always been credited to lead singer GARY BROOKER and lyricist KEITH REID, but Fisher is now demanding a share of the copyright.

Fisher played an organ and attempted to prove "the process of his composition" by breaking down the solo bar by bar.

He told the court, "This is meant to be a pop record, we didn't want anything too adventurous - too avant garde.

"I was trying to do something that sounded nice, that people would say, 'Oh! that is a nice tune.'" Fisher went on to tell the court he felt he had been given credit for Procol Harum track REPENT WALPURGIS "as a kind of compensation for not getting anything for A Whiter Shade Of Pale.

"I was just a young musician who wanted to make music and I didn't really think of contracts."