Procol Harum's first year in the NME

Italian success: 13 January 1968

These excerpts from New Musical Express, kindly selected for 'Beyond the Pale' by Yan Friis, show Procol garnering a Gold Disc for Homburg, and making a confusingly premature appearance at the Speakeasy. Meanwhile Mick Grabham's band makes an appearance!

Front page:

Half page advertisement for Billy Nicholls’ Would You Believe (Immediate)
Half page advertisement for Plastic Penny’s Everything I Am (Page One)

Main feature headlines:

NMExclusive

TV director, BARRY CAWTHERAY, filming the Walkers’ Japan visit, sends us this brilliant report of it

BROTHERS AGAIN!
SCOTT CHATS UP RUSKY BIRDS – IN SLAVIC!

NMExclusive

Early BEE GEE pictures ... with captions by themselves …
ALL ABOUT THE GHOSTLY GIBBS
by Nick Logan

PETER TORK PRAISES NME READERS’ MONKEE FACES

- But refuses to judge them: TEN WINNERS NAMED

 PETER’S PART IN TV SERIES WILL CHANGE by Alan Smith

 JIM CAPALDI talks about TRAFFIC LIFE WITHOUT DAVE
by Keith Altham

Tipped for Charts by Derek Johnson:

Tremeloes, Suddenly You Love Me
Manfred Mann, Mighty Quinn
Amen Corner, Bend Me, Shape Me
Tony Blackburn, So Much Love

 NME Top 5

1 (1) Hello, Goodbye, Beatles
2 (5) Daydream Believer, Monkees
3 (6) Walk Away Renee, Four Tops
4 (2) Magical Mystery Tour (EPs), Beatles
5 (12) The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde, Georgie Fame

 News pages:

 New discs:

 (excerpt)

Procol Harum’s Homburg has now passed one million in world-wide sales, so qualifying for a Gold Disc. This total includes 350,000 sales in Italy, where the single reached No 1.

Procol date change

Procol Harum, which returns to the club and ballroom circuit this month, now makes its first personal appearance of the year 11 days earlier than expected – at London Speakeasy next Tuesday (16^th). This is the venue at which the group played its first-ever club date last June. Also booked for the Speakeasy are America’s Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band (January 27) and the Jimmy McGriff Quartet (February 4).

HOW OUR DISCS ARE SELLING ROUND THE WORLD

(excerpt) HOLLAND: 10 Homburg Procol Harum

New to the Charts

Plastic Penny make it with Wrong Number
by Keith Altham

Read more from the first year of Procol press