Procol Harum

Beyond
the Pale 

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What was new at 'Beyond the Pale'

December 2002



December 31: Seventy-four nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK

This is the last chance to order Lost in the Looking-Glass at the special 2002 introduction price. The double CD is recorded in studios large and small all over the world, by 71 participants in The Palers' Project. This is a superb two-and-a-half hour collection with 40 tracks, and it's available for online purchase at a special price until the end of the year.

Dose 7 of the Christmas puzzles is now on display ... remind yourself of the fabbomatic prizes, and that ultra-rare promo of The Well's On Fire in particular.



December 30: Seventy-six nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

The annual diversion of the Christmas puzzles is extended by Dose 6



December 29: Seventy-six nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK

The merriment of the Christmas puzzles continues with Dose Five



December 28: Seventy-eight nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

Added a Christmas message to all Palers from Gary Brooker (thanks, Gary and Franky)

Gary said, in a telephone call to BtP, that he was 'totally transfixed' by the Palers' Project double-album treatment of Procol Harum songs, which was 'absolutely marvellous' ... these warm endorsements are echoed in his Christmas message. So we hope this will encourage you all to buy a copy, which you can do by clicking here. It's fantastic!

Added Dose Four of the Christmas puzzles ... hope all are enjoying them and finding them absurdly easy



December 27: Seventy-eight nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK

Added Dose Three of the Christmas puzzles with lavish prizes ...

Thanks from BtP for all your kind Seasonal Wishes!

A small reminder ... The Fresh Fruit mailing list is not interactive (so don't hit 'reply' when you get our mailing) but The Beanstalk is ... and thriving mightily too ... so that's the place to post your comments, and get a reply.



December 26: Eighty nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

Procol Harum's upcoming new album  The Well's on Fire, already ranks as no 208 in Amazon UK's sales rank. Can we make it a top 100 even before it is on sale? You can pre-order from Amazon UK here

The BtP Christmas puzzles – with substantial prizes – continue here ...



December 25: Eighty nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK

Happy Christmas to all visitors to 'Beyond the Pale'! Read the Christmas greeting from the BtP team!

The Christmas puzzles – with substantial prizes – start here: good luck! The quiz (an annual tradition at BtP) runs through to Twelfth Night. You can join in at any time and all you need is a pencil and an internet connection! The answer at the end will be a single word, as in previous years.



December 24: Eighty-two nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

Added some more dates to the 2003 tour schedule as Procol Harum take to the road to promote The Well's on Fire, their new album, which you can pre-order from Amazon or from Amazon Germany (thanks, Chris)


December 23: Eighty-two nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK ... and you can get free tickets! RIP Joe Strummer, aged 50

So you liked the first two clips from The Well's on Fire ... how would you like to get your hands on a band-reference promo copy of the album? Would you like a couple of free tickets to hear Procol play?

Added a note of the excellent prizes in this year's run of twelve Procol Harum puzzles ... if you are new to this website, welcome to our version of this annual Scandinavian tradition. This year ... easier puzzles, and a fairer way of allotting them, since some people find it hard to get the last clue in a timely fashion, owing to the vicissitudes of certain server set-ups.


December 22: Eighty-four nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

Added some very suitable portraits of Gary Brooker's Other Band, the great No Stiletto Shoes, in action on Friday night (thank you, Linda)

Thanks, Torjus, for keeping BtP afloat while Jens and Roland were at Gary's Christmas gig.
 

Note: the BtP team are sorry if there has been confusion in some minds about access to the excerpts from the new Procol album. However the procedure has been perfectly consistently and logically flagged at this website from the outset. 

Fans who are signed up to the 'Fresh Fruit' newsletter will be sent, in the next group mailing, the location of a page of links to the song-excerpts as prepared by Procol management. The first such mailing went out to about 1,160 Procol fans early on 20 December, European reckoning: like any news-sheet it won't be sent more than once. The address of the song-excerpts page will not be published otherwise at the site. These were the terms on which the clips were offered to us by Procol management – clearly it is desirable to increase the constituency of the mailing-list – and we felt sure that fans would want to hear them on that basis. 

A ten-day countdown to the clips' release provided plenty of time to get signed up, for anyone interested. Of course most hard-core fans were already subscribers to the newsletter, and we welcome all newcomers: they will receive all the Procol news from 'Fresh Fruit' in the usual, useful way. If you missed the boat with the first two clips, there are still four more to look forward to.

''Fresh Fruit' is not an inter-active list, so post your responses, if you wish, on our Beanstalk feature, which has been integral to this website since October 1997, and is now operating as a real-time interactive mail-list. This recent change in the Beanstalk's operation is nothing whatever to do with the publication of the sound-clips: these are a 'Fresh Fruit' bonus and will continue to be so.

Meanwhile the 'Fresh Fruit' "sign-up" banners remain visible at BtP to encourage newcomers or latecomers to sign up for the next two Procol song clips, next month. 

I think I've made myself clear?


December 21: Eighty-six nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

Added a concert report about the Kristiansand gig last year – more of an artistic than a commercial success, by the sound of it


December 20: Eighty-six nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

Today … we reveal the first two pre-release excerpts from the new Procol Harum album! (thanks, Chris). The address will be sent out to everyone on BtP's 'Fresh Fruit' mailing list. To hear the next two excerpts (in January) just stay on the list – or if you are not already signed up, sign up now!

Meanwhile ... added some good pictures of Procol Harum on stage in Milan (thanks, Antonio and Enza)

Thanks to everyone who has been ordering Lost in the Looking-Glass, the 40-track Procol Tribute Album: we look forward to receiving some reviews of the music, to show at 'Beyond the Pale'



December 19: Eighty-six nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK

The keyboard coats your senses like a glass of milk coats your stomach ...'

Added a grand review, by a Procol newcomer, of the first Procol Harum album ... plus! (thanks, Galpy)



December 18: Eighty-eight nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

Reorganised our page of contacts for interacting with other Procol fans online

In particular, we have revamped The Beanstalk, our former message-board. This was problematic in that many visitors posed questions there, but didn't leave their e-mail addresses. We hope that everyone concerned will sign up with the New Beanstalk, which is an interactive mailing list that promises immediate responses from other participants, as in the heyday of Bill Hammell's excellent and lamented 'procolorg' list. Sadly its replacement Yahoo has not been satisfactory for many Palers, who have found themselves bounced off it almost every day. We trust that the New Beanstalk will prove reliable, as it has done in tests so far.

Don't forget to sign up to hear the extracts from new Procol Harum songs ... welcome aboard to all the 100+ people who have joined Fresh Fruit in the past few days.

Thanks to everyone who has been ordering Lost in the Looking-Glass, the 40-track Procol Tribute Album: about 40 copies have been mailed out so far, and we look forward to receiving some reviews of the music, to show at 'Beyond the Pale'



December 17: Eighty-eight nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK

Added another couple of covers of A Whiter Shade of Pale (search for 'Gary Brooker') (thanks, Alick)

Added some good information here about Geoff Whitehorn's early compositions included on the album Beyond the Beyond (thanks, Mikko)



December 16: Ninety nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK   R.I.P Zal Yanovsky

The 'Fresh Fruit' list manager is now up and running. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Added an article from a Milan daily newspaper, showing how the Italians looked forward to Procol Harum before their triumphant series of gigs in that country (thanks, Stefano; thank you, Martin)


December 15: Ninety nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK

Is it really easy to make a megahit?
Added a brief interview done by Gary Brooker in Kristiansand last year

Added a venue clarification, regarding Procol's whereabouts on 22 May 1973(thanks, Mark)


December 14: Ninety-two nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

Added, at the foot of this page, news of a brand-new Procol Harum tribute album recorded entirely by visitors to this website and their musical associates.

Lost in the Looking-Glass is the new double CD, recorded in studios large and small all over the world, by 71 participants in The Palers' Project. This is a superb two-and-a-half hour collection with 40 tracks, and it's available for online purchase at a special price until the end of the year. Buy now for Christmas, for the Procoholic who has everything! (thanks, Albert)

Added, to the Procol covers pages here and here, all the new cover versions from the Palers' Project.


December 13: Ninety-two nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK

If you were in Europe this year, and quite determined, you could have heard 11 Procol Harum shows. Was any fan at them all ?

Added an interesting page tabulating how many songs Procol Harum played, and how often, which albums they came from, and whereabouts they featured in each set.

Before you look, guess which songs were played every night - guess how often Conquistador was heard, and how often An Old English Dream ? Which of the studio albums was best-represented, and which worst? OK, now go to the page (thanks, Anorakmaster)
 



December 12: Ninety-four nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

Added the setlist from Procol Harum's recent sell-out gig at Trento (thanks, Fritz)

Added particularly striking piece to our 'Parlance' collection ... search for 'a whiter shade of trash' (thanks, Marvin)



December 11: Ninety-four nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK

Added two more dates for 2003 when Procol Harum will be promoting The Well's on Fire … more details to follow about Haugesund and Warsaw (thanks, Mark)

Added a great new offstage portrait of Procol Harum, taken last week in Italy (thanks, Chris)


December 10: Ninety-six nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

Added the setlist from Procol Harum's recent, excellent gig at Ancona (thanks, Ian; grazie, Giuseppe)

Added a useful Hungarian phrase here(thanks, Tibor)



December 9: Ninety-six nights until Procol Harum play at Lewisham, UK

Added the setlist from the George Harrison Memorial Concert at which three Procolers were the heart of the house band (thanks, Stephen)

Added a piece from Sounds that explains why Dave Ball left Procol Harum (thanks, Phil)



December 8: Procol Harum play Trento, Italy, tonight

Added a brief concert memo and a poster-shot from Procol's recent gig in Milan (thanks, Carlo)

Added a concert report and sound-check photographs from the above concert (thanks, Antonio)



December 7: Procol Harum play Ancona, Italy, tonight

Record numbers of visitors to 'Beyond the Pale' in the past few days – 7,942 pageviews yesterday – welcome to all our new Italian friends! We hear from sources close to the band that Procol Harum are going down a storm!

Added the setlist from Procol's very recent gig at Modena (thanks, Gianluigi)

Added a Milanese ticket here (thanks, Sergio)
 

Please read this carefully ... very good musical news

By arrangement with Procol management and their record company, 'Beyond the Pale' plans to bring you excerpts from new songs from the new album, The Well's on Fire, between next week and its release date.

These will be available ONLY to people who have subscribed to 'Fresh Fruit', our occasional newsletter. This is a free service that sends out crucial Harum news from time to time. We don't bombard you with junk or sell your address to anyone else ... and it's the unique, sure-fire way of hearing the latest work from Brooker, Fisher, Reid and the band before the release (in March?) of the long-awaited album.

To join the circulation list, and thus know where to find the album excerpts, please click here

The new album  The Well's on Fire can now be pre- ordered both from Amazon UK and from Amazon Germany



December 6: One hundred nights until Procol Harum play at Milton Keynes, UK

Added the 17-song setlist from Procol's recent gig in Milan (thanks, Antonio and Stefano)

Added full booking details – ticket prices, phone-numbers, showtimes – for the forthcoming Procol Harum concerts in Stuttgart, Cologne, Hamburg, Nuremberg and Aschaffenberg



December 5:Procol Harum play Modena, Italy, tonight

Added the setlist from Tuesday night's gig at Florence – two numbers from The Well's On Fire, but nothing that we didn't know! (thanks, Stefano)

We understand that Keith Reid has been working yesterday with the record company on finalising the artwork for the new Procol album.  



December 4: Procol Harum play Milan, Italy, tonight

Are you going to the No Stilletto Shoes gig in  Riga Music Bar, Southend 21. December? Let's meet for a few drinks before the concert at the bar in Ilfracombe House Hotel. More details including room booking here.

Added (in view of the whereabouts of Procol Harum tonight!) an interesting history of Procol Harum by an Italian intellectual, specially translated into English for this website (grazie, Piero; thank you, Martin)


December 3: Procol Harum play Florence, Italy, tonight

As Procol Harum kick off their long-awaited December tour, we hope to bring you setlists and pictures sent in by our lucky Italian friends! Here's the first ... the poster for the Ancona gig (thanks, Giuseppe)

Added some very interesting additional information (search for 'Hiseman') about the 'other life' of Keith Reid's production, A Quick One for Sanity (thanks, Nick)

Added a link to the latest book (search for 'Sin') by well-known Paler, Dr Sam Cameron, whose articles on this website are indexed here.

Added another ticket, and a brief concert-memoir, to the foot of this picture page (thanks, Harry)



December 2: Procol Harum play Ancona, Italy, in five days' time

Added a third and final page of images commemorating Procol Harum in Vienna, 1992(thanks, Peter)



December 1: Procol Harum play Trento, Italy, in a week's time

Added a page for articles about the participation of three Procolers in the George Harrison Memorial Concert (thanks, folks)

Please send in more!


Read what was new on this website in previous months


 

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