Procol Harum


Procol Harum were an English rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have sold more than 10 million copies. Although noted for their baroque and classical influence, Procol Harum's music is described as psychedelic rock and proto-prog with hints of the blues, R&B, and soul.
In 2018, the band was honoured by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was inducted into the new Singles category. They had previously been nominated as performers in 2012.

History

Formation

In 1966, after Southend-on-Sea-based group The Paramounts were unable to generate any follow-up success with their UK top 40 single "Poison Ivy", the group disbanded. Their frontman Gary Brooker decided to retire from performing and focus on songwriting, and his old friend Guy Stevens introduced him to lyricist Keith Reid. In April 1967, after several months writing together while failing to find any artists interested in performing their songs, Brooker and Reid decided to form their own band which would use their songs as their sole material. Brooker, in addition to vocals and the piano, was also proficient on the organ, trombone, cornet, piano accordion and Bengal flute.
Paramounts' drummer Barrie "B. J." Wilson agreed to stay on and rehearse for the new group and auditions brought them bassist David Knights and two members of George Bean and the Runners, Richard Brown and Alan Morris. But the lack of gigs and money led to the dispersal of this grouping before they even got out of the rehearsal hall, with only Knights staying on.
They next teamed with organist Matthew Fisher, who had left Screaming Lord Sutch's backing group The Savages and advertised for work. Reid said he was right for Procol Harum just from talking to him and decided before hearing him play. Guitarist Ray Royer was chosen after the group placed an advertisement for players and were inundated, so the band "really grilled the applicants" to find "someone with the right state of mind". Reid said bassist David Knights had also been chosen in a similar manner to Fisher, in that he was right for the group "as a person", and had an original playing style. Drummer Bobby Harrison completed the line-up, after the group had tried out up to nine drummers by this point. Reid said Harrison was the first that the band "could really work with", and had a sense of humour that helped balance out the more serious personality that Reid and the rest of the band had. The band chose Stevens as their manager.
The group named themselves after a male blue Burmese cat, which had been bred by Eleonore Vogt-Chapman and belonged to Liz Coombes, a friend. Stevens suggested the group name themselves after the cat, which the group immediately accepted. However, the cat's pedigree name was in fact Procul Harun, the Procul being the breeder's prefix, but the name was taken down over the telephone, leading to a misspelling. Although people informed the band that the name is Latin for "beyond these things", this is incorrect as the correct term would be procul hīs.

"A Whiter Shade of Pale" and debut album (1967–1968)

In April 1967 the group entered Olympic Studios in London to record their debut single, "A Whiter Shade of Pale". They were joined by session drummer Bill Eyden in place of Harrison, producer Denny Cordell and sound engineer Keith Grant. With a structure reminiscent of Baroque music, the song features a countermelody loosely based on J. S. Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major played by Fisher's Hammond organ. An enthusiastic response from listeners of the pirate radio station Radio London prompted Deram Records to rush-release the single for 12 May 1967. It was an instant worldwide success, reaching No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for six weeks and the same spot in eleven countries. In three weeks, it became the fastest selling record by a new group. In the US, it peaked at No. 5 and the song has since sold over 10 million copies worldwide.
Around the same time, Cordell suggested that Jonathan Weston be brought in to comanage the band with Stevens.
Procol Harum played their first live gig at London's Speakeasy club on the day "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was released on 12 May 1967. They performed a set of mostly Brooker/Reid songs mixed with covers of Bob Dylan, The Rascals and Tim Rose tunes. Jimi Hendrix was an early vocal supporter of the band and attended their first show where, at the start of their performance of Rose's "Morning Dew", he went on stage, took Knights' bass and joined in.
After 18 June, the group would not play live in the UK until the following year.
On 15 July 1967, the group announced the June departure of Royer and Harrison and their split from Weston as manager. Fisher later said that the major issue for the split with Weston was when he organised an extensive UK tour for Procol Harum too soon after the release of "A Whiter Shade of Pale", resulting in the group performing "for £60 per night instead of £500." Following the addition of guitarist Robin Trower and the return of B. J. Wilson, the band secured new management under Tony Secunda. The departures brought about what Brooker described as "great lawsuits and expense" from Royer, Harrison, and Weston, and initial session drummer Eyden filed his own suit. Roughly three months into their partnership with Secunda, the band hired two Americans, Bennett Glotzer and Ronnie Lyons, to manage them in the US.
The group's follow-up single, "Homburg", was released in September 1967. The song reached No. 6 in the UK and No. 34 in the US. In the same month their debut album, Procol Harum, recorded between the two hit singles, was released in the US. Brooker said its release soon after the singles put the band in good stead in the US, but the problems created by the line-up changes, subsequent lawsuits and new management delayed its release in the UK until December. Brooker said it was at this point where the band "had lost the British audience."

Follow-up albums and break-up (1968–1977)

The band's follow-up album, Shine on Brightly was released the following year and saw a greater excursion into progressive rock stylings. It reached number 24 in the US but failed to chart in the UK. Finding themselves labelled as one-hit wonders in their home country, while in the US their reputation as a live act only continued to improve, for the next several years Procol Harum spent most of their time touring America.
Their third album, A Salty Dog, was popular among fans and their first album to sell well in the UK. The title track in particular gained a good deal of US FM radio airplay, and the album is now considered a rock classic, appealing to fans of The Beatles, The Moody Blues and Pink Floyd. Procol Harum were asked to perform at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969, but were unable after Trower's wife was expecting a baby and needed to return to England.
Later in 1969, Fisher finally decided to leave the band. In addition to the friction caused by the songwriting credits on "A Whiter Shade of Pale", Fisher had wanted to play a bigger role in writing song lyrics for the band, feeling that Keith Reid's output was growing repetitive. When his proposals were rebuffed, Fisher opted to leave instead. As Brooker would later comment: "I remember Matthew moaning and wanting to leave in about the fourth week , and he went on moaning and wanting to leave until eventually we only had to agree that it would be best". When Fisher told Knights of his plan to leave, Knights resolved that it was the time for him to leave as well. Fisher and Knights were replaced by Chris Copping, another former member of The Paramounts, who played both organ and bass.The first album featuring this four-piece lineup was Home, released in June 1970. Shortly thereafter, the group appeared at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival.
By 1971, the disparities in style had become too great and, after the release of their fifth album Broken Barricades, Trower left to form his own power trio. He was replaced by Dave Ball, while Alan Cartwright took over bass from Copping, who remained on organ.
In mid-1971, Procol Harum severed ties with Glotzer and Lyons and legally fought an accounting dispute which was settled out of court. The band went on to sign with Chrysalis Records and completed a successful UK tour opening for Jethro Tull.
During the band's 1971 tour, Procol Harum recorded their show on 18 November in Edmonton, Alberta with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and a choir for a live album. Released in April 1972, Procol Harum Live: In Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra was met with commercial success when it peaked at No. 5 in the US, where it was certified gold for selling 500,000 copies. In the UK, it peaked at No. 48. The live rendition of "Conquistador" from their debut album reached No. 16 in the US and No. 22 in the UK.
After Dave Ball left, Mick Grabham was the group's guitarist from 1972 until 1977.
The band continued with their new symphonic rock sound on their follow-up, Grand Hotel. Released in March 1973, the album reached No. 21 in the US. It did not chart in the UK, but it was certified silver for selling over 60,000 copies there.
File:Procol Harum publicity photo 1973.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Procol Harum in 1973. From left: Chris Copping, Mick Grabham, Alan Cartwright, Keith Reid, Gary Brooker, B. J. Wilson
The band returned to its hard rock roots with their seventh studio album Exotic Birds and Fruit, released in April 1974. Reid said the group made a conscious attempt to "dispel that symphonic image" that they had been attached to and has a similar sound to their debut. The album's sleeve was absent of lyrics in the liner notes.
In 1975 Procol Harum played the final night at the Rainbow Theatre in London before its refurbishment.
The personnel changes contributed to declining sales in the later part of the 1970s, with "Pandora's Box" being the final UK Top 20 hit in 1975. Its parent album Procol's Ninth saw a re-connection with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who both produced and wrote with the band.
In 1976 the band regrouped to record their final album of the 1970s, Something Magic. This marked the departure of Cartwright, after Brooker thought Copping was a better bassist which led to the arrival of newcomer Pete Solley on keyboards. The album's producers were not impressed with the group's material, which took the form of "The Worm and the Tree", an extended track that originated from a theme of Brooker's that the band had attempted some years before, but the group "made it up as we went along" in the studio.
Something Magic was released in March 1977 and peaked at No. 147 in the US. During the subsequent tour, the band celebrated their tenth anniversary with a concert at the Palladium Theatre in New York City in May.
In April 1977, during the promotional tour for Something Magic, Copping joined Frankie Miller's band and was replaced in Procol Harum by Elton John's former bassist Dee Murray. The tour ended in May, and the following month Grabham announced that he had left the band, claiming that he had been "generally dissatisfied with my role... for some months". The band played one final show in October when "A Whiter Shade of Pale" co-won the Single of the Year award at the 1977 Brit Awards, with Brooker, Wilson and returning members Cartwright and Copping joined by guitarist Tim Renwick.