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. 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. 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) . L to R: Bobby Harrison, Matthew Fisher, Gary Brooker, David Knights, Ray Royer. 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 (though Harrison did play on the B-side "Lime Street Blues"), 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. 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. 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." 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. 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 [Fisher] moaning and wanting to leave in about the fourth week [after forming the band], 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. 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, In mid-1971, Procol Harum severed ties with Glotzer and Lyons and legally fought an accounting dispute which was settled out of court. 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. 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. 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. After a tour which spawned
One More Time: Live in Utrecht 1992, Fisher briefly stepped away from the band to focus on studying for a degree, with
Don Snow temporarily taking over for a summer tour.
Laurence Cottle substituted for Bronze, who was performing with
the Hamsters, at a show in August. After nearly a year of inactivity, Procol Harum performed a handful of shows in May and June 1993, with former
Diamond Head keyboardist
Josh Phillips filling in for Fisher and former
King Crimson drummer
Ian Wallace in place of Brzezicki, who had rejoined
Big Country. Fisher returned for shows starting in July, Touring continued sporadically throughout the rest of the decade –
Graham Broad performed drums for a run of shows in July and August 1995, and
Henry Spinetti took over for shows in 1996. In August 1995 Procol Harum played at the
Cropredy Music Festival, as guests of
Fairport Convention. They also toured US and UK the same year, performing at several locations. In July 1997 fans arranged the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the success of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and invited the then-inactive band to play a concert at
Redhill,
Surrey. The band played a one-off show in celebration of the 30th anniversary of "A Whiter Shade of Pale", with the regular lineup joined on several songs by former members
Mick Grabham,
Peter Solley,
Alan Cartwright, Dave Bronze and
Chris Copping. In late 1999, Brooker promised that "Procol will play in 2000", and in September the band played an open-air gig with the New London Sinfonia in
Guildford.
2000s In 2000 Procol Harum received some attention after the song "In Held Twas in I" appeared on the band
Transatlantic's debut album. In the early 2000s, the band, comprising Brooker, Fisher,
Geoff Whitehorn (guitar),
Matt Pegg (bass) and
Mark Brzezicki (drums), made several tours, mostly of Europe but also Japan and the US. A 2001 concert in
Copenhagen,
Denmark was released on DVD in 2002. In 2003 the band released a new studio album, ''
The Well's on Fire and appeared at the Progman Cometh festival in Seattle. Their concert in London on Friday 12 December 2003, with much of the material from that album, was released on DVD in 2004: Live at the Union Chapel''. Long-time organist Matthew Fisher left the band in June 2004 due to "unresolved matters", with former stand-in Josh Phillips taking his place on Hammond again, leaving Brooker as the only original performing member. These matters were later revealed to have been a lawsuit filed by Fisher against Brooker and the band for songwriting credits and a share of royalties on "A Whiter Shade of Pale", which he won in December 2006. The band resumed a limited touring schedule in 2005. In June 2006 they played at the
Isle of Wight Festival. In August they played two outdoor concerts with the
Danish Radio Orchestra at Ledreborg Castle in Denmark, which were tele-recorded. An hour-long edit of the show was broadcast on Christmas morning 2008 on Danish Channel DR2 and the full concert was issued on DVD on 11 May 2009 (with six extra tracks from a Danish television recording of the band from 1974). Later in 2006, they played in
Switzerland,
Norway and Denmark, but with
Geoff Dunn replacing Brzezicki on drums, because the latter's other band
Casbah Club was touring with
The Who. Then Dunn ended up replacing Brzezicki permanently for the band's European tour in 2007. Recordings from the
Italian concerts were later released as
One Eye to the Future – Live in Italy 2007. Procol Harum also played an orchestral concert in
Sweden on 30 June. They performed with the Gävle Symphony Orchestra at the outdoor opera venue
Dalhalla, near
Rättvik. On 20 and 21 July 2007 fans arranged the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the success of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and invited the band to play. This took the form of two concerts at St John's, Smith Square in London. 20 July saw Procol Harum play a mixture of songs from their early days through to the début of a couple of new songs, "Sister Mary" and "Missing Persons". The following night 'Gary Brooker and Guests' performed a mixture of obscure songs by Brooker–Reid that had either never been recorded, never been performed live before or were significantly different from the versions they recorded. Although there was no Procol Harum activity in 2008, their manager Chris Cooke, on the web site Beyond the Pale, announced plans for a live DVD and a new album in 2009, as well as festival concerts in Norway on 17 July and Finland on 23 July. Just before the latter concert, Brooker fell off a pile of road-side logs in
Finland and broke several ribs. The show went ahead but he was unable to sing properly, and many of the songs were performed either as
instrumentals or sung by others in the band. In October 2009 with Brooker fully recovered, the band performed four concerts – in
Hagen (Germany),
Drammen (Norway),
Moscow and
St Petersburg.
All This and More, a four-disc retrospective (three CDs and a DVD with historical notes) was released in the autumn of 2009, and Salvo also issued all of the band's previous albums as remastered CDs with extra tracks, some never previously heard.
2010s Procol played a string of US (and
Toronto) concert dates in June 2010, mostly opening for
Jethro Tull. On 22 July Procol again headlined at the Keitelejazz Festival in
Äänekoski, Finland – the venue where the band performed with an injured Brooker in 2009. They described this loyal Finnish audience as "the best in the world" and played a unique three-verse version of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" with a guitar solo from Geoff Whitehorn. 48 hours later Procol were invited to give a free concert at the courtyard of the Palace of the Province of
Bergamo in
Italy. In August 2010 they appeared in
Bad Krozingen in
Germany and a Rock Legends event at the Dolina Charlotty Amphitheater in
Poland. After a Halloween gig in
Leamington Spa (their first in the UK for three years) the band returned to North America in November, including a return orchestral event with the
Edmonton Symphony Orchestra on 9 November. After playing in
Tallinn,
Estonia on 18 November, they returned to the US for an orchestral concert in
Wilmington, Delaware on 4 December. Over 13,000 people saw eight New Year concerts with the Danish Radio Orchestra in Copenhagen and other Danish cities in January 2011. On 29 May 2012 Gary Brooker was hospitalised after suffering a fall in his hotel room in
Cape Town. He was due to have performed with his band at GrandWest Arena on the 30th, with fellow Brits
10cc and
The Moody Blues, in a tour billed as the 'British Invasion' and then again in
Johannesburg on Friday 1 June 2012. Brooker (whose birthday it was) had been in his room at the five-star Table Bay Hotel. He was admitted to the ICU of the
Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital with a serious skull fracture. The band returned to Denmark for the Kløften Festival on 25 June before embarking on a 27-date U.S. tour supporting
Yes. In 2012 the Japanese artist
Yumi Matsutoya came to London to record "A Whiter Shade of Pale" with Procol Harum, a band she considered an inspiration for her work. She sang a duet with Gary Brooker on this new version of the 1967 classic, which featured three verses and a guitar solo by Geoff Whitehorn. Yumi and Procol Harum then played a series of December concerts in major Japanese cities, one of which was recorded for a later television showing (on 31 March 2013). Also in 2012, Henry Scott-Irvine published a biography of the band,
Procol Harum – The Ghosts of A Whiter Shade of Pale. Scott-Irvine also hosted a rare Procol Harum film evening at the BFI on the South Bank, which was attended by members of the group. In September 2012 Procol Harum was among fifteen final nominees for the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2013 (induction 18 April 2013). In the subsequent election that December, however, the band failed to gain enough votes for election. In March and April 2013 Procol Harum played a series of five orchestral concerts in Denmark and two such events in
Wuppertal in Germany. Four band-only concerts in Sweden & Finland were held in early October. In 2014 the band toured again in France, Switzerland, Germany, Canada (Ottawa with orchestra) and the Eastern U.S. The band also played a five-song set at
Kenney Jones' Rock'n'Horsepower charity event at
Ewhurst, Surrey in June, on a bill including
Alvin Stardust,
John Lodge,
Nik Kershaw,
Mike Rutherford,
Judie Tzuke and
The Who. A twin CD,
Inside & Outside, was issued with studio tracks from the Chrysalis years and a live CD including new material and performances of tracks from their first four Zonophone albums. On Monday 24 November Procol Harum appeared at the Dominion Theatre in London with the BBC Concert Orchestra and
Crouch End Festival Chorus in an event recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 2's Friday Night is Music Night on 28 November. Guitarist Geoff Whitehorn was hospitalised during rehearsals and at short notice
Rick Wakeman's guitarist
Dave Colquhoun deputised (on crutches, after a broken ankle). He played a guitar solo in the first extended, orchestrated version of Keith Reid's
9/11 tribute song "Blink of an Eye", dedicated by Gary Brooker to the brave firefighters of the 8th Avenue station who the band often talked with after gigs in New York. The band's 13th album,
Novum, was released on 21 April 2017 and the band played 36 dates in the UK and Europe to promote it. However, the most significant concert of the year came in March when the band played with an orchestra at the
Royal Festival Hall in London. Whilst leaving the stage at the end of the first half, Gary Brooker fell and was seriously hurt. He reappeared for the second half with his head bandaged and nursing "a broken hand". In 2018 the band again toured in Europe, including an orchestral show at the
London Palladium on 9 October. They commenced 2019 with a Caribbean cruise hosted by
Justin Hayward, with many well-known rock acts. A US tour was due to follow.
Brooker's death Brooker, the only constant member of the band and the main songwriter, died on 19 February 2022. The band's website described him as "a brightly shining, irreplaceable light in the music industry". "A Whiter Shade of Pale" entered the UK Official Singles Sales Chart Top 100 at number 38 on 25 February 2022. After his death, Procol Harum disbanded for good. == Authorship lawsuit ==