|
Lost in the Looking-Glass Notes on the performers |
|
|||
|
Tracklisting | Order the album The Palers' Project is an international affair: the 40 tracks on Lost in the Looking-Glass originate from 11 different countries and involve some 71 musicians: click the track number (A 5, B 17, etc) to read more. |
||||
|
Who |
Brief biography |
|
Richard Heard on B 20 |
Richard sings and plays guitars and piano with Outcry. Formerly a professional musician, he has been playing the piano since he was eight, and guitar since he was ten. He has composed and recorded for TV, and works as a journalist in sport and music (contributor to Shine On and 'Beyond the Pale'). He describes himself as 'Outcry's sleep-deprived repertoire arranger, administrator and publicist'. |
|
Sue Heard on B 7 |
Sue, 42, is a psychotherapist and mother of two. She also happens to be married to Martin Bostock. Although not a life-long Procol Harum fan, she has been brainwashed by Martin. She took up singing during 2002. |
|
Donna Heard on A 17 |
Donna was born in the Bronx, NY, and is currently teaching Yoga in Raleigh, NC. She has been singing since the age of ten, when she attended convent school and was taught to sing by the nuns. Her first exposure to Procol Harum was when her dear friend, Larry Pennisi, played the record A Salty Dog for her in his basement when she was a teenager. After years (which will go uncounted) of singing in rock bands, she is in the process of writing and collecting songs for her first solo project. She may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, track A 8 |
|
De Boni Heard on A 1,B 9, B 16 |
Luiz de Boni was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1959. He made his first stage appearance at the age of nine, at his sister's school graduation party, when he sang A Whiter Shade of Pale accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. His musical career began in 1972 as the bassist in a band called Cia. Iltda ('Unlimited Company') with school friends. In 1976 he switched to keyboards and since then has played with many Brazilian artists and rock groups, like Tom Zé, RPM, Mutantes and O Terço. This last is the main Brazilian progressive rock group, and De Boni recorded three CDs with them between from 1991 to 1996 (some of these are available on Musea, the French progressive label ). One of these, LIVE at PALACE - 93, was recorded live in a major music hall in Sao Paulo, and O Terço played their best music stuff with a Symphony Orchestra. In 1980 De Boni opened his own Recording Studio in Sao Paulo, (new studio), where he works to this day as composer of TV and Radio Commercial Music, and also as producer for several groups and artists of various styles including Samba, Bossa Nova, Rock, Blues and Progressive Rock. With a business friend he ran the Brazilian Progressive Rock label, Record Runner from 1991–1995. His favourite group, of course, is Procol Harum; the dream he would like to realise is to bring them to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro for a series of concerts! He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, tracks A 7 and B 5 |
|
Martin Heard on B 7 |
Martin, 49, runs a PR agency but spends a good deal of time in his basement studio. He was a founder-member of Red Banner, which creates and records music in said basement and occasionally posts it on the internet. |
|
Derren Heard on B 8 |
Derren originally came from Croydon, not unlike Matthew Fisher, and is best-known through his popular TV shows, Derren Brown: Mind Control. Charlie Brooker (in The Guardian) described him as 'the scariest man in Britain'. Although trained as a lawyer, his professional background is in sleight-of-hand magic and hypnosis; he is the author of several books on these for the magical fraternity. He has forged a new style in magical entertainment, combining his skills of suggestion and psychological influence: his national theatre tour in 2003 coincides with the newest round of Procol Harum gigs. He lives with Figaro, an exotic bird, listens daily to Bach and has written extensively on Kafka. |
|
Kåre Asbjørn Heard on A 15 |
Kåre Asbjørn (born 1955) lives in Sogndal, Norway, where he is a Higher Executive Officer in computer management at Sogn og Fjordane College. He joined the band Compact in 1974. Alongside Gunnar Stedje, who plays with him on this recording, he has been in different groups – but since 1974 he and Gunnar have played together in various bands together – as they still do. They have joined on several records and TV and radio appearances – and Compact has backed a number of both Norwegian and foreign artists. |
|
Sam Heard on A 4,B 8, B 17 |
Allegedly an economist, Sam was born in Belfast but grew up in Carrickfergus until he migrated to England in 1979. 'A lifetime dedicated to avoiding singing or playing instruments. This was marked by some failures (not getting kicked out of the school choir) and successes (being found trying to play the recorder aged 12 with the cleaning brush inside it). Despite this a reasonable wodge of musical education was forced in me at the ages of 10-14 at school with no apparent result. 'I have completed two albums: Significantly Different From Zero: A Meaningless Experiment in Meaninglessness [54 minutes or so of related 'concept' material on the subject of dreams] and Palchemical Brothers and Sisters: Seven Doses [32 minutes of seven pieces illustrating the conflict between animus and anima]. These are not currently being distributed (except ad hocly). 'Two more albums are in progress. The third is on the theme of closure (e.g. oil-wells, relationships) and the fourth is the soundtrack to the film of an occult novel I don't intend to write about a sinister man trying to find several houses on a ley line to give him control of the world and bring down demons upon it. The film concerns his attempt to procure the crucial houses from ostensibly 'good' people by devious means. The music precedes the script I don't intend to write or even try to market.' He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, track B 16 |
|
Jane Heard on A 2,A 9, B 12, B 15 |
Jane (born 1982) studies History of Art in Norwich, where she also plays in various orchestras and sings in choirs. She busked in France at the age of five, and made her first CD with the band Overland in 2000. She fulfilled one ambition by leaving school with Grade VIII in piano, singing and violin. Her most prestigious appearance to date was on a bill with the Bootleg Beatles at Longleat, with the Marquis of Bath eyeing up potential 'wifelets' in her string quartet; her most nerve-racking gig was singing the Ooh-la-las in Fires (Which Burnt Brightly) in the Palers' Band, with Gary Brooker listening. She may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, tracks A 20, B 2 and B 20. |
|
Peter Heard on A 6, B 12 |
Peter (born 1986) made his musical début at the age of five as an onstage percussionist in an open-air production of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, though he first sat behind a kit in 2001. Currently studying for his Grade VIII piano, he has played trumpet, keyboards, bass and drums with the Palers' Band in England and Norway: he currently drums for Hyena Syndrome and plays trumpet in a Bristol outfit, The Renegades of Funk. His favourite musicians are Dave Grohl, BJ Wilson and Louis Armstrong. He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, tracks A 3, A 20, B 2, B 17 and B 20. |
|
Roland Heard on tracks A 2, A 6, A 10, A 18, B 4, B 8, B 12, B 15 and B 19. |
Formerly MD of the Cambridge University Light Ents Soc, then of a Midlands travelling theatre company, Roland (born 1953) was taught the piano by his aunt, Joan Clare, whose great-grandfather had been musician-in-ordinary to Queen Victoria for 44 years. His musical favourites include Richard Thompson, the McGarrigles, and Pascal leFeuvre (this last engendering his eighteen-month affair with a hurdy-gurdy named Lady Jane). Now a teacher of English by profession, he has played Procol tunes on various instruments from his first band in 1967 up to 'Fishtank' which formed in 2000. His theatre work include scores for Twelfth Night and The Winter’s Tale as well as original pieces, and his songs include settings of Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, and Stevie Smith. His through-composed musical The Mystery of Mary Celeste played in 1993 in Bristol UK, where he lives; a little cantata, The Wakefield Shepherds' Carol, had its public première at St George's, Bristol in 1997. He gets hired for theatre pit work from time to time, and is occasional guest bassist with the Bristol University Sinfonia. He has been convener three times for The Palers' Band, and is one of the webmasters of 'Beyond the Pale'. A happy musical memory involves busking Grand Finale as a duet with Gary Brooker on the family Steinway.He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, tracks A 2, A 3, A 4, A 17, A 20, B 5, B 16, B 17 and B 20 |
|
Antonio Heard on B 18
|
48 years old, Antonio engages in several activities: his secret for being a lawyer and a showman at the same time (as well as being a critic for Musica e Dischi, a national magazine) stands in doing each thing at the right moment ... another secret is reading Zen philosophy. One of his works is a collection of eight songs titled Come Fregoli, which he dreams of hearing sung by some voice of national relevance. From 1969–1974 Antonio was part of the group 'I Fuochi Fatui' ('The Will-o'the-Wisps'). In 1975 he first played Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar; the show was resurrected fifteen years later with the group 'La Goccia', and he currently plays Pilate. He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, tracks A 16 and B 5 |
|
Rick [UK] Heard on B 7 |
Rick, 49, is a writer, whose credits include Channel Four's controversial Men Only, screened in 2001. He is currently writing the screenplay for a life of poet Philip Larkin, to be screened by the BBC in the Spring of 2003. Rick and Martin Bostock have been friends since the age of 11 and have played music together – especially in Red Banner – on and off ever since. |
|
Allen [USA] Heard on A 8 |
'One-Eye' was born in LA in 1950, and still lives there with his wife and two daughters. A Certified Shorthand Reporter, he has owned his own agency for 24 years and is a Fellow of the Academy of Professional Reporters. Schooled in accordion at a young age, he played orchestral percussion on various classical recordings. Piano lessons and some (still unrecorded) songwriting followed, then roadie work and co-managing for cover band The Pontoons, for whom he also did vocal arrangements ... opening for the likes of Oingo Boingo and Van Halen. He retired from music until joining the third Palers' Band in Manchester. He first heard AWSoP in May 1967 and badgered record stores prior to every album release thereafter. Most memorable moments include sneaking into the 1973 Hollywood Bowl rehearsal the evening prior to the show, walking out of the Anaheim Convention Center arm-in-arm with his wife singing Piggy Pig Pig, and a seven-city PH tour in 1993; and, of course, the Paler parties and concerts, especially the two all-nighters in the bar with Dave Ball. He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, tracks A 6, B 2 and B 5 |
|
Charlotte [UK] Heard on A 9 |
Charlotte (born 1985) plays the 'cello in the UK's National Youth Symphonia, and comes from a musical family. She also plays the piano; her brother was the 'cellist with Bristol's The Blue Aeroplanes |
|
Jeremy [USA] Heard on A 20, B 11 |
Jeremy is a keyboardist/composer from Los Angeles, who, inspired by Procol Harum and the 'Beyond the Pale' website, has re-assembled his old band from the 70s, Village, and is having more fun than he's had in years. His closest brush with actual pop stardom was as a keyboard player with 70s idol Shaun Cassidy, with whom he found his way into the pages of 16, Tiger Beat, and Bravo teen magazines. After earning BA and MA degrees in composition from California State University, Jeremy took a job with the LA County High School for the Arts, where he serves as music director of the school's Music Theatre Ensemble. He is also the organist of Downey United Methodist Church, where he occasionally slips in an appropriate Procol Harum piece as a prelude or postlude. He has composed two operas: The Magician (based on W Somerset Maugham's novella); and The Happy Prince (after Oscar Wilde's fairy tale). He also recently completed a musical based on the life of Mother Teresa, entitled Calcutta Rose. His Symphonic Suite from The Happy Prince was the winner of the 1997 Valley Symphony Composition Competition. Besides listening to the music of his favorite band, Procol Harum, Jeremy's biggest musical thrill has to be the time in 1974 when he got to meet and jam (on Hammond organ!) with John Lennon at LA's Record Plant studios, during the sessions for Harry Nilsson's Pussycats album. He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, tracks A 15 and B 5 |
|
Huub [Netherlands] Heard on A 5 |
Huub was born in 1951 in The Hague: he sings and plays classical guitar. He sang in local groups such as Fresh & Creamy in the 70s and 80s, and in another with Guus Laatsch, with whom he worked for the present CD. He has also sung in choirs for a few well-known Dutch Artists. |
|
Fran [UK] Heard on A 6 |
Fran was born in Lincolnshire in 1962, and played her first professional gig in 1990 with the band Magic Johnson. She now lives and writes in Norfolk and makes her living touring the UK as a jazz singer. As well as the Magic Johnson album she can be heard on Mobile, a showcase album of jazz standards; her own material can be heard on the Filter Queens' albums Demonstration and Hysterical Woman, and on her Apple Pie collection, recorded with 'Strong as Samson' pedal-steel player, BJ Cole. She may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, track A 3. |
|
Rich [USA] Heard on A 14, B 1 |
Rich is originally from Arizona, but has lived in Sacramento, California since 1984. He started playing guitar at age ten, but didn't form a band and begin writing music until 1987. He performed as Rich Hardesty & The Del Reys and released three records, and was featured on various compilation albums. He played in clubs all across Northern California for five years. In 1988 he co-founded an independent, 'alternative rock' record label (Mad Rover Records, Inc., manufactured and distributed by Rough Trade) and released twelve albums of four other artists up until 1994. During that period he co-owned Enharmonic Recording studios with Tape-Op Magazine publisher John Baccigaluppi. He has worked professionally in the electronic media and software industries and is currently founding partner in a strategic consulting practice based in California. He got back into performing in 1998, as lead guitarist for Pony Stable – a Sacramento-based 'alt-country' band that released an album in 1999. Rich is currently working on material for a new record, but loves the opportunity to re-interpret favorite songs; hence the present re-workings of two Procol favorites. (He was fortunate enough to see Procol Harum live in Phoenix in 1975; his favorite PH album is Grand Hotel.) He is also a contributing writer for Tape Op Magazine and reviews PC-based recording software and hardware. All his recordings since 2000 have been done solo on a PC with Cubase VST, and his discography can be consulted online. He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, track B 4. |
|
Gothic [USA] Heard on B 11 |
A long-time Procol fan, Gothic is a native of New York City who has been one of Glendale California's more colorful residents for over thirty years. A founding member of the band Village, Gothic has also played keyboards for PF Sloan, the legendary composer of Secret Agent Man, and the late jazz poet Walter Twilley Lacey. Gothic is known for his unique, improvisational 'solo albums' such as: The Strange and the Not Strange, Homunculi, and Gothic Harris Sez What He Feels. In addition to his musical activities, Gothic has also worked as a nurse and Hollywood tour bus driver. |
|
Tineke [Netherlands] Heard on A 5 |
Tineke was born in 1950 in Groningen and works for Wehkamp in Zwolle (Wehkamp is part of the English company, General Users Store). In the 80s she played for more than ten years in a classical chamber orchestra. She also gave flute lessons, and her favourite composer is Bach. Tineke bought the album Amorta and, being impressed with that style of music, she met its composer, Hans Tammes, and they became friends: thus the music of Procol Harum and of Bach came together. Tineke's daughter is a singer in a band and her son plays bass guitar in another: a real musical family. |
|
Lucy [UK] Heard on B 20 |
Clarinettist Lucy Hughes is an occupational therapist. Classically-trained, she was recruited into Outcry ">Outcry, her first rock band, having played in a wind ensemble run by Richard Amey. She also plays piano but, inexplicably for someone of 100% Welsh blood, is a very reluctant singer. |
|
Claes [Denmark] Heard on A 7 |
Born in 1957, Claes is a Danish novelist now living in Devonshire, UK: he is the author of the Procol Harum biography, Beyond the Pale. As well as being a guitarist and keyboard-player, he was the songwriter behind the Danish 80s trio, Route 66, whose eponymous 1984 album was recorded at Matthew Fisher's studio in Croydon, and also features Matthew on Hammond organ and vocals. |
|
Kasper [Denmark] Heard on A 7 |
Kasper (born 1964) is the brother of Claes, and played bass with Danish band, Route 66, who recorded their eponymous 1984 album at Matthew Fisher's studio in Croydon. He left music when that band split up and now works for a pharmaceutical company in Denmark. |
|
Jennifer [USA] Heard on B 11 |
Jennifer has performed in cabaret settings in Los Angeles and New York and has recently recorded a solo CD of original material. She holds a degree in dance from Skidmore College, and currently lives in New York City. |
|
Dave [UK] Heard on A 3, A 10, A 18, B 3, B 19 |
Dave, 44, lives in Warrington, Cheshire and has been playing the guitar since age 14. His main influences are Robin Trower, Mick Grabham, Steve Hillage and Ty Tabor from Kings X. He funds his music by being a Control, Electrical and Instrumentation Engineer in the Nuclear Industry. 'Apart from one (highly enjoyable) outing with the Palers' Band, I am in a five-piece band which meets once a week for practice, and does the occasional gig, playing AOR standards.' He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, tracks A 4 and B 5. |
|
Guus [Netherlands] Heard on A 5, B 5 |
Guus was born in Willemstad (Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles) in 1948, and works as a doctor in Zoetermeer. He played in a lot of bands in the 60s and 70s and now runs his own studio (Fairplay Studios) where a lot of famous Dutch singers and bands record. Guus is a composer and singer who plays guitars and keyboards: he's also a good arranger for choirs, as his work with Hans Tammes on this CD shows. |
|
Wolfgang [Germany] Heard on A 5, B 5 |
Wolfgang (born 1952) is a founding member of the German Whaling Stories, the Official Gary Brooker Fan Club, and he started his percussive career in 1965, playing his first public gigs at the age of fourteen. He lives near Hannover, and has drummed in numerous groups to date, including the Palers' Band in Guildford and Manchester. |
|
The Oakes [UK] Heard on A 13 |
John and Harry Oakes were born in Hillingdon, London, in 1952, but worked the markets of the East End until the demise and gentrification of the Docklands. They now subsist by casual labour and busking. They are probably the only conjoined twins in Europe working as a traditional one-man band and they consequently get offered lots of television and other promotional work, all of which they steadfastly refuse. They also decline to be photographed together, and their contribution to this project was the only recording they had allowed to be released until they recorded on From Shadow to Shadow, tracks B 5 and B 17. |
|
Mons [Denmark] Heard on A 7 |
Mons was the original drummer with Danish band, Route 66, who recorded their eponymous 1984 album at Matthew Fisher's studio in Croydon. He was born in 1958, and now works in the computer industry in Denmark. |
|
Ed [USA] Heard on A 16, B 13 |
Ed Palermo was born in 1954 in Ocean City, New Jersey. His main instruments are alto saxophone, guitar and arranging. He has played with such artists as Aretha Franklin, Tito Puente, Tony Bennett, Mel Torme and many more. The Ed Palermo Big Band, which contributes two cuts to this collection, was formed in 1979 and played every Monday night for three years in a night-club owned by the Brecker Brothers called Seventh Avenue South. Since then, Ed and the band have played all over, and have recorded three albums. We have not made an entry on this page for each member of the Big Band. Ed's first encounter with the work of Procol Harum was in 1969 in a Philadelphia night-club called 'The Electric Factory'. Having already fallen in love with the band through their recordings of such beauties as Repent Walpurgis, Kaleidoscope, Salad Days and the entire Shine on Brightly album, Ed was ecstatic about seeing Procol live, but was thrilled beyond comprehension by the band's actual performance. The stage was dark while Gary, Matthew and the rest discreetly snuck onto the stage. Out of nowhere, Robin's killer one-note riff from Shine on Brightly took the entire audience's breath away. It was a moment Ed will never, ever forget. |
|
Simon [UK] Heard on B 20 |
Outcry bassist Simon Payne bought his first bass at 17, put ‘Fender’ on it in Airfix paint, and played his first gig four weeks later ... the next after that was raided by police. Simon is a barrel of laughs and common sense. |
|
Larry [USA] Heard on A 8,A 17, B 14 |
Larry was born in Manhattan in 1953: the newspaper for the day had the coronation of Queen Elizabeth on the front page. He works as a counsellor for drug and alcohol-addicted felons. Mesmerised by doo-wop bands on the radio from an early age, he was bought his first 45rpm at age three, and got hooked on music. Watching the church organist he was forever thinking about the day he too could play the organ. He had a few piano lessons from a nun, but is basically self-taught. His main organ influence is Matthew Fisher, with of course a good nod to Chris Copping's baroque grandeur. Among the bands he has played with are Epitaph, OM, Zan, The Lizard Band, Sophistifunk, Imminent Rat, Just Us, Rondo and Destiny. Great moments include pulling off the intricacies of Yes music live, and playing for the Palers' Band with Procol Harum listening – and having Gary Brooker say nice things about his work. Larry's album, This Pilgrim's Progress, is available from the BtP shop with all proceeds to the website. He lists his influences as Procol Harum, Greenslade, Jethro Tull, early electronica, Akira Ifukube (Godzilla Movies), Débussy, Aimee Mann, Brian Wilson, Justin Hayward, Tony Banks, Jan Hammer, Bach, Bach and Bach. In his garage, awaiting new life, lurks a 1967 Walnut Hammond B3. He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, track B 14 |
|
Gary [UK] Heard on B 20 |
Gary Peters plays acoustic guitar and sings with the band Outcry: a former nurse, he is now a medical dressings firm representative with a BA in psychology. He has a parallel local solo singer-songwriter career (live CD Across The Moon). He has been playing guitar since the age of 17. |
|
Val [UK] Heard on B 20 |
Val Powell sings and plays keyboards with Outcry. She has been playing piano and 'cello (Grade VII) since she was eight. A single mother and child-minder, she has been playing in bands for three years. She studies singing, and is therefore probably too good for the rest of the band. She helps Richard Amey as Outcry's administrator, and sometimes duos with Lucy Hughes. |
|
Nigel [UK] Heard on B 20 |
Nigel Ratcliffe sings and plays the piano with Outcry. He is an administrator for business and charity; a youth worker in Britain and Europe, he is self-employed in music and drama media services (‘Acts n Tracks’). He has been playing since he was 7, and was in a teenage blues band with Richard Amey and Leo Sayer. |
|
Greg Revel [France] Heard on A 11 |
Greg lives in France where he is guitarist and songwriter of the band Sousbock; he also works with the de York twins (see below) and with 'Awaken'. He's influenced by many sorts of music, including Jean-Jacques Goldman, Telephone, modern rock, 70s ... . Some will find it a shame that this great guitar player was used only to computerize parts of Something I Should Have Known on this CD, instead of soloing all through it. They're right. But that's 'Awaken', folks. |
|
Antonio [Italy] Heard on B 18 |
Antonio was born in Naples in 1950 and works as a clerk in Novara, Italy. Some of his recorded work may be heard online here. He plays the piano and is currently working on music for his own movies.He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, track A 16. |
|
Chris [UK] Heard on B 15 |
At present Chris lives in Sheffield, writing plays and composing soundtracks for theatre pieces (Hamlet, Bent and Lags most recently). He made his onstage début at 15 in the band 'Shiver', most of whom became the club and pub folk-rock attraction 'Hollow', for whom he was the principal song-writer. His musical favourites are The Pixies, Ani de Franco and New Model Army, and, while he is not playing with a band at present, he is happy to jam with anyone at a moment's notice. |
|
Colin [UK] Heard on A 9,B 4, B 15 |
Colin describes himself as ‘an ageing mathematician’. He started playing acoustic guitar on hearing the first Bert Jansch album around 1966. So did about 300,000 other people. He was in a trio called Trochanter featuring electric guitar and 'cello while doing Maths at Exeter University in the early 70s, and has never really stopped playing, most recently with Roland Clare on various projects, and with his son Tom on bass and daughter Rose on fiddle and vocal. A Martin D28 has served him well over the decades, but since May 2002 his life has been enhanced by a hand-built wonder from luthiers Brook in deepest, darkest Devon. He currently lives on a hill near Stroud, and amuses himself by copying tunes by Michael Chapman, Steve Tilston, Martin Simpson, John Renbourne, and concocting one or two himself when the mood strikes. He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, tracks A 17 and B 16. |
|
Rose [UK] Heard on B 15 |
Rose was born in 1982 and is studying English at Cambridge University, where she is a Senior Choral Scholar at Emmanuel College, plays with the Emma college orchestra, and has appeared at May Balls in a duo with the harpist Lucy Fletcher. As a member of the Outlook Productions Drama Company she has toured to Bradford, Bristol and London. Next year she will be taking over the world, or paying back her debts: delete as appropriate. |
|
Joshua [UK] Heard on B 20 |
Joshua is a semi-pro drummer, who also dabbles in piano, guitar, and bass. He played trumpet with Alexis Korner at Glastonbury, drums on tour with Captain Sensible and Live Sex! Spiritual, he is the vehicle through whom the band Outcry found their name. |
|
Gilles [Belgium] Heard on A 11, B 10 |
Due to some time distortion, this lazy cat is still with 99% of his mind living in a far-away past era. Born in a time when computers had the size of a building and dinosaurs were still not aware of meteorite falls, he admits influences (some say 'plagiarism') from Deep Purple, Philip Glass, The Jacksons, Cold Chisel, Earth Wind & Fire, Tony Banks, Toto, Yes, Black Sabbath, Donna Summer, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream... But where's Procol Harum? |
|
Ken [USA] Heard on A 19 |
'I've been playing the guitar since I first heard Ricky Nelson do Hello Mary Lou, Goodbye Heart. I heard AWSoP when I was 12 and used to sing that and Homburg when I delivered newspapers. Procol has dominated my consciousness ever since. When Procol would play the Fillmore East, I would get tickets for both the early and late shows. At parties if Procol was on the stereo I would insist people quiet down and have a listen (terribly rude of me, really). All you Procol fans know what I'm talking about though.' Ken is the man behind the band Northern Sky, whose CD album is available from 'Beyond the Pale'. He is an electronic test engineer during the day, presently employed by a scientific testing firm, Radiodetection Corp. If it's got sub-atomic particles, Ken's your man! He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, track A 18. |
|
Gunnar [Norway] Heard on A 15 |
Gunnar (born 1952) lives in Sogndal, Norway, where he spends most of his time writing/playing music, since physical illness made him give up as a full-time journalist two years ago . He founded the band Compact in 1968, the name borrowed from the first organ in the band, a Farfisa Compact. A 1973 track by that band is available as a bonus track on the second Palers' Band CD, on which Gunnar may be heard on Hammond C3. Compact was joined in 1974 by Kåre Asbjørn, who is also heard on the present album. Both Gunnar and Kåre Asbjørn have been in various other groups – but since 1974 they have played in different bands together – and still do. They have joined on several records and TV and radio appearances – and Compact has backed a number of both Norwegian and foreign artists. |
|
Jorunn [Norway] Heard on A 15 |
Jorunn (28) was born in Sogndal, Norway, where she has been working in education. She has played the piano and sung since early childhood, and has taught many young people to play the organ. Formerly a music teacher at the Yamaha Music School, she currently works in the retail trade. |
|
Hans [Netherlands] Heard on A 5, B 5 |
Hans was born in the Hague in 1949, and works there as a financial/assurance broker. He didn't play in bands, 'because I hated to do what others liked'. He started composing his own songs in the early 70s, inspired by groups such as the Beatles, the Moody Blues, Pink Floyd and of course Procol Harum. His first Procol album was Shine On Brightly, and he became a fan immediately upon buying it in 1968. Nonetheless his happiest musical memory is a Pink Floyd concert in Rotterdam in 1994. He plays piano, keyboards and acoustic guitar, and he likes to do harmony vocals. In 1998 he made a CD (Amorta: reviewed at 'Beyond the Pale') with one of the best guitarists in Holland Rob (Winston) van der Zwan (a studio musician in Wisseloord / Hilversum for Mouth and McNeal (Eurovision 1974)) among others. Hans is now working with Guus Laatsch. |
|
Laurita [Italy] Heard on B 15 |
Laurita was born near Milan in 1957 and works as a midwife in Novara, Italy. She is a lyricist for CDs (example here) and also writes text for movies. |
|
Jack [USA] Heard on A 12 |
Jack Vees was born in Camden, New Jersey in 1955. His work as a composer and bassist is widely regarded as one of the more potent and successful blendings of pop and classical (unpop) music. His early skill as a bass guitarist (he was playing professionally at the age of fourteen) led him into a wide range of arenas in many genres. He has an unusual pedigree, having studied composition with such luminaries as Louis Andriessen and electronic music pioneer, Morton Subotnick, while at the same time playing with some of the more outlandish groups in LA. His own ensemble, Chez Vees, has gained international notoriety for vibrant and engaging performances, as evidenced on Surf Music Again (CRI Emergency Music). His recent CD, The Restaurant Behind the Pier (Recommended Records) is unique in that it comprises entirely pieces for solo (sometimes overdubbed) bass guitar, his own work along with pieces which have been influential to his vision. By day, he is the co-director of the Center for Studies in Music Technology at Yale University. His mastery of extended techniques on the bass led him to write The Book on Bass Harmonics (Alfred Music Publishers, 1981) which has become a standard reference on the subject. As for his exposure to Procol Harum, he says, 'My very first experience going to a rock concert was when I was about 13 or 14. There was a group of four or five of us who were beginning to get the music bug. We were too young to drive ourselves, so one of our fathers took us and even went in to the concert with us. At this first concert, Procol was the second of three acts, and I don't think I had any clue as to who they were or what their music was like. All I remember is that the very first sound that came from the stage immediately grabbed my attention and I stood transfixed till the end of their set, and to some degree, remain so even today.' |
|
Elleanore Wallace [Australia] Heard on B 19 |
Elly was born in Melbourne in 1992 and is currently a pupil at Foxhills Elementary School in Ashurst, New Forest. Her favourite music includes Atomic Kitten and Destiny's Child, and previous work includes performing as one of ten finalists at the Songwriters' Competition at the Mt Dandenong Folk Festival in April 2002. She recorded a vocal for Holding On on the third Palers' Band CD, and nearly flew to Manchester to perform it, but couldn't get a plane out of Melbourne at the last minute. She saw Procol Harum for the first time at Croydon in May 2002, having seen Gary Brooker perform with the Ultimate Rock Symphony in February 2000. She has also seen him play in his barn, but tells no stories of this. Elly has dreams of being a wealthy wife who has enough money to buy all the label clothes she desires. |
|
Stephen [Australia] Heard on A 2,A 10, A 18, B 2, B 12, B 19 |
Stephen 'Doc' Wallace comes from Australia and is an academic currently at Bournemouth University in the UK. He has used Procol Harum music in a number of ways, not least in an 1971 film entitled Whaling Stories. He's the veteran of many rock bands in the Melbourne area, one of which was called 'Trinity' who used to open each set with a version of Conquistador and included Bringing Home the Bacon on which he sang and played drums. Another, 'Bent Covers', made a brief career out of playing classic rock numbers in perverse and unimaginable versions. He has composed a number of musicals, the latest being 'Emergence': Act I was entitled 'Procol Harum', Act II 'Home', Act III 'Exotic Birds and Fruit' ... . He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, tracks A 20 and B 19 |
|
Chris [USA] Heard on A 19 |
Chris is 44 and was born and raised in New City, NY. He now resides with his wife in Chester, NY near Bethel, site of Woodstock. He grew up on the drumming of the Allman Brothers and Cream, but is a huge admirer of BJ Wilson and the Procol pathos. Chris works as an auto-mechanic during the day, presently employed by a General Motors franchise. If it's got wheels, Chris is your man! He may also be heard on From Shadow to Shadow, track A 18. |
|
Amelia [Italy] Heard on B 8 |
Amelia Lamacchia Wisloch (born 1960) came from Matera in Southern Italy – where
she grew up with Senza Luce instead of A Whiter Shade of Pale!
She studied English Literature at the University of Bari, later moving to
England where she brought up a family, and made a living in Information Technology. Her favourite writer
was the Turkish militant poet, Nazim Hikmet. |
|
Sophie de York [Belgium] Heard on A 11 |
Sophie lives in Belgium and was born the very same moment as her twin sister Zou, summer of 1986, which means during the war between Simple Minds / U2 / Cure / Prince (guess who won? show bizness, of course). Sophie is a violin player, actress and lyric writer; her musical influences are around Bon Jovi, Brian Adams, The Corrs. As a contributor to the band 'Awaken' she was involved in the shortest song they ever wrote. On the present CD she doesn't act, nor play any instrument, but sings softly ghostly harmonies. |
|
Zoé de York [Belgium] Heard on A 11 |
Zou is the twin sister of Sophie, and is a guitar player and songwriter. She has played with the 'Awaken' thing since the start of 2002, and is known to be responsible for the web-only mp3 single One Wild War. On her own, along with her twin sister and Greg Revel (see above), she recorded a promising début song, All You Got, available online (find the link on the 'Awaken' website). She is influenced by Genesis, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Philippe Lafontaine ... |
