“To keep a standard up so long is an achievement. This album crowns that. Now people can play something other than A Whiter Shade Of Pale!” Procol Harum didn’t expect 50th anniversary album Novum to be their last
In 2017 Procol Harum released their 12th album, Novum. Marking the band’s 50th anniversary, it proved to be their final studio release – but when vocalist Gary Brooker (1945-2022) and new-recruit lyricist Pete Brown (1940-2023) spoke to Prog, the idea of stopping was the last thing on their minds.
When Gary Brooker reappeared for the second half of Procol Harum’s recent Royal Festival Hall show, bandaged but unbowed after a stumble, it was almost a metaphor for the defiant way in which the frontman will not let the band’s legacy fade gently into the night. Barely referring to his injuries beyond a characteristically jokey, absent-minded, “Got a bit of a broken hand and a broken head,” he led the group to the show’s invigorating completion.
Now, as the latter-day line-up of this always-undervalued institution releases the excellent Novum – their first album for 14 years – the soon-to- be-72-year-old knows it’s a record fit to refresh a noble legacy.
“The only reason I would go on stage with Procol Harum, or make a record as Procol Harum, is because I think we’ve always had a bit of dignity in there; certain standards of music,” Brooker says. “I think with this new one, we’ve really focused quite well on the fact that it’s a band playing – which is what it is.”
Novum makes its striking entrance as the Procol marque approaches the 50th anniversary of its unforgettable debut, when A Whiter Shade Of Pale shone like the sun illuminating 1967’s summer of love. That was immediately followed by their self-titled debut album, a full introduction to the group’s unique synthesis of art rock invention, classical rigour, R&B schooling and sheer pop dexterity.
The new release is a skilled refurbishment of that framework, down to a glance at the original sleeve in Julia Brown’s cover art. “Life’s a lot different when you’ve got a new product out,” says Brooker. “We’ve got a good repertoire, which we rely on, and we move it all around and change things, but to have some new stuff… We’ve been very pleased with the way it came out, because we’ve not actually made a record with this line-up. Suddenly we thought, or I thought, ‘If we’ve been going 50 years, it’s time to make some sort of effort.’”
In this true collective, Novum has the bandleader co-writing at times with Hammond organ and Yamaha Montage keyboard marvel Josh Phillips and longtime guitar totem Geoff Whitehorn. Matt Pegg’s bass and Geoff Dunn’s drums stylishly underpin the entire construction. What’s absent, for the first time, is the singular imagery of lyricist, and time-honoured “non-playing member” Keith Reid; but that’s where Procol’s new secret weapon is deployed.
I didn’t know what Keith Reid was on about anyway. But I could make it believable
Gary Brooker
All but two of the 11 new songs have words by Pete Brown, the treasured penman, poet and musician forever best-known as the lyrical foil for the late Jack Bruce, both in Cream and over the ensuing 45 years. As second marriages go, this one was simply meant to be.
Remarking simply that Reid “kind of came to some crossroads and went a different way,” Brooker says of Brown: “I bumped into him on different occasions, made a record he produced as a tribute to John Lee Hooker, saw him at Jack’s funeral, of course, and a couple of other occasions. We just got to talking about two or three years ago.”
Brown takes up the story: “It was via Dennis Weinreich, the producer, who’s friends with Chris Cooke, Procol’s manager. Between the two of them, after Keith was out of the scene, they plotted to get me involved in it. I’ve always had a lot of respect for Gary; I think he’s one of the great singers and he’s got that archetypal British R&B feel, which I love.
“It’s a weird thing – I’m not really a songwriter for hire; that’s not my thing. I will get involved in projects which interest me creatively or musically. I don’t like a whole lot of lyricists. It just so happens that I always did like what Keith did. Songs like Homburg are very fine pieces of work.”
There was a fleeting connection between the two wordsmiths when Bruce made 1982’s Truce album with Robin Trower, for which Reid and Brown each wrote half of the lyrics. “That was a nice experience,” Brown says. “Not to say that I got to meet Keith that much, but I was aware of his work and I’m very respectful of it. It was a daunting prospect in a way, stepping into those shoes, but my methods are completely different. Keith would send stuff to Gary, and that would be it – he was like Bernie Taupin.”
People went to each other’s gigs… they were interested to see what was going on, and it wasn’t rivalry or jealousy
Pete Brown
Brooker is as droll as ever in recalling the relationship with Reid. “I didn’t usually change anything, but I didn’t know what he was on about anyway,” he deadpans. “But I could make it believable. There was always an atmosphere there, and some nice lines.
“I never questioned it at all, and I never found it odd, like some other people did, even with A Whiter Shade Of Pale. ‘What’s that’s about?’ ‘Well, don’t you know? Just imagine and think; listen to the lines.’ A lot of Reid’s ones ended up where you could think whatever you want, A Salty Dog or whatever. You can imagine it’s at sea, at least.”
While Procol were setting sail, Cream were defining the power trio, often with the essential adornment of Brown’s unforgettable words. Homburg was in the Top 10 the same week that Disraeli Gears arrived in the UK album bestsellers. In that less competitive era, such groups were friends and neighbours.
Brown recalls: “I went to the first Procol Harum gig at UFO, which I remember being pretty good, actually. Because it was a smaller scene, it had elements of community. People went to each other’s gigs a lot – people were interested to see what was going on, and it wasn’t rivalry or jealousy. No one was trying to cut anyone.”
The recent Festival Hall show was all the more of an occasion because of its arrangements of their Procol classics for orchestra and choir. It’s a device that, as Brooker is proud to point out, they’ve used longer than anyone, and the history includes another example of that old-school inquisitiveness Brown refers to.
I know we can come up with ideas between us… there’s no reason not to go in and do more
Gary Brooker
“It’s always been something we’re very capable of,” Brooker says of the orchestral dimension, “and the music we play lends itself to that. It’s never been a battle of rock and classics; it’s something that works together. We were the first – I know this as fact. We did it in 1969, probably the early summer, at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Ontario. we used their orchestra and all their actors were in the choir. We didn’t do very much – we did In Held ’Twas In I, A Salty Dog; I think that was it. That led to getting to play at Edmonton.
“When I came home from that, Deep Purple were on at the Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic. So we in fact played before they did. Theirs was very much a battle between heavy rock and an orchestra.”
Musing on the significance of Procol’s fusion, he says: “That was a progressive thought, of course, but the word didn’t exist then. Well, it did, but not in regard to music. You were always trying to write and record things which seemed to be progressive, rather than… what’s the opposite? Retro, I suppose. Always trying to do something different, forward-thinking.”
It’s always exhilarating to see a venerable band with new momentum; and 50 years on, Procol Harum’s momentum is palpable. “To keep a standard up that amount of time – which, although a lot of British people don’t know it, we have done – is an achievement in itself,” Brooker says. “I think the new album crowns that, so they can play something other than Whiter Shade Of Pale. Which still sounds good!”
Even better for loyal devotees and newcomers, they’re already thinking about the next one. “You’ve got to get into the rhythm of it, not lie around for five years now,” Brooker muses. “I know we can come up with ideas between us, so there’s no reason not to go in and do some more. Why not? You’re fresh off the road, you’ve all been working together and it should flow smoothly.
“This new one is one where every song’s worth a listen, and it’ll be your favourite in 10 years’ time. Be a bit old by then…”