Gary Brooker

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music
There is an interesting divide in the reviews here…some think masterpiece, some fairly unenthused. I think this is Procol Harum’s best album.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive-rock music.
The Moody Blues "Days of future passed" represents one of the earliest collaborations between band and orchestra. Deep Purple's "Concerto…" also offers an early example of a live album involving both.

Reissue of 3 CD box set that includes "Procol Harum", "Shine On Brightly", "A Salty Dog" & "Home" two on one full lengths. Disc 3 is a 17 track collection of rare A & B side single mixes, outtakes & alternate takes.

The Prodigal Stranger is the tenth studio album by Procol Harum, released in 1991. The album is dedicated to the memory of Barrie James (B. J.) Wilson, who had been the drummer on all of the group's previous albums. Recorded after a 14-year break, even singer Gary Brooker was uncertain whether or not the sessions would work out for the band: "We never knew if it would work out, but we did know one thing and that was that the basis of us making the new Procol Harum record would be if we could get together a good set of songs…it was very like making a first album."

The Band Du Lac is Gary Brooker's brainchild. A random collection of concerned musicians and celebrities both past and present, these good-natured guys and gals get together under the famous keyboardist's tutelage for various charitable events, playing before black-tie crowds in hopes of coercing a few extra pounds out of their pockets.

Fifty years after "Whiter Shade of Pale" introduced the concept of progressive rock, Procol Harum roll on, even with singer and pianist Gary Brooker as the only remaining original member. Novum is their first new studio album in 14 years. Their last, 2003's The Well's on Fire, marked the end of the decades-long writing partnership between Brooker and lyricist Keith Reid. Organist Matthew Fisher and drummer Mark Brzezicki left shortly thereafter. Brooker still had guitarist Geoff Whitehorn and bassist Matt Pegg. They recruited organist Josh Phillips and drummer Greg Dunn. This version has been together for a decade.
Novum is a worthy 50th anniversary offering (though it's not, as Brooker claims, Procol's finest). This is the sound of a working band, not a tired reunion project…