GARY BROOKER ON
THE DEMO THAT GOT THE DEAL
FOR PROCOL HARUM
So sad to hear that we lost Gary RIP Saturday February 26, 2022, today.
Here's my Demo That Got The deal interview with him, Thank You again, Carol for the interview, Steve Gilligan for the backing music, Kenny Selcer for the editing and Kimberley Jaeger for the recording. Kimberley RIP Oct 11, 2021 in Jamaica.
Former WZLX Common Ground hostess, Kimberley Jaeger, got her job when I pitched her as a guest to P.D. Beau Raines. Rumor has it that Beau called Kimberley his "best hire of the year."
Jaeger was mentioned on an MSNBC online post regarding her political activities with the school system in South Hamilton, Ma. I sent the post to Raines noting that his friend Kimberley (she worked with P.D. Raines at WROR before he went to WXLX) would be a perfect Common Ground guest. With CG hostess Anne Cody purportedly out on maternity leave, Raines hired Jaeger to host the iconic Sunday morning quasi-news program.
Kimberley engineered my interviews with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull and Gary Brooker of Procol Harum. Jaeger passed away in Jamaica in October of 2021. We thank her for capturing these important music discussions remotely from her office in South Hamilton.
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Subject: Fw: Gary Brooker Demo that Got the Deal https://www.justabuzz.com/image.shtml?images/ih-r-dtgtd.jpg
Joe Viglione Speaks with Gary Brooker, lead singer/writer/keyboard for Procol Harum
https://www.justabuzz.com/image.shtml?images/ih-r-dtgtd.jpg 7:33 pm transcribing Brooker interview
2 minutes twenty-seven seconds from the full interview
JV: Gary, we do something called The Demo That Got The Deal
GB: The Demo That Got The Deal?
JV:Yes. And, of course, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was on a demo tape before it was released, correct?
GB: Yes...as far as we can remember, it was!
JV:My question is, did you record a few songs during those sessions?
GB:I
think we had more than one song that we made a demo of. And we were
playing round to people. I mean the strange thing is, there was
"Conquistador" and "Salad Days (Are Here Again)"
JV:Was Guy Stevens, the producer, involved?
GB: In the demo? Most definitely
JV: Oh, he was! Because I used to work with the late Jimmy Miller
GB: Yes, they were good friends
JV: Right. And Jimmy was A & R at Island, he told me that he brought the tape to Chris Blackwell, "A Whiter Shade of Pale."
GB: That's correct.
JV:
What Chris said to him was that it's a huge monster or he felt it
wouldn't do anything at all, there was no in-between with it.
GB:
I remember that vaguely now that you mention it and we were very
disappointed because we liked the way that Chris Blackwell operated. And
we were quite disappointed that Island passed on it.
JV: I was wondering what would have happened if history had changed and the band signed with Island instead of with Deram
GB:
Well, you know there were other people in the picture as well. We, in
fact, did play it to George Martin. So that would have been
probably with EMI. And, of course, it would have started our career
with EMI, a major label, and it would have had a lot of backing and
support for many years, you know? I mean, in the end we were only ever
with small independents. The best relationship we ever had I think,
actually, in those days was probably with A & M. With Jerry Moss
and Herb Alpert in California
JV: Sure, because I think the support in America was very strong for the band.
GB: Oh yeah, yeah We had tremendous support yeah, and A & M were, from our second album on , right behind us.
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