BY MIKE METTLER – MARCH 16, 2018

Esoteric Recordings has announced an official limited-edition super-deluxe 8-disc box set celebrating 50 years of Procol Harum. Titled Still There’ll Be More: An Anthology 1967-2017, the box set is earmarked for release on March 23, 2018, and comprises five CDs and three DVDs.

The SoundBard was privileged to have interviewed Procol Harum keyboardist/vocalist Gary Brooker on March 29, 2017, and I asked him about their work hitting the half-century mark. “I don’t think anybody has recorded something or written something and then thought, ‘Wow, this is still going to be big in 50 years!’” Brooker observed. “I don’t think Frank Sinatra even thought that with ‘Strangers in the Night’ [in 1966]. Or probably Paul McCartney, with ‘Yesterday’ [in 1965, from The Beatles’ Help! album]. Now, I’m not saying these are direct comparisons — just as the length for how something lasts. I don’t think you conceive of that, in terms of that amount of time.”

Brooker and I also spoke about the ongoing impact of “A Whiter Shade of Pale” and the band’s fine 2017 studio release Novum, and you can read the full interview here.

The first three discs of the Still There’ll Be More collection draw upon the key tracks from Procol Harum’s illustrious career. Disc 4 features the band’s legendary concert at the Hollywood Bowl on September 21, 1973 (with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Roger Wagner Chorale), while Disc 5 features a previously unreleased concert at the Bournemouth Winter Gardens on March 17, 1976.

The NTSC (Region Free) DVD content features over 3½ hours of footage, mostly of it previously unreleased. Disc 6 begins with a performance of “A Whiter Shade of Pale” on the BBC TV show Top of the Pops from December 1967, before moving to the archives of the German Beat Club series.

All of the band’s surviving performances for the latter show are here, including the entire never-broadcast raw video footage of the band’s Beat Club Workshop studio concert from 1971, shorn of the visual gimmickry of the actual broadcast to reveal the pure performance on DVD for the first time.

Disc 7 features the entire 65-minute recording session of a performance for the German Musikladen series in October 1973, most of which was never shown on television. Disc 8 features more BBC TV performances, including a rendition of “Pandora’s Box” from Top of the Pops in September 1975, and the band’s set for the Sight and Sound In Concert series in March 1977.

Procol Harum, 2017 version. Gary Brooker, front and center.

This box set also features a 68-page hard-backed book with an essay by Patrick Humphries and a lengthy, in-depth commentary on the performances featured by respected Procol Harum authority Roland Clare. The book also includes many previously unseen photographs and memorabilia from Gary Brooker’s private collection.

Finally, Still There’ll Be More also includes a replica poster from a 1976 Procol Harum concert, featuring support from Vivian Stanshall (as seen in the photo of the full box-set array that’s at the very top of this story).

PROCOL HARUM: STILL THERE’LL BE MORE – AN ANTHOLOGY: 1967-2017
TRACK LISTING

DISC TWO

1.        SIMPLE SISTER

2.        BROKEN BARRICADES

3.        LUSKUS DELPH

4.        MEMORIAL DRIVE

TAKEN FROM THE ALBUM “BROKEN BARRICADES”  RELEASED IN JULY 1971

5.        CONQUISTADOR

6.        IN HELD ‘TWAS IN I

COMPRISING:

GLIMPSES OF NIRVANA

‘TWAS TEA TIME AT THE CIRCUS

IN THE AUTUMN OF MY MADNESS

LOOK TO YOUR SOUL / GRAND FINALE

TAKEN FROM THE ALBUM “LIVE IN CONCERT WITH THE EDMONTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA” RELEASED IN APRIL 1972

7.        GRAND HOTEL

8.        ROBERT’S BOX

9.        FOR LIQUORICE JOHN

10.      SOUVENIR OF LONDON

11.      FIRES (WHICH BURNT BRIGHTLY)

TAKEN FROM THE ALBUM “GRAND HOTEL” – RELEASED IN MARCH 1973

12.      NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

13.      THE IDOL

14.      THE THIN END OF THE WEDGE

TAKEN FROM THE ALBUM “EXOTIC BIRDS AND FRUIT” RELEASED IN APRIL 1974

DISC THREE

1.        BEYOND THE PALE

2.        AS STRONG AS SAMSON

TAKEN FROM THE ALBUM “EXOTIC BIRDS AND FRUIT” – RELEASED IN APRIL 1974

3.        PANDORA’S BOX

4.        THE UNQUIET ZONE

5.        FOOL’S GOLD

6.        TYPEWRITER TORMENT

TAKEN FROM THE ALBUM “PROCOL’S NINTH” – RELEASED IN SEPTEMBER 1975

7.        SOMETHING MAGIC

8.        SKATING ON THIN ICE

9.        STRANGERS IN SPACE

TAKEN FROM THE ALBUM “SOMETHING MAGIC” – RELEASED IN MARCH 1977

10.      PERPETUAL MOTION

11.      HOLDING ON

TAKEN FROM THE ALBUM “THE PRODIGAL STRANGER” RELEASED IN AUGUST 1991

12.      AN OLD ENGLISH DREAM

13.      THIS WORLD IS RICH (FOR STEPHEN MABOE)

14.      THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES

TAKEN FROM THE ALBUM “THE WELL’S ON FIRE” – RELEASED IN MARCH 2003

15.      CAN’T SAY THAT

16.      THE ONLY ONE

TAKEN FROM THE ALBUM “NOVUM”

RELEASED IN APRIL 2017

DISC FOUR

LIVE AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL with THE LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA & THE ROGER WAGNER CHORALE

RECORDED 21^st SEPTEMBER 1973

1.        SANCTUS

2.        BROKEN BARRICADES

3.        SIMPLE SISTER

4.        A CHRISTMAS CAMEL

5.        TOUJOURS L’AMOUR

6.        GRAND HOTEL

7.        FIRES (WHICH BURNT BRIGHTLY)

8.        A SALTY DOG

9.        CONQUISTADOR

10.      GRAND FINALE

11.      TV CEASAR / RULE BRITANNIA

DISC FIVE

LIVE AT BOURNEMOUTH WINTER GARDENS

17^th MARCH 1976

1.        THE UNQUIET ZONE

2.        BEYOND THE PALE

3.        WHALING STORIES

4.        ALL THIS AND MORE

5.        A SALTY DOG

6.        I KEEP FORGETTING

7.        THE BLUE DANUBE

8.        I CAN’T HELP MYSELF (SUGAR PIE, HONEY BUNCH) / NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

9.        A WHITER SHADE OF PALE

DISC SIX: DVD

1.        A WHITER SHADE OF PALE

“TOP OF THE POPS” – BBC TV 26^th DECEMBER 1967

2.        HOMBURG

“BEAT CLUB” – GERMAN TV 30^th DECEMBER 1967

3.        QUITE RIGHTLY SO

“BEAT CLUB” – RADIO BREMEN GERMAN TV

22^nd JUNE 1968

4.        A SALTY DOG

“BEAT CLUB” – RADIO BREMEN GERMAN TV

28^th JUNE 1969

5.        THE DEVIL CAME FROM KANSAS

6.        LONG GONE GEEK

“BEAT CLUB” – RADIO BREMEN GERMAN TV

30^th AUGUST 1969

7.        SHINE ON BRIGHTLY

8.        IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS OF SIXPENCE

9.        STILL THERE’LL BE MORE

10.      PILGRIM’S PROGRESS

11.      QUITE RIGHTLY SO

12.      MAGDALENE MY REGAL ZONOPHONE

13.      POWER FAILURE

14.      A SALTY DOG

15.      SIMPLE SISTER

16.      IN THE AUTUMN OF MY MADNESS

17.      LOOK TO YOUR SOUL

18.      GRAND FINALE

COMPLETE RECORDING SESSION FOR “BEAT CLUB WORKSHOP” – RADIO BREMEN GERMAN TV

27^th DECEMBER 1971

DISC SEVEN: DVD

1.        DRUNK AGAIN

2.        GRAND HOTEL

3.        CONQUISTADOR

4.        BRINGING HOME THE BACON

5.        TOO MUCH BETWEEN US

6.        TOUJOURS L’AMOUR

7.        WHALING STORIES

8.        FIRES (WHICH BURNT BRIGHTLY)

9.        KALEIDOSCOPE

COMPLETE RECORDING SESSION FOR “MUSIKLADEN” RADIO BREMEN GERMAN TV – 25^th OCTOBER 1973

DISC EIGHT: DVD

1.        PANDORA’S BOX

“TOP OF THE POPS” BBC TV –

4^th SEPTEMBER 1975

2.        SOMETHING MAGIC

3.        CONQUISTADOR

4.        NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

5.        STRANGERS IN SPACE

6.        GRAND HOTEL

7.        PANDORA’S BOX

8.        SKATING ON THIN ICE

9.        THE MARK OF THE CLAW

10.      WIZARD MAN

11.      THIS OLD DOG

12.      A WHITER SHADE OF PALE

“SIGHT & SOUND IN CONCERT” –

BBC TV RECORDED AT THE HIPPODROME,

GOLDERS GREEN, LONDON 12^th MARCH 1977