Procol Harum already had some experience with orchestral performance by the time Live in Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra was recorded (in
Alberta
, , November 1971) and this experience no doubt helped them to make what was a landmark in the notoriously tricky area of rock-classical fusion.
The fact that they had a full symphony orchestra and choir as their ‘backing band’ meant that already symphonic songs like A Salty Dog, Whaling Stories and In Held ’Twas in I now came even more spectacularly alive. “It’s like seeing something on an eight-millimetre film and then suddenly seeing it on seventy-millimetre Panavision with stereo...” Gary Brooker reflected proudly at the time.
While contemporaries like Pink Floyd, Yes, and Emerson Lake & Palmer were still limbering up, Procol really pushed the envelope with their Live album. And their efforts did not go unrewarded... ‘Of all the rock-orchestral fusions this one really does work. A very complete and highly talented album which should help dispel this group’s image of the 1967 one-hit wonders,’ wrote Disc. ‘One of the finest pieces of music released this year...’ opined NME.
The Live album gave Procol a surprise hit with Conquistador – one of the very first Brooker and Reid collaborations. To cash in on this Top 20 success, Procol’s American label rushed out The Best Of..., a competent, eleven-track compilation which was of interest at the time for rounding up some notable ‘B’-sides – Lime Street Blues, In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence, and Long Gone Geek – that were previously unavailable on albums.
Later that same year, buoyed by their collaboration with the ESO, Procol played a well-received gig at
London
’s Rainbow Theatre with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and London Chorale (‘Tickets £1.50, £1.25, £1.75p’). But one gig was never enough... Back then, to keep your name in the public eye you had to go out and tour – and keep on touring. Like so many years, much of 1972 was spent on the road; but the band already had their minds on another project, which still ranks very high in the Procol pantheon... the very wonderful Grand Hotel…
