Procol Harum lead singer Gary Brooker has died aged 76.
The rocker, who was known for singing and co-writing the hit song A Whiter Shade of Pale, passed away on February 19 after being diagnosed with cancer.
A statement posted on the band’s website on Tuesday confirmed Gary had been receiving treatment but died peacefully at home.
Sad news: Procol Harum lead singer Gary Brooker has died aged 76 (pictured with his wife Francoise at their home in Surrey)
It read: ‘With the deepest regret we must announce the death on 19 February 2022 of Gary Brooker MBE, singer, pianist and composer of Procol Harum, and a brightly-shining, irreplaceable light in the music industry.
‘Aged 76, he had been receiving treatment for cancer, but died peacefully at home.’
‘He lit up any room he entered, and his kindness to a multilingual family of fans was legendary.
‘He was notable for his individuality, integrity, and occasionally stubborn eccentricity. His mordant wit, and appetite for the ridiculous, made him a priceless raconteur (and his surreal inter-song banter made a fascinating contrast with the gravitas of Procol Harum’s performances).’
Heyday: The rocker, who was known for singing and co-writing the hit song A Whiter Shade of Pale, passed away on February 19 after being diagnosed with cancer (pictured with the band)
They continued: ‘His first single with Procol Harum, 1967’s A Whiter Shade of Pale, is widely regarded as defining The Summer of Love, yet it could scarcely have been more different from the characteristic records of that era.
‘Nor was it characteristic of his own writing. Over 13 albums, Procol Harum never sought to replicate it, preferring to forge a restlessly progressive path, committed to looking forward, and making each record a ‘unique entertainment’.
‘Gary’s voice and piano were the single defining constant of Procol’s fifty-year international concert career. Without any stage antics or other gimmicks he was invariably the most watchable musician in the show (he played several other instruments in the studio).’
He had married Françoise Riedo, a Swiss au pair affectionately known as Franky in 1968 after meeting three years earlier. They didn’t have any children.
Tragic: A statement posted on the band’s website on Tuesday confirmed that Gary had been receiving treatment but died peacefully at home (pictured L-R Dave Knights, Mathew Celestial-Smith, Robin Trower,Barrie James Wilson and Gary)
It read: ‘With the deepest regret we must announce the death on 19 February 2022 of Gary Brooker MBE, singer, pianist and composer of Procol Harum’
The late rock star was born in Hackney, where he spent the first nine years of his life before his family uprooted to Southend-On-Sea in Essex.
The frontman initially studied zoology at Southend Municipal College before deciding music was the route he wanted to take.
During the Queen’s Birthday honours on 14 June 2003, Gary was appointed an MBE in recognition of his charitable services.
Icon: The late rock star was born in Hackney, where he spent the first nine years of his life before his family uprooted to Southend-On-Sea in Essex (pictured July 2014)
Memories: The frontman initially studied zoology at Southend Municipal College before deciding music was the route he wanted to take
Before his successful career with Procol Harum, Gary founded the band The Paramounts in 1962, who bagged a hit single with their cover version of Poison Ivy.
In 1966, he founded Procol Harum with his friend Keith Reid – a year before releasing A Whiter Shade of Pale.
Eric Clapton, Sir Ringo Starr, and Bill Wyman are just several of the musicians he worked with during his time on the music scene.
Legacy: Before his successful career with Procol Harum, Gary founded the band The Paramounts in 1962, who bagged a hit single with their cover version of Poison Ivy (pictured 2004)
Twitter was awash with tributes for the rock icon, with heartfelt messages pouring in from fans and musicians alike.
Singer-songwriter Wes Stacey shared a photo of Gary at a piano, accompanying it with the message: ‘RIP. What a voice. I went to see PH every single time I could and I’m so glad I did.’
Others honoured him by branding him ‘one of the very best’ and sharing their favourite songs he was the genius behind.
RIP: Twitter was awash with tributes for the rock icon, with heartfelt messages pouring in from fans and musicians alike
A Whiter Shade Of Pale was Procol Harum’s debut single in 1967 and it stayed at number one for six weeks.
It is one of the most commercially successful singles in history, having sold over 10 million copies worldwide.
While Gary and Matthew composed the classic, Keith drew inspiration for the lyrics from a party.
He overheard someone saying to a woman, ‘You’ve turned a whiter shade of pale’, and the phrase stuck in his mind.
The song has been interpreted many ways, quoted by Claes Johansen in his book as dealing ‘in metaphorical form with a male/female relationship which after some negotiation ends in a sexual act.’
Others have simply observed the lyrics as concerning a sexual relationship.
However, Keith himself provided a contrasting narrative, telling Uncut magazine in 2008: ‘I was trying to conjure a mood as much as tell a straightforward, girl-leaves-boy story. With the ceiling flying away and room humming harder, I wanted to paint an image of a scene.
I wasn’t trying to be mysterious with those images, I was trying to be evocative. I suppose it seems like a decadent scene I’m describing. But I was too young to have experienced any decadence, then. I might have been smoking when I conceived it, but not when I wrote. It was influenced by books, not drugs.’
The lyrics sparked much debate, not just among fans but critics, particularly as its release fell during what is remembered as The Summer Of Love.
A social phenomenon that saw mostly young people sporting hippie fashions of dress and behaviour, 1967’s The Summer Of Love encapsulated the hippie music, hallucinogenic drugs, anti-war, and free-love scene throughout the West Coast of the US – and even as far as New York.
In 2014, Gary told how Johann Sebastian Bach inspired his composition for the track.
‘If you trace the chordal element, it does a bar or two of Bach’s Air on a G String before it veers off. That spark was all it took. I wasn’t consciously combining rock with classical, it’s just that Bach’s music was in me,’ he told Uncut Magazine.
The track has been covered by the likes of Annie Lennox and Billy Joel.
Hit: A Whiter Shade Of Pale was Procol Harum’s debut single in 1967 and it stayed at number one for six weeks
