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Certificate of registration · pedigree cat

Five young men in 1967 clothes posed together in a black-and-white magazine photograph
The band in 1967, from the 29 July KRLA Beat. KRLA Beat · Public domain
Breed
Burmese
Colour
Blue
Sex
Male
Born
19 June 1964
Registered
14 October 1964
Prefix
Procul
Registered name
Procul Harun

Southend-on-Sea · Barnes · Edmonton · the House of Lords

Procol Harum

The band is named after a blue Burmese cat it never met, and spelt its name wrong. Forty years on, its biggest record went to three courts over another name.

Southend-on-Sea · 1961 to 1963

A contest at the Palace Hotel.
A cellar on the seafront.

A black-and-white view down to the long pier stretching out into the estuary
Southend Pier from Pier Hill in 1965, the Paramounts’ town. gary faux · CC BY-SA 2.0
A large Edwardian hotel with a long balconied front above a road
The Palace Hotel on the cliff above Southend seafront, 2010. Phillip Perry · CC BY-SA 2.0

The Palace Hotel, Southend-on-Sea · Church Road, on the cliff above the pier

The Paramounts formed after a band contest at the Palace Hotel Dance Hall, won by Micky Law and The Outlaws; Peter Martin, who ran it, put the group together and managed them.

They were still at school. Their Sunday residency, later Wednesdays too, was the Shades, a cellar club under the Penguin Café on the seafront, opened late in 1961.

The hotel still stands at the top of Pier Hill; the old dance hall is not a public room. The Shades, on the seafront below, has gone.

Supporting documents

Their first single, a cover of Poison Ivy, came out in December 1963. Gary Brooker, Robin Trower and B. J. Wilson all went on to Procol Harum.

Abingdon · Olympia · Camden · Barnes · 1964 to 1967

The name came down a phone line.
Pass it on.

  1. P
  2. R
  3. O
  4. C
  5. U
  6. L
  8. H
  9. A
  10. R
  11. U
  12. N
  1. 1The cattery19 June 1964
  2. 2The cat showDecember 1964
  3. 3The telephoneearly 1967
  4. 4The page1967

The cattery, 19 June 1964: PROCUL HARUN. Born in Abingdon and registered under the Chapmans’ prefix, Procul.

A market square in front of a tall seventeenth-century stone hall on arches
Abingdon’s Market Place and old County Hall, 2017: the town, not the house. Robert Eva · CC BY-SA 2.0

19 June 1964

The Procul cattery, Abingdon · South Avenue, Abingdon, Oxfordshire

Eleonore Vogt-Chapman and her husband were among the first to breed Burmese cats in Britain, and gave all their cats the prefix Procul.

A blue Burmese male was born at their house in South Avenue, Abingdon, on 19 June 1964, and registered on 14 October 1964 as Procul Harun.

The band’s spelling, Procol Harum, is a misspelling of the cat’s name.

A private house on a residential street: named, never mapped or shown. The photograph is the town’s Market Place.

Supporting documents

The West End and Barnes · 1962 to 1967

Voices with no microphones.
Six weeks at number one.

The band posed in a wide black-and-white group photograph
Procol Harum in early 1968, from the April Hit Parader. Hit Parader (unknown photographer) · Public domain
The corner front of a West End theatre on a curving street
The Aldwych Theatre, 2014. MrsEllacott · CC BY-SA 3.0

The Aldwych Theatre · 49 Aldwych, Covent Garden

In 1962 Gary Brooker saw Langston Hughes’s The Black Nativity here.

The gospel singers sang without microphones, and the force of it stayed with him.

A working West End theatre: Sinatra The Musical is booking until 10 April 2027.

Supporting documents
A red-brick building with a cinema front on a suburban high street
Olympic Studios on Church Road, Barnes, now a cinema, 2015. Ewan Munro · CC BY-SA 2.0

Olympic Studios, Barnes · 117–123 Church Road, Barnes

Olympic’s studio here opened in early 1967, its first session the Swingle Singers; A Whiter Shade of Pale was among its first hits, produced by Denny Cordell.

The single came out at the end of May 1967.

The studio closed in 2009; the building reopened as a cinema in 2013.

A cinema again, with a bar and bistro open to all; the box office opens at 9am daily.

Supporting documents

It was number one in Britain for six weeks and reached number five in America.

Olympic Studios

Olympic Studios Barnes

117–123 Church Road, Barnes · Films daily · bar and bistro from 8.30am weekdays

The old studio is a cinema again, with a bar, bistro and members’ club. Box office from 9am daily.

See what’s on

Ontario and Alberta · 1969 and 1971

An orchestra and a chorus.
Then a symphony, taped from the lounge.

  • 2,700 seats, sold out twelve days ahead
  • 70 ft from the stage to the lounge
  • 16 tracks on Wally Heider’s machines
  • ½ hour before the show, the band’s gear arrives
The west entrance of a round modern theatre with a crown-like roof
The Festival Theatre, Stratford, Ontario, 2025: the festival’s main house, shown for the town. Chris Woodrich · CC BY-SA 4.0

Stratford Festival, Ontario · Stratford, Ontario

On 6 July 1969, at the festival’s invitation, they played A Salty Dog and the whole of In Held ’Twas in I with the Stratford Festival Orchestra under Lawrence Smith and the Festival Rock Chorus.

It is called the first documented concert by a rock band with a full orchestra and chorus playing its own arrangements.

Several Canadian papers, the Toronto Star and The Telegram among them, were dismissive.

The festival’s stages are in the town centre; the source does not say which one the band played, so none is pinned. The photograph is the Festival Theatre.

Supporting documents
A long modernist concert hall with a glass front and lawn
The Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton, 2009. WinterE229 / WinterforceMedia · Public domain

Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium · 11455 87 Avenue NW, Edmonton

On 18 November 1971 they played here with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra under Lawrence Leonard and the Da Camera Singers, amateurs free only in the evenings; the 2,700 seats sold out twelve days ahead.

The control room was improvised in the auditorium’s lounge, about seventy feet from the stage, with Wally Heider’s mobile 16-track machines: Heider recorded the orchestra, Ray Thompson the band, and Chris Thomas sat at the desk.

The album came out early in 1972; Conquistador went to number one in Canada, and the album to number five on the Billboard chart.

A working concert hall on the University of Alberta campus. Edmonton Opera’s Barber of Seville is on 5–7 November 2026.

Supporting documents

Its cover is by Bruce Meek, a Southend friend of Brooker and Wilson who had moved to Toronto.

Oxford Circus · 1972 and 1973

Grand Hotel, fourth floor.
A new head on an old body.

Six men in a 1973 group publicity photograph
1973, the Grand Hotel year. Chrysalis Records · Public domain
A large stone-and-glass corner department store lit at dusk
214 Oxford Street, the old Peter Robinson store at Oxford Circus, as IKEA in 2023. Matt Brown · CC BY 2.0

AIR Studios, Oxford Circus · 214 Oxford Street, fourth floor of the old Peter Robinson store

George Martin’s AIR opened here in October 1970, in an old banqueting hall on the fourth floor of the Peter Robinson store; it closed in 1991.

Grand Hotel sessions began here in 1972, before the early work was dropped and Mick Grabham took over from Dave Ball on guitar.

With no time to reshoot the band photographs, Grabham’s head was put on Ball’s body.

The studios have gone; the building at Oxford Circus is a shop, open to all. Piccadilly Circus is a ten-minute walk south.

Supporting documents

On his way here Brooker passed through Piccadilly Circus every day, and its buskers gave him A Souvenir of London.

The Strand and Westminster · 2006 to 2009

An organ in court 56.
Take the credit through three courts.

Credit as it stood

Music: Gary Brooker · Words: Keith Reid

  1. The record1967 to 2005
  2. The High Court20 December 2006
  3. The Court of Appeal2008
  4. The House of Lords30 July 2009

The record, 1967 to 2005: Music: Gary Brooker · Words: Keith Reid. No organist named.

Supporting documents
The Gothic stone front and towers of the law courts
The Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand, 2017. David Hillas · CC BY-SA 2.0

Royal Courts of Justice · Strand

In November 2006 Matthew Fisher played the organ solo bar by bar in court 56 here, on an organ set up in the courtroom.

Mr Justice Blackburne, who had studied music and law at Cambridge, heard six days of evidence.

His ruling on 20 December 2006 gave Fisher 40 per cent of the music’s share, back-dated only to May 2005, and called the organ solo a distinctive and significant contribution.

Open Monday to Friday, 9am to 4.30pm; everyone and every bag is searched at the door.

Supporting documents

Fisher’s barrister said he had waited 38 years because he did not know he was entitled.

In 2008 the Court of Appeal overturned the ruling for excessive delay.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand, London · Monday to Friday, 9am–4.30pm

Where Fisher played the solo bar by bar in court 56. Open on weekdays; bags are searched at the door.

Plan a visit

Westminster · 30 July 2009

Five Law Lords.
The name goes back on.

A gilded chamber with red leather benches and a throne canopy
The Lords Chamber, 2007. Herry Lawford · CC BY 2.0

On 30 July 2009 five Law Lords ruled unanimously for Fisher, restoring the 2006 verdict.

Baroness Hale said she was glad the author of that memorable organ part had at last been recognised. Fisher said the case had never been about money.

By then he was a graduate of the Cambridge Computer Laboratory.

The chamber is seen on Parliament’s own guided tours; check the Parliament website for dates.

Supporting documents

Where it is now

8 places you can visit, in London, Southend and Edmonton. The Abingdon cattery is a private house, so it is named but not on the map; the source does not say which Stratford stage the band played, so Stratford is not pinned either.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

  • Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Exhibition halls with public shows most weeks; buy tickets for the show, not the building. Kensington (Olympia) station is next door.

  • Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working West End theatre: Sinatra The Musical is booking until 10 April 2027.

  • Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A cinema again, with a bar and bistro open to all; the box office opens at 9am daily.

  • Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The studios have gone; the building at Oxford Circus is a shop, open to all. Piccadilly Circus is a ten-minute walk south.

  • Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. Open Monday to Friday, 9am to 4.30pm; everyone and every bag is searched at the door.

  • Building reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. The chamber is seen on Parliament’s own guided tours; check the Parliament website for dates.

  1. The tall arched front of a Victorian exhibition hall
    Olympia’s halls on Hammersmith Road, 2012. Laurence Mackman · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Hammersmith Road, Kensington

    Olympia

    The owner probably bought him at the National Cat Club show at Olympia in December 1964, for £10.

    Exhibition halls with public shows most weeks; buy tickets for the show, not the building. Kensington (Olympia) station is next door.

    Supporting documents
  2. The corner front of a West End theatre on a curving street
    The Aldwych Theatre, 2014. MrsEllacott · CC BY-SA 3.0

    49 Aldwych, Covent Garden

    The Aldwych Theatre

    In 1962 Gary Brooker saw Langston Hughes’s The Black Nativity here.

    A working West End theatre: Sinatra The Musical is booking until 10 April 2027.

    Supporting documents
  3. A red-brick building with a cinema front on a suburban high street
    Olympic Studios on Church Road, Barnes, now a cinema, 2015. Ewan Munro · CC BY-SA 2.0

    117–123 Church Road, Barnes

    Olympic Studios, Barnes

    The building opened in 1906 as an entertainment hall and was a cinema until 1953.

    A cinema again, with a bar and bistro open to all; the box office opens at 9am daily.

    Supporting documents
  4. A large stone-and-glass corner department store lit at dusk
    214 Oxford Street, the old Peter Robinson store at Oxford Circus, as IKEA in 2023. Matt Brown · CC BY 2.0

    214 Oxford Street, fourth floor of the old Peter Robinson store

    AIR Studios, Oxford Circus

    George Martin’s AIR opened here in October 1970, in an old banqueting hall on the fourth floor of the Peter Robinson store; it closed in 1991.

    The studios have gone; the building at Oxford Circus is a shop, open to all. Piccadilly Circus is a ten-minute walk south.

    Supporting documents
  5. The Gothic stone front and towers of the law courts
    The Royal Courts of Justice on the Strand, 2017. David Hillas · CC BY-SA 2.0

    Strand

    Royal Courts of Justice

    In November 2006 Matthew Fisher played the organ solo bar by bar in court 56 here, on an organ set up in the courtroom.

    Open Monday to Friday, 9am to 4.30pm; everyone and every bag is searched at the door.

    Supporting documents
  6. A gilded chamber with red leather benches and a throne canopy
    The Lords Chamber, 2007. Herry Lawford · CC BY 2.0

    Palace of Westminster

    The House of Lords

    On 30 July 2009 five Law Lords ruled unanimously for Fisher, restoring the 2006 verdict.

    The chamber is seen on Parliament’s own guided tours; check the Parliament website for dates.

    Supporting documents

Stay

Sleep at Olympia.

A hotel on the site of the 1964 cat show.

Olympia London

Hyatt Regency London Olympia

Hammersmith Road, Kensington

One of the two hotels now on the Olympia site, where the cat was probably sold at the 1964 National Cat Club show. Pictured: Olympia’s halls.

See Olympia

Go there

Walk in.

The old Barnes studio, now a cinema; the courts on the Strand; London music walks.

Olympic Studios

Olympic Studios Barnes

117–123 Church Road, Barnes · Films daily · bar and bistro from 8.30am weekdays

The old studio is a cinema again, with a bar, bistro and members’ club. Box office from 9am daily.

See what’s on
HM Courts & Tribunals Service

Royal Courts of Justice

Strand, London · Monday to Friday, 9am–4.30pm

Where Fisher played the solo bar by bar in court 56. Open on weekdays; bags are searched at the door.

Plan a visit
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London rock music tours

London

Live marketplace results for music-history walks in London. Check each itinerary for Oxford Circus, the Strand and the West End.

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Compare tours

What’s on

Still playing.

The Aldwych, the Jubilee Auditorium and Olympia this season.

Checking current event dates…

Take it home

Two books and a record.

Two histories of the band, and the Edmonton album on vinyl.

Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate

Procol Harum

Henry Scott

A history of the band, published in 2013.

Find the book
Bookshop.org UK · Ad / affiliate

Procol Harum: Beyond the Pale

Claes Johansen

A history of the band, published in 2000.

Find the book
eBay · Ad / affiliate

Live: In Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra

Procol Harum · LP, A&M SP 4335, 1972

The album taped from the lounge of the Jubilee Auditorium.

Live marketplace search · listings and condition change

Find a copy

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

Supporting documents

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

10 of 10 places · 15 of 15 Moments

  • The Procul cattery, Abingdon

    South Avenue, Abingdon, Oxfordshire

    • Procul Harun is born

      A blue Burmese male is born at the Chapmans’ cattery and registered under their prefix, Procul.

    • A name down the phone

      Rehearsing in Camden, the band are given the cat’s name, as Brooker remembers it, over the phone, and it is written down wrong.

  • Olympia

    Hammersmith Road, Kensington

    • Sold at Olympia

      He probably changes hands at the National Cat Club show, for £10.

  • The Palace Hotel, Southend-on-Sea

    Church Road, on the cliff above the pier

    • Sundays at the Shades

      Still at school, the Paramounts take a Sunday residency in a seafront cellar club.

    • Poison Ivy

      The Paramounts’ first single.

  • The Aldwych Theatre

    49 Aldwych, Covent Garden

    • Voices with no microphones

      Brooker hears The Black Nativity’s gospel singers fill a West End theatre unamplified.

  • Olympic Studios, Barnes

    117–123 Church Road, Barnes

    • A Whiter Shade of Pale

      Among the first hits from Olympic’s new Barnes studio: six weeks at number one.

  • Stratford Festival, Ontario

    Stratford, Ontario

    • With an orchestra and chorus

      At the Stratford Festival they play A Salty Dog and In Held ’Twas in I with orchestra and chorus.

  • Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium

    11455 87 Avenue NW, Edmonton

    • Edmonton

      A sold-out night with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, taped from the lounge; it becomes their biggest album.

  • AIR Studios, Oxford Circus

    214 Oxford Street, fourth floor of the old Peter Robinson store

    • Grand Hotel begins

      Sessions start at AIR; the first takes are dropped and a new guitarist arrives.

    • Buskers on the way to work

      The Piccadilly Circus buskers on his daily route give Brooker A Souvenir of London.

  • Royal Courts of Justice

    Strand

    • An organ in court 56

      Fisher plays the solo bar by bar to the High Court.

    • Forty per cent

      Mr Justice Blackburne gives Fisher 40 per cent of the music’s share.

    • Too late, says the Court of Appeal

      The ruling is overturned for excessive delay.

  • The House of Lords

    Palace of Westminster

    • The Law Lords

      Five Law Lords, unanimously, restore the 2006 verdict.

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