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Subject: Great music in Guildford ( 1 of 7 )
Posted by Douglas Adams

One of my great musical heroes is Gary Brooker. Most people only really know his song A Whiter Shade of Pale, and maybe Conquistador or the magnificent A Salty Dog, but he's recorded many albums of brilliant music over the last three (!) decades with his band, Procol Harum. He's also one of the best singers of rock and roll you'll ever hear.
Incidentally, the idea for Restaurant at the End of the Universe came from one of his songs - Grand Hotel.

Anyway, every Christmas he does a small local Christmas concert, which is one of the highlights of the year for those who know about it. This year it's in Guildford, at the Civic, on Dec 18th.

Also playing with him is Robbie McIntosh and his band. Now, if you don't know who Robbie McIntosh is, let me enlighten you, because Robbie tends to keep his light under a bushel. A couple of facts first - he was for many years the lead guitar in the Pretenders, and then in Paul McCartney's band. Now my opinion. Robbie is quite simply one of the very best guitar players in the world. I love Clapton, but Robbie is better. You will not hear more joyously great guitar playing anywhere than you will in Guildford on Dec 18th. Really.

Back to Gary - my favourite of his songs is Holding On, from a (shamefully!) little known Procol Harum album called The Prodigal Stranger. It's not their greatest album (that would be Grand Hotel or Exotic Birds and Fruit or Home or, I don't know, any of them really) but it is, I think, their greatest song.
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