Procol Harum are all going to court... YET AGAIN... to continue their legal battle over songwriting royalties. Lead singer Gary Brooker is appealing against last year's ruling that organist Matthew Fisher was entitled to a portion of 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale''s royalties (which you may recall was previously reported on now defunct Shiny blog, Pop Junkie).

Fisher has originally claimed a half-share of the musical copyright, but in December 2006, the court ruled he was entitled to a 40 per cent stake in the song. Brooker is now attempting to reverse the judgement. John Baldwin QC representing Mr Brooker told the three Appeal Court judges that Fisher had failed to take the case to court earlier because he knew it would be the end of his career in the group... whilst mentioning winking girls and more.

John Baldwin QC said: "There are advantages in being a pop star. Girls wink at you. There are huge lifestyle benefits from being a pop star and this was Mr Fisher's dream. He wanted to stay in the band and live the life of a pop star. Being a litigant was not something he could do alongside that, and he realised what he would have to give up." He said that Fisher had not alerted Brooker or their record company when he decided to take action: "with the result that they could not prepate themselves to meet the claim."

Balwin added that this had meant previous proceedings were unfair. This was due to fact many critical witnesses were dead including impresario David Platz who predicted that the song he heard in March 1967 - before Fisher joined the group - would be "a certain hit". Vital evidence - including Brooker's original tape of the song - has been lost. The judge had given Fisher a lesser amount because he ruled that while he had made a "substantial contribution" to the song, it was not as great as that of the singer.

That all said, anyone who has heard obscure psych band, Rupert's People and their song, Reflections of Charles Brown, will no doubt be thinking that Procol Harum might all end up in the dock for plagiarism. Then again, J.S. Bach's estate could take them all to the cleaners...

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