Free Republic

Fr. Alphonsus Afina, who served as a priest for many years in the Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks, has been captured by the militant Islamist terrorist group – Boko Haram – in his home Diocese of Maiduguri, Nigeria. A social media alert sent on June 2 by Fairbanks Bishop Steven Maekawa called on parishioners to join him for a special Mass on June 3 to pray for Fr. Afina. “I ask for your urgent prayers for Fr. Alphonsus Afina,” Bishop Maekawa stated. “As many of you know, Fr. Alphonsus served in our diocese for six and half years and returned to...

Procol Harum performing A Whiter Shade of Pale with the Danish National Concert Orchestra and choir at Ledreborg Castle, Denmark in August 2006

Alan Cartwright, Procol Harum's bassist from 1971 to 1976, died on March 4 at age 75. The musician, born Oct. 10, 1945, first met Procol Harum singer-keyboardist Gary Brooker in 1966, having grown up in the same region of Edmonton/Enfield, England. He joined the progressive rock band five years later, first appearing on their influential 1972 recording, Procol Harum Live: In Concert With the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and remaining in the group for three studio albums: 1973's Grand Hotel, 1974's Exotic Birds and Fruit and 1975's Procol's Ninth. Primis Player Placeholder "It is with great sadness that I heard of...

Procol Harum performing A Whiter Shade of Pale.. the 1967 version.... This is the original 16mm Scopitone conversion, from the 'summer of love' 1967 hit record. Vocals and piano played by Gary Brooker, Matthew Fisher played the Hammond organ, and these original lyrics were written by Keith Reid...[H/T maggiesfarm]

Under a former Native American village in Georgia, deep inside what's now the U.S., archaeologists say they've found 16th-century jewelry and other Spanish artifacts. The discovery suggests an expedition led by conquistador Hernando de Soto ventured far off its presumed course—which took the men from Florida to Missouri—and engaged in ceremonies in a thatched, pyramid-like temple. The discovery could redraw the map of de Soto's 1539-41 march into North America, where he hoped to replicate Spain's overthrow of the Inca Empire in South America. There, the conquistador had served at the side of leader Francisco Pizarro...

Between 1520 and 1650, Spain's economy suffered crippling and unrelenting inflation in the so-called Price Revolution. Most historians have attributed that inflation, in part, to the importation, starting in 1550, of silver from the Americas, which supposedly put much more currency into circulation in Spain. But in a report out this week, a team of researchers argues that for more than a century the Spanish did not use this imported silver to make coins, suggesting that the amount of money circulating in Spain did not increase and could not have triggered the inflation... archaeometrist Anne-Marie DeSaulty and colleagues at the...

'A Whiter Shade of Pale' by Procol Harum is the most heard song of the last 75 years, it has been claimed. The 1967 hit has been broadcast in public places more than any other song, found a chart compiled for BBC Radio 2. Music licensing firm PPL say they took into account everywhere music is consumed in public, whether in the high street, on hospital radio, in pubs, clubs and supermarkets, in stadiums or on jukeboxes.

Procol Harum singer wins full royalty rights for A Whiter Shade Of Pale Last Updated: 8:05pm BST 04/04/2008 The lead singer of Procol Harum has won a court battle to reclaim full royalty rights to the group's worldwide hit A Whiter Shade Of Pale. Gary Brooker Gary Brooker, 62, appealed after Matthew Fisher, the musician who contributed the organ music to the song, won a High Court ruling that he was entitled to 40 per cent of the musical copyright. The song, which sold 10 million copies and became one of the anthems of the 1967 summer of love, still...

Rock star Gary Brooker was left A Whiter Shade Of Pale today after losing a High Court battle over the copyright of his massive worldwide hit of 1967. Mr Justice Blackburne ruled that Matthew Fisher, who played the haunting Hammond organ parts on the Procol Harum record which sold 10 million copies, is entitled to a 40% share of the musical copyright. Fisher, a classically-trained musician who now works as a computer programmer in Croydon, south London, had claimed a half share from Brooker. But he was awarded the lesser amount because the judge found that although the Fisher contribution...

SMASHED HITS Pop lyrics re-appraised by the Magazine A Whiter Shade of Pale, a number one single in 1967, is at the centre of a legal dispute. But what do the words mean? - "Great intro, uh?" - "They nicked it from Marvin Gaye." - "He nicked it from Bach!" This description of Procol Harum's 1967 hit A Whiter Shade Of Pale is from the film The Commitments, but it might also end up as an exchange in the Royal Courts of Justice, where former members of the band are trying to settle a royalties dispute over the song -...