That million pound legal battle over the Procol Harum song 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' returned to court yesterday as the band's founder and frontman Gary Booker appeals the ruling against him made in the London High Court last year regarding the famous organ components of the track.
As previously reported, the UK courts last year ruled that organist Matthew Fisher had created the organ part of the song, and therefore should receive a cut of the publishing royalties. Since its release in 1967 the song has, instead, been credited to Booker and lyricist Keith Reid, and they have received the royalty payments generated by the track. Booker claimed Fisher had simply played music he, Booker, had written, and that Fisher had had no real involvement in its creation, but the courts disagreed.
Because it took Fisher such a long time to make his claim for co-ownership of the track the courts only gave him rights to royalties since the date when he made his claim, in 2005. However he was awarded 40% of the royalties which, given the iconic status of the song, will prove valuable moving forward.
But Booker's legal team, who launched their appeal almost as soon as the original ruling was made, argue that Fisher's claim came too long after the song's creation for there to be a fair court hearing regarding its creation, because several key witnesses are no longer alive. In court this week, Booker's counsel John Baldwin argued it was unprecedented for a dispute relating to song's ownership to come to court four decades after its creation, saying: "This delay of almost four decades is plainly very long. Indeed, so far as the appellants are aware, it is unprecedented in a case of this or any other comparable kind".
The appeal hearing will only last two days, after which a written judgement will be published.