(Credits: Far Out / Apple Music)
Mon 15 September 2025 13:00, UK
Do you remember the first time you heard ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’? I was in the front room, watching the 1987 darkly funny Withnail and I, probably too young to fully understand the film but delighting in the absurd mundanity and dry wit of it all.
Something that you don’t need to be over a certain age to understand is the monumental King Curtis cover of ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ that runs over the opening sequence. That was my introduction to the song, originally written and performed by Procol Harum, but it’s fair to say that Julian Lennon’s introduction to the track was a little more spectacular.
“It was December of 1968 and my Dad and Yoko [Ono] took me to the filming of The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus in Wembley”, he remembered, noting, “The TV studio was made to look like a big circus tent. People were in costumes, from stilt walkers to frightening clowns, the works.”
He went on to offer a poetic recollection of details from the moment, acknowledging, “It was sensory overload for sure, especially at the age of five. I recall walking into this open doorway, and there was a shaft of purple light coming through, angled on the end of the corridor and the ceiling. And ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ was playing. It’s always stuck with me, and it’s a song I’ve always enjoyed listening to because of the chord changes. It’s probably why I like playing and writing and recording the way I do.”
In fact, elsewhere, Julian has recalled that not only was that the first time he remembers hearing the track, but it is the first memory he has of hearing any music at all, saying, “I was three, I think. I remember going, ‘I kind of like this’. Songs bring you back to the time and the place.” Growing up around The Beatles, you’d have expected him to have half remembered being around to hear the conception of ‘All You Need is Love’, ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ or his favourite of their songs, ‘A Day in the Life’, but that was not the case.
Backstage across the two days of filming, December 11th and 12th, 1968, the then (actually) four-year old son of John Lennon would have had plenty of chance to stumble upon rehearsals, recordings and performances by groups and artists from the stellar line up like Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull or The Stones themselves, as well as groups like Jethro Tull, The Who and The Dirty Mac.
But even though Procol Harum weren’t booked to play, or even present at, the event, it was their beguiling baroque-pop masterpiece, released the year before and which was later voted ‘The Best British Pop Single 1952–1977’ (tied with the far inferior ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’), which stuck with young Julian the most.
For everyone else, the moment that sticks in the mind from the whole Rock and Roll Circus is probably the moment Ono appears from under a black sheet while the Dirty Mac supergroup are playing and begins to wordlessly but emotionally wail into the microphone, seeming to duel with violinist Ivry Gitlis (who looks to be loving the absurdity of the moment) to see who can hit a higher note. Gitlis might have won that particular competition, but Ono pushed him about as close as humanly possible.
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