Gary Brooker was the Hackney-born pianist and singer with Britain’s originators of progressive rock, Procol Harum.

I see from the obits that Gary Brooker was a Hackney boy like me (for the last 45 years at least) and both my children, which makes him a diamond geezer in my book.

I can’t say his band Procol Harum was my ideal cup of tea but A Whiter Shade Of Pale was one of those records that was unavoidalbe, like Nights In White Satin, and came to define an era.

It’s regrettable that the era in question was prog rock, but Brooker’s piano playing and sturdy voice kept the band on an even keel even when the other musicians drifted away on flights of fancy.

Their big hit’s soundalike follow-up, Homburg, is arguably even better, and I always had a soft spot for the equally epic Conquistador. If nothing else, it sent me off to learn about the Spanish conquest of South America.

He’s the third of the band to die in the past 12 months but he was still flying the flag as recently as 2021, releasing an EP as the last original in the latest line-up, and was at the helm to make what is really one of their best albums only five years ago.

This bluesy number particularly caught my ear, and took me back in time about half a century – even though it was recorded in 2017.

RIP Gary Brooker