Procol Harum singer wins full royalties appeal
Britain’s Court of Appeal, ruling for rock star Gary Brooker, overturned a lower court decision granting the group’s former organist 40% of the millions of dollars in royalties from the song.
The court agreed that Matthew Fisher, who played the haunting organ theme, was entitled to co-authorship but said he will receive no money from past or future royalties.
“For nearly three years this claim has been a great strain upon myself and my family. I believe the original trial was unfair and the results wrong,” Brooker said. “I would hope now we can all get on with our lives.”
Lord Justice John Mummery said Fisher was “guilty” of an “excessive and inexcusable delay in asserting his claim”.
Fisher, who quit the band in 1969 and is now a computer programmer in London, filed his claim to joint ownership nearly 40 years after the song was recorded and became one of the anthems of the 1967 Summer of Love.
The record has sold 10 million copies, and Rolling Stone magazine has ranked the song 57th on a list of the 500 greatest of all time.
Brooker argued it was his idea to use the theme based on Bach’s Air on the G String that Fisher played on the track, and that he was unable to make his case properly because Fisher did not tell him he was pursuing his legal claim.
Brooker, who still tours with the band, said he and lyricist Keith Reid wrote the song before Fisher joined the band in March 1967.
The two had called Fisher’s earlier court victory a dangerous precedent, saying it meant any musician who had played on any recording in the past four decades could claim joint authorship.
The judge rejected Fisher’s claim for an estimated $2 million (€1.27m) in back royalties.
Justice Mummery said the issue of who will pay legal costs will be decided later, as well as whether Fisher can appeal the decision to the House of Lords, Britain’s highest court.
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