The Brooker-Reid combination had worked up a fair body of original material, needed a band to perform it, and fused an advertisement in Melody Maker to put together the Pinewoods in April 1967. With Booker on piano and vocals teamed up with organist Matthew Fisher, guitarist Ray Royer, bassist David Knights and drummer Bobby Harrison.The Pinewoods became Procol Harum around the time they set about cutting A Whiter Shade of Pale at Olympic Studios, with a session drummer (Bill Eyden) instead of Harrison.
Released on 12 May 1967, the baroque classical influenced single drew heavily on Johann Sebastian Bach's Air on a G String from the Suite No. 3 in D Major as reworked by Fisher's Hammond organ (a source of much legal argy-bargy thirty-odd years late) shot to the top of the British, American and Australian charts.
Royer and Harrison were gone by the time the band started serious gigging, replaced by former Paramounts Robin Trower and B.J. Wilson, the lineup that delivered the second single (Homburg) and the first album (Procol Harum). Nothing, however, replicated Whiter Shade of Pale's initial success, though there are gems scattered through the steady flow of albums that followed Shine On Brightly
And the personnel changes continued. Fisher and Knights were gone after A Salty Dog, replaced by another ex-Paramount in Chris Copping, who doubled on bass and organ. Trower's departure after Broken Barricades saw a succession of guitarists, first Dave Ball, then Mick Grabham as Procol Harum Live In Concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the symphonic take on Conquistador were followed by Grand Hotel, Exotic Birds and Fruit and Procol's Ninth, with the latter produced by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The band broke up in 1977, after Something Magic only managed to crawl to #147 in the US Billboard.
A 1991 reunion saw Brooker, Fisher, Trower and Reid release The Prodigal Stranger a year after B.J. Wilson had passed away, and intermittent touring by different lineups that tended to feature Brooker backed by permutations and combinations of a core group of players including guitarist Geoff Whitehorn, Matt Pegg on bass and Mark Brzezicki on drums has continued almost right up to the present. Fisher left the scene in 2004, thereafter pursuing legal action for a share of the royalties for A Whiter Shade of Pale that saw him awarded 40% of the royalties from 2005 onwards.
Gary Brooker released three solo albums between 1979 and 1985 (No More Fear of Flying, 1982's Lead Me to the Water, and Echoes in the Night, co-produced by Matthew Fisher. In the meantime, he also turned to writing orchestral music, often for ballet performances, something that probably helped with the charts for assorted live appearances with various orchestras.