Checking in... Gary Brooker

EARLIEST HOLIDAY MEMORY?

I WAS five years old and visited a replica of the Bounty moored off the north Devon coast. You could make a vinyl record of yourself at the seaside back then, and I sang Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star — the start of my recording career. FIRST TRIP ABROAD?

I WENT on a Rock Across The Channel cruise from Southend to Calais in my teens, and got to see some of the biggest musical acts of the day: The Shadows, Vince Taylor and the Playboys, and Jerry Lee Lewis. That was a real education. HOW HAS TOURING CHANGED?

BACK in the Sixties it was all about being stuck on the A1 in a Transit van in the fog. Nowadays, we can fly out to a gig in Norway and be back in a couple of days. ANY TOURING LOW SPOTS?

I WAS drugged and mugged when I flew out to Cape Town to play a concert several years ago, and spent three weeks in hospital there with a fractured skull. AND HIGH SPOTS?

CELEBRATING a birthday in St Petersburg (below) in the 2000s. The vodka flowed for four days … and, as a farewell present, I was given a 3ft bottle of vodka shaped like a rifle. FAVOURITE FOREIGN COUNTRY?

I HAVE a shack in south-west France and I’ve even learnt to speak the lingo. I’m actually there now, but I can at least enjoy the French food and wine. I’d probably be having fish and chips if I was stuck at home. FAVOURITE HOTEL?

I LIKE old-fashioned hotels where, for instance, a string quartet plays while you have dinner. I once visited a hotel in Hawaii where a musician could play Beethoven’s 9th symphony on a ukulele. TOP RESTAURANT?

WHEN you’ve been around for as long as I have, the problem is that half the places I liked have now gone. We used to have terrible trouble finding a curry house in the U.S. in the Seventies, but you can now get spicy food pretty much everywhere.

TRAVEL

TIPS?

ALWAYS have a look at your hotel room before taking up your luggage — you’re then saved the aggro of taking your stuff back down to reception if you want to find somewhere else. WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO AFTER LOCKDOWN?

EVERY time I meet someone from Chile they say they love Procol, so I’d like to play there when life returns to normal.

Procol Harum play Hampton Pool on July 3, 2021 (hamptonpool.co.uk/concerts).