IMDB ~ Barrie J Wilson~

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0933029/bio







Biography for B.J. Wilson (I)
Date of Birth 18 March 1947, Edmonton, London, England, UK
Date of Death 8 October 1990, (pneumonia)
Birth Name Barrie James Wilson

Trivia

He played drums in The Paramounts with keyboardist/vocalist Gary Brooker from 1961 to 1966. When Brooker left to form Procol Harum in 1967, original drummer Bobby Harrison left after three months, and Wilson joined the group.
His friend, arranger Richard Hartley (who had once unsuccessfully auditioned to play piano in the Paramounts), asked him to play drums on the soundtrack sessions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) in the fall of 1974. Wilson brought Procol Harum guitar player Mick Grabham to the sessions.

Still There'll Be More (Barrie Wilson & friends)

Procol Harum in their element, albeit without Matthew Fisher, Dave Knights and Robin Trower



Added September 12, 2006

From 'heavyrevolution'

Procol Harum smoking through a song from the Home record on German TV.
Check out the amazingly brilliant B.J. Wilson on the drums.

BJ Wilson - today would be his birthday

b. 18th March 1947 ~ d. 8th October 1990


Drummer of Procol Harum from 1967 to 1977.



It was a short life, but if you were ever lucky enough to see him in action as drummer to Procol Harum, you could have seen that he packed a lot of living into those 46 years.

He was very much loved by PH fans. And I mean VERY much Loved! I am sure most that met him and got to know him would not forget the guy. He had little ego but knew he was a capable and very gifted drummer. He very nearly drummed for Led Zeppelin after getting on Page & Plant's shortlist. He also drummed for Joe Cocker and others, but for most of his career it was two bands, The Paramounts and Procol Harum.

You couldn't go to a Procol concert and miss the fact that BJ, Barrie James Wilson was an incredibly skilful percussionist/drummer/sticksman.

I'm not a musician, but I recognise technical prowess when it stares me in the face and he was a master of his trade. I would go to Procol gigs and be transfixed by his drumming. It was like watching Nureyev dancing on stage, he was just amazingly clever and gifted.

Procol Harum would not have been the same without him. He helped construct the songs, adding an embellished bit of technical wizardry via his drumkit, it was almost like the added punctuation in a paragraph, to me.


Please check out 'Beyond the Pale' for more information :-
http://www.procolharum.com/

and for a great synopsis of Wilson, via a better fan than me...

http://community-2.webtv.net/Jem33nospamplez/druminfo/index.html

and the Wikipedia page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.J._Wilson