Gary Brooker
English singer, composer and pianist
Why Is Gary Brooker Influential?
(Suggest an Edit or Addition)According to Wikipedia, Gary Brooker was an English singer and pianist, and the founder and lead singer of the rock band Procol Harum. Early life Born in Hackney Hospital, East London, on 29 May 1945, Brooker grew up in Hackney before the family moved out to Middlesex . His father Harry Brooker was a professional musician, playing pedal steel guitar with Felix Mendelssohn's Hawaiian Serenaders, and as a child Brooker learned to play piano, cornet, and trombone. In 1954 the family moved to the seaside resort of Southend-on-Sea, Essex, where Brooker attended Westcliff High School for Boys. His father died of a heart attack when Gary was 11 years old, forcing his mother to work in order to make ends meet, while Brooker himself took on a paper-round. When he left school, he went on to Southend Municipal College to study zoology and botany but dropped out to become a professional musician.
