'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' owed much of its success to heavy exposure on Radio London, while Peel was working on the station. They were named after a Burmese cat belonging to their manager's friend: it is also cod Latin for 'beyond these things.' Brooker co-opted lyricist Keith Reid (who, according to Joe Boyd's book White Bicycles (p.150), had tried to persuade Boyd to sign him for Elektra Records in 1966, 'on the basis of a few stanzas of doggerel') into the band, and they had a precocious success with a mesmeric song that virtually soundtracked the Summer Of Love. The band arose from the ashes of the Paramounts: Brooker, Copping, Wilson and Trower were all members, and Peel played Poison Ivy long after the fact in 1978.
