Ted Mechanic's Deep Purple Pages
 

Roger's first solo project, after being sacked from Deep Purple by Ritchie Blackmore in 1973, was the  Butterfly Ball and the Grasshoppers Feast,  a job that he got through Purple-manager Tony Edwards. It is the "musical version" of a child's novel by Alan Aldridge and LOTS of great names joined in for it.

 
  Dawn / Get Ready / Saffron Dormouse And Lizzy Bee / Harlequin Hare / Old Blind Mole / Magician Moth / No Solution / Behind The Smile / Fly Away / Arenea / Sitting In A Dream / Waiting / Sir Maximus Mouse / Dreams Of Sir Bedivere / Together Again / Watch Out For The Bat / The Feast / Love Is All / Homeward

  Roger: synthesizer, piano, guitar, bass guitar, percussion, backing vocals. Eddie Hardin: piano, organ, synthesizer, backing vocals. Les Binks: drums. Ray Fenwick: guitar. Mo Foster: bass guitar, double bass, finger pops. Mike Moran: piano. Liza Strike, Helen Chappelle, Barry St. John, Judi Kuhl, Kay Garner and Joanne Williams: backing vocals

Recorded at Kinsway Recorders, London, 1974. Engineered by Lou Austin & George Sloan.

Produced by Roger Glover

 Lead singers: Glenn Hughes, Helen Chappelle, Barry St. John, Neil Lancaster, John Goodison, Mickey Lee Soule, David Coverdale, Liza Strike, Judi Kuhl, Ronnie James Dio, Jimmy Helms, Eddie Hardin, Tony Ashton, John Gustafson.
 
Repertoire Records re-released the Butterfly Ball as a CD in a cardboard cover. It included a 24 page booklet and the CD holds "Little Chalk Blue" (formerly only released as b-side on the EP) as a bonus tracks plus 9 further bonus tracks, which are actually different mixes of already existing songs. Don't ask me about them, the CD I have is still sealed, I haven't dared to open it yet, collector's habits, you know..... maybe someday....

 

The Singles

Germany 7"

EEC 7"

Holland - EP - 7"
From this LP they released the single  Love Is All (B-side: Old Blind Mole and Magician Moth), which made it to the top of the charts in many countries. The single was released with different covers in each country, some of which you see here. The EP holds  L.I.A., Sitting In A Dream, Little Chalk Blue and Homeward.

France 7"

Country ? (Sabam label) 7"

 
The whole thing was performed live only once, on October 16, 1975 at the Royal Albert Hall. But it saw an unbelievable "come-back", right at the same place in September 1999, even with the original singer Ronnie James Dio. When Deep Purple did the anniversary performance of Jon Lord's Concerto for Group and Orchestra, they included two songs of the Butterfly Ball.

Deep Purple and friends at the Royal Albert Hall

Click here to read my review with lots of pictures.

The Royal Albert Hall Concertos will be released on CD, Video and DVD. Scheduled release date is January 2000.

Roger says (end of October 1999):

"I've just returned from a week spent in Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Wiltshire, mixing the RAH recording. Jon and IG were there also, IP popped in and Paul Mann came for a couple of days, helping with the Concerto mix. It was a great week, good teamwork, and it's all coming together very well. The studio is a dream, a schoolboy's dream. Peter himself was there working as well, and has done an absolutely first class job on the studio IMHO. I was very impressed. Still looking at a January release, on the Eagle Rock label, with the possibility of a video, or at least a TV showing, before Christmas."