The Butterfly Ball & The Grasshopper's Feast (1974) - Roger Glover & Guests
In 1973 Jonathan Cape Ltd
published a children's book called The Butterfly Ball and Grasshopper's Feast. It
contained a collection of poems by
William Plomer, lavishly and
intricately illustrated with 28 colour plates by Alan Aldridge, an artist who had produced
the Beatles Illustrated Lyrics. In addition the book featured nature notes by Richard
Sidney Richmond Fitter, a prominent naturalist, on some of the creatures contained in its
colourful pages. The book won the Whitbread Children's Book Award in 1973. Sadly it is
currently out of print.
The inspiration for the work came from a poem 'The Butterfly Ball and Grasshoppers Feast' by William Roscoe (a famous son of Liverpool, a poet, philanthropist, botanist and slave trade abolitionist amongst other callings) published in November 1806.
The 1973 book expanded the idea and featured some of the characters' preparations on the day of the Ball. It seemed an obvious choice for a musical. British Lion acquired the rights and looked for someone who could come up with the music. Jon Lord was apparently the first choice but his continuing involvement with Deep Purple ruled that out. The task fell to Roger Glover, recently departed from Deep Purple and embarking on a career in producing music. It was a risk that paid off. In 1974 he assembled a collection of talent to help with the project.
Eddie Hardin (Spencer Davis and then Hardin and York) helped compose some of the tracks. Other musicians involved were Ray Fenwick (guitar, another past Spencer Davis member ), Mo Foster (bass) and Les Binks (drums) of Fancy, the Mountain Fjord Orchestra, Eddie Jobson (violin), Mike Moran (piano) amongst others.
Roger used the Kingsway Studios (formerly the De Lane Lea Studio where Deep Purple used to record) for recording the album. The studio was then owned by Ian Gillan, one of his many business ventures after leaving Deep Purple in 1973. In fact Ian Gillan took part in the live production of The Butterfly Ball at the Royal Albert Hall on 16 October 1975 when Ronnie James Dio was unable to perform. The concert was a charity performance in aid of Bud Flanagan's Leukaemia Fund and Action Research for the Crippled Child. Vincent Price narrated.
Roger chose vocalists to take on the individual creatures' roles. You will find this information along with track listings on the next page.
