Who were these artists? Well Paice and Blackmore from Deep Purple of course; Chas Hodges may be better known as half of Chas and Dave, but was a skilled and in-demand session bassist for most of the 60s. Tony Ashton was a raconteur who was the principle in Ashton, Gardner and Dyke (all together now… ”Do The Resurrection Shuffle”); Albert Lee is the renowned and classy guitarist who played with many bands and has a successful solo career. Big Jim Sullivan is a ‘guitarists guitarist’ and actually taught Blackmore in his early days and was so in demand for session work, his guitar has appeared on over 750 hit singles and he’s worked with artists from Bowie to Zappa. Matt Fisher is best known as the keyboard player with Procol Harum but also produced artists like Robin Trower. Rod Alexander played rhythm guitar on a couple of tracks and I know him from the brilliant album Guts by ‘obscure’ British band, Jodo. Finally, Earl Jordan provided the vocals. He was a member of the Les Humphries (around the same time as John Lawton who passed away recently) and was much admired by Lawrence and you can hear why.

It all started as a whim of producer Derek Lawrence who gathered what was essentially a bunch of mates who he got together in Kingsway Studios and let rip on a set of blues-rock standards and one instrumental. 

That instrumental was called ‘Bullfrog’ and is an instru-mental wig-out that, on the sleeve is attributed to Derek because of those legal issues. It was actually a Blackmore riff that the rest piled in on… to brilliant effect. Purple fans will recognise the ‘Jam Stew’ or ‘John Stew’ track as it takes its cues from this. Just listen to the harmonies as they play together and the completely different styles as they solo and to top it off, Tony Ashton shows he knows his way around an overdriven Hammond too. A glorious seven minutes of instrumental wizardry and worth buying for this alone.

Elsewhere it tends toward the bluesier side of rock and shows how Blackmore was a master of this too, even if it rarely showed with Purple. 

My vinyl copy has eight tracks, but the CD reissue included a couple of ‘missed’ tracks and the highlights, apart from that superb instrumental are: ‘Lawdy Miss Clawdy’, the classic given a brilliant treatment with a genius solo from Blackmore – ‘I’m a Free Man’ with solos of sheer quality from Sullivan, Lee and Blackmore. ‘Lovin’ You Is Good For Me Baby’ is a great slow blues showing why Chas was in demand as a bassist as well as more superb guitar solos. ‘I Want You’ has even more guitars but just listen to Ian Paice playing such complex rhythms without ever losing time…amazing.

In fact, it’s easier to just say that if you love masterful guitar playing centred around blues-rock, then this is essential listening. It brings new dimensions to the blues-rock genre as the musicians seamlessly blend their different styles into a cohesive and professional whole… plus, you can tell they’re having a good time and you will too.

It isn’t listed as currently available, but CDs are still showing on the usual auction sites as well as some streaming sites; vinyl copies occasionally see the light of day but aren’t cheap.

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This may seem like an odd choice for a RAMzine, but if any other musical work listed performers such as those, it would certainly be a feature. The album is The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast, and while it may not be rock all the way, it has some marvelous performances from those names and a few others.

Ronnie James Dio sang the part of a frog on the most famous song from the album, and the only one to have the animated ideas realised. ‘Love Is All’ is a good time; it’s a soft rock song that you can’t help but love! He also sings a froggy ballad called ‘Sitting In A Dream’ with an almost ‘Rainbow Eyes’ adjacent vocal approach, and it’s irresistible. Glenn Hughes shows his usual strong vocals as Harold The Herald (a Gadfly), heralding the day of the ball backed by another quality, soft rock song.

David Coverdale puts in a remarkable performance as he pours emotion into ‘Behind The Smile’, warning all of the attendees to beware of the fox. In under two minutes, he is peerless and the album is worth it for this one alone. Another class and rolling rock song is (hard to believe I’m typing this) ‘Sir Maximus Mouse’, sung by Eddie Hardin with a Hammond solo slotted in, and it also features Nigel Watson playing a saw…you couldn’t make this up! Another piece of classy, orchestrated rock is John Gustafson giving it rice on the fast moving ‘Watch Out For The Bat’. There are a couple of less rocky songs, but even the Helen Chapelle vocal that is almost only audible to dogs has oodles of charm. Tony Ashton’s performance – just him and piano on ‘Together Again’ – as a totally inebriated newt is pure genius. The John Lawton song incidentally is the ballad ‘Little Chalk Blue’, which was only available on the single yet remains on the remastered versions of the album.

The TV series never materialised and the whole thing was performed live only once. It featured Ian Gillan in place of Ronnie James Dio and, after the reception he got from the crowd, it helped persuade him out of ‘retirement’. There is a DVD of the concert available, but the director keeps cutting away from the performers to some ‘specially shot footage’ of a load of prats prancing about in shit costumes and renders it almost unwatchable.

So, there you have it: a strange mix of genres, performers and, in all, twenty short songs that will entertain. It does deserve more recognition that it got or gets. Give it a try and be swept into the froggy, moley, spidery, foxy, batty and adorable world of The Butterfly Ball.

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