Dave Ball on 'Grand Hotel'
... musical and pictorial
traces ...
Sev Lewkowicz
wrote, way back in the 1990s:
- Dave Ball stayed with Procol for nearly two
years. He left Procol while Grand
Hotel was being recorded, and played (uncredited) on this album as
well. (If you look at the Grand Hotel sleeve, and the portrait of the
band in evening dress, you can see that Mick
Grabham's head has been superimposed on Dave Ball's body). (Another
head-transplant controversy here)
- Around 1980 he played in a backing band for an Australian singer called
Duffo. After he left Duffo's band he did a computer programming course and
went to Australia, where he probably still lives. He had sort of given up
playing at that time, and it's not known whether he plays anymore.
Dave Ball contacted 'Beyond
the Pale' with this information (Dave's 21st-century live work is
here)
- We had completed most of the Grand Hotel album by the time I left
the band: I am fairly certain that most of the backing tracks are the same,
though there were some new tracks (Liquorice John and TV Ceasar)
done after my departure. The rest of the album we had been playing on
tour prior to going into the studios.
- Though Mick re-recorded all the solo work, I can be heard playing one of
the recorders ('The Pahene Ensemble' was Gary's joke name, I think) that
double the repeating line of the intro and refrains on Bringing Home The
Bacon; and myself and Denny Brown the roadie (lovely chap) can be heard
playing spoons on Souvenir of London (a skill that we learnt in the
studio – on the day!).
- As to the album sleeve, well it was an expensive shoot, at a hired mansion
in Malibu (this house was used to film Rosemary's Baby I believe). It
is most certainly my body. I have a set of original
photographs from that day somewhere in storage in Australia (for sale,
November 2011 ... see here). If you look
carefully into the champagne glass on the back, you will see a reflection of
the band – complete with my head! Any further proof of my body's
appearance should be inferred from the height. I am 6 foot 4 inches tall,
whereas Mick is ... well ... not. See the pictorial evidence here.
- I am a Systems Programmer these days, working on IBM Mainframes. I
recently [December 1997] moved to North
Berwick, near Edinburgh, from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Funny old world isn't
it!
Thanks, Dave for these messages
Fans will have to decide for themselves whether they can see Dave Ball's face
or Mick Grabham's, refracted in the champagne-glass on the back sleeve of the
album.
Listen to Dave Ball's recording of Grand
Hotel