Dave Ball
30 March, 1950 (Handsworth, Birmingham, UK)
– 1 April 2015
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Main instrument: Guitar
PH Albums: guitar on Live with Edmonton Symphony Orchestra .
Also heard live with the Palers' Band, 2000, 2007,
2013
Also played with Gary Brooker and Guests, July 2007
Dave Ball gigs, 2007–8
Read about Dave's traces, musical and pictorial, on Grand Hotel
MySpace page:
www.myspace.com/worldslump
Dave Ball in retirement (and
here): short films |
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Dave's amusing reminiscence about a bad review |
Authorised excerpts from Dave Ball's autobiography
Dave Ball interview (1972) in Melody Maker
| Dave Ball snippetry (1972) in Sounds
| Ball as 'vanished pop-star' in
1978 | Review of two Ball books Dave's 2012 solo album,
Don't Forget your Alligator |
David J Ball joined Procol Harum from Big Bertha, and afterwards played with Long John Baldry before joining the Army and living in Riyadh, then Australia, then Scotland, Dorset, New Zealand, and London, NZ,
and now the UK again ... is writing his (scurrilously amusing) autobiography.
BtP asked Dave about the dates of his Procol tenure:
'Now PH dates: surprisingly, this is a bit tricky. Started (I think)
around April time 1971. Did four US tours, plus
various UK and Europe. Mick's first gig was London
Rainbow (22 September 1972) which would have been perhaps a month after I
left (roughly), and my first gig with Baldry was Queen Elizabeth Hall. Looking
through BtP site, it would seem that July '72 might have been the last tour gig.
So, August doing Grand Hotel – possibly into
September – then Baldry? |
Dave kindly sent us this list of bands he's played in from 1963: the comments are his own!
With my brothers Denny Ball (Bass) and Pete Ball (Guitar / Keys, etc):
The Rockin Perfidias
The Deadbeats
In and around Birmingham:
Thomas Paul's Blues Disciples
The Little People
The Madding Crowd: to Germany, 1966, variously starving and backing MacKinley Sisters around Hamburg
The Chicago Hush
Ace Kefford Stand (two singles released on Atlantic Records): this was Ace's band formed after he left The Move. Personnel were myself, Brother Den and Cozy Powell, circa 1967 / 68
The Applejacks
Big Sister (often found wandering around Ealing Common)
Big Bertha (obviously into Big things at this time: with Cozy Powell, brothers Pete & Den (picture here))
The band named Balls was put together by Trevor Burton (ex Move, etc. and an old friend from Birmingham days) but I never played in it. When myself and my brothers started playing in 1963 (for money!) our Dad kept suggesting alternate names for the band. In all innocence he thought we should call ourselves Balls or The Ball Boys - even the Three Balls! At that time 'Balls' did not refer to heavy music - but it still had the scrotal connotation and would frankly have been the last thing we would have called ourselves!
Various sessions: i.e. for Jonathan King ... who knows what tracks I may have ended up on!
Procol something-or-other
Jonathan Kelly (album on RCA: really nice folk guy)
Long John Baldry
Bedlam : with Cozy Powell [Out 31 March 2003 and of great interest to Dave Ball fans: a live - previously unreleased (or even bootlegged!) Bedlam show done in Command Studios in London: Bedlam Live 1973. The label is Majestic Rock. . The anniversary re-mixes of the original 1973 Bedlam album will follow in the summer. (thanks, Dave)]
Duffo (with Sev Lewkowicz who covered A Salty Dog)
Melbourne to Memphis (Melbourne band)
Rashid goes to Nizwah (Oman Band)
Spellbound (aka Bedlam locally - Saudi Arabia)
Euro Trash (pictures here) (Chase Bank: one-off party gig - not bad either!)
Dave's 21st century gigs
I am sure there are more but that will be the main ones that I remember. Feel free to use any of this stuff: my life's an open book (albeit dog-eared and smutty at times!)
See the sessions list: all non-PH and non-Paramounts records (up to 1986) to which Procol Harum members contributed.
Antonio Costa Barbé talks to guitarist Dave Ball
Pre-Procol CD re-releases featuring Dave Ball
Dave Ball and Bedlam on re-released CD
First solo-album (April 2012): Don't Forget
your Alligator
Dave Ball on A Whiter Shade of Pale
Poster presaging forthcoming torrent of releases
from Dave starting on St George's Day, 2012
Dave Ball interviews himself, April 2012
Letter to fans about Dave's music, art, and
prose-writing
Remembering Dave Ball, among his fans and friends
; Chris Copping remembers Dave ; many
fans' tributes to Dave Ball
Obituary notice from The Burton Mail
| Ditto from the UK's Independent
| Ditto from
RipIt Up (NZ)
Chris Copping and Dave Ball were the first two Procolers I ever saw play (writes BtP's RC): they were the only two who made it to a gig in Cambridge, early 1972, following the failure of the Procol van. They gamely jammed for the whole evening with members of Supertramp, with whom PH were to have shared the bill; as far as I remember both CC and DB played piano, organ, drums, guitar, and bass in turn. One of the Supertramps played some woodwinds and rang a small electric bell repeatedly.
More Procol personnel |
DB with the PHP