The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast

The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast is a concept album and subsequent live rock opera written by Roger Glover. It appeared in 1974 and 1975 respectively, and was based on the children's poem of a similar title. The album cover design is from Alan Aldridge's design for a 1973 book based on the poem.

Origin and production history
The work was originally conceived as a solo vehicle for Jon Lord to be produced by Roger Glover who had recently left Deep Purple. However, Lord proved too busy with Deep Purple, and Glover took up the reins on his own. Using his connections, Glover recruited a large cast of noted rock musicians, with a different vocalist for each character, including David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes.

An accompanying animated short film, The Butterfly Ball, was made by the Halas & Batchelor company.

On 16 October 1975, a one-off performance at the Royal Albert Hall took place. Again it had a star-studded cast of rock musicians, most notably Ian Gillan who was drafted in at the last minute and received a standing ovation on his entrance. He replaced an unavailable Ronnie James Dio who had commitments with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (although Dio did eventually get to perform the song at the Royal Albert Hall in 1999 as the guest of Deep Purple). Gillan had not performed since leaving Deep Purple in 1973. Also notable was the appearance of Twiggy as singer and actress and Vincent Price as narrator. Apart from most of the musicians involved in the studio recording, the concert also featured Jon Lord. The live concert was filmed and released in 1976, produced by Tony Klinger.

Later appearance
Colin Meloy of The Decemberists has used the piece as intro music for the band's shows.

Track listing

 * = Little Chalk Blue is on CD Reissue only

Personnel (original album)

 * Jack Emblow - accordion
 * Ray Fenwick - guitar
 * Mike Moran, Ann Odell - piano
 * Roger Glover - synthesiser, piano, guitar, bass guitar, percussion, backing vocals
 * Eddie Hardin - piano, organ, synthesizer, backing vocals
 * Eddie Jobson - violin
 * Chris Karan - tabla
 * Robin Thompson - bassoon
 * Nigel Watson - saw
 * Mo Foster - bass guitar, double bass, finger pops
 * Les Binks - drums
 * Mike Giles - drums
 * Joanne Williams - backing vocals
 * Kay Garner - backing vocals
 * Judi Kuhl - backing vocals
 * Barry St. John - backing vocals
 * Helen Chappelle - backing vocals
 * The Mountain Fjord Orchestra led by David Woodcock and conducted by Martin Ford, John Bell and Del Newman.
 * Alan Aldridge, Harry Wilcock - cover design
 * George Peckham - mastering