The Atelier

Dave Ball Tea Time in the old West In the summer of 1971, Dave Ball was one of 80 musicians who answered an ad in the British music weekly Melody Maker to replace the Procol Harum lead guitarist, Robin Trower. "When I got there, they were very tired. It was quite obvious they'd seen too many guitar players. We played some R&B, some blues-type rock'n'roll, and then we went through a couple of their songs," Ball later said about his successful audition. "They said that I was the only guitarist who had 'just played' as opposed to 'played along'." Issued the following year, the ambitious concert recording successfully merged progressive rock and classical music and became the band's best-selling album. As well as an inspired rendition of "A Salty Dog" and the suite "In Held 'Twas in I" – featuring some sterling work by Ball – it contained a superlative version of "Conquistador", which charted internationally and reinvigorated the career of the group forever synonymous with the epochal Summer of Love single "A Whiter Shade of Pale". Ball enjoyed himself on tour with Procol, particularly in the US, but quit in September 1972 as they neared completion on their next studio album, Grand Hotel. "I left Procol because I was bored with it," he told Melody Maker at the time. "There were only so many ideas I could put into that style." If you prefer to have your print framed or framed including passe-partout, please click on the ‘+’ sign below to select your size (small, medium, large depending on your choice of print size)