Wednesday 29 July 2015

August 1970 and a new supergroup emerges - Balls

One can only imagine the excitement and the buzz in the music world in the summer of 1970 as the latest in a long line of 'super groups' announced itself in the music press. 

Denny Laine - pre-Wings but already a name in the music business from his time in the Moody Blues and his vocals on their first hit 'Go Now' - got together with two other 'names'. 

Well, not exactly legends, but both Trevor Burton and Alan White had made their mark. Burton was lead guitarist in The Move, who were still going in 1970 but now with new guy Jeff Lynne on guitar. 

Alan White - before he replaced Bill Bruford in Yes and before his joint smoking stint with Terry Reid in the Glastonbury Fayre film - was the third member. Quite rightly surmising that this was a bit of a laugh and it wouldn't go anywhere, they called themselves 'Balls'. 

Could have been worse, I suppose, had Laine decided he was the 'name' in the band - they could have been 'Denny Laine's Balls'. 

Anyway, they were right, it didn't go anywhere and Balls went their separate ways at the beginning of 1971.