After the official announcement of the band line up on August 21^st, there was a period of rehearsal and the three Paice, Ashton and Lord flew out to LA, so they could work undisturbed for a time. (“We sat around a piano with ideas we all had and flung them together, this produced a lot of basic things which were later polished up in the studio”)

By the last week in September they were over in musicland studio’s in Munich laying down the album (with jon lord’s solo album “Sarabande” issued that same month).

The band stayed at the Arabella Hotel (the studio was in the basement of the hotel), which provided the title of one of the songs for the album. (The Hotel, sadly closed the recording studio down in the 90's, due to been too close to an underground station). The hotel was a bit harrowing by all accounts and provided a number of ideas for material that was used on the album, including the title “Malice in Wonderland” which came about after overhearing a conversation they heard at the bar.

The entire band contributed to the album with majority of the songs written by Jon and Tony with Tony providing most of the lyrics. The material was begining to take shape with funky rock with brass section and girl singers.

By now Howie Casey was part of the band on saxophone, having previously played with Paul McCartney’s group Wings. He was to recruit there other members to the band to form a brass quartet. The horns adding and unusual sound arrangement to the band that was to give Paice Ashton and Lord their unique sound, the line up was finally completed with two female singers.

The use of two keyboard players was something Jon Lord had long wanted to try and as Tony was an accomplished player, much of the keyboard work was shared; according to Jon lord Tony Ashton did most of the piano work on the album except the title track. Ashton did the basic backing keyboards on ‘Arabella’ and ‘Dance with me Baby’ as well, showing off how good Ashton’s boogie style was.

Martin Birch who was responsible for producing many of the purple albums was brought in to work on the album and with his expertise the album took just ten days to lay down all the tracks prior to final mixing and production work.

Tony Ashton was happy with the results of their work “we managed to achieve a tighter version of the ‘First of the Big Bands’. As Jon Lord explained, one thing they didn’t want to end up being was laid back, but with Ian Paice at the helm that was never going to happen. Paice Ashton and Lord was trying achieve something ahead of its time, a cross between Rock and Roll, Jazz, Funk and Blues, this truly was a unique sound, never to be repeated. With the album now in the capable hands of Birch the band now turned their attentions for touring.

Original Album:                                                                            

1. Ghost Story
2. Remember The Good Times
3. Arabella
4. Silas and Jerome
5. Dance With Me Baby                                                          
6. On The Road Again
7. Sneaky Private Lee
8. I’m Gonna Stop Drinking Again
9. Malice In Wonderland

Band:                         

Tony Ashton – Vocals/Keyboards

Ian Paice – Drums

Jon Lord – Keyboards

Bernie Marsden – Guitar/Vocals

Paul Martinez – Bass

Howie Casey – Sax

Dave Caswell – Brass

Reg Brooks – Brass

Gilbert Dall’ense – Brass

Sheila McKinley – Backing Vocals

Jeanette McKinley – Backing Vocals