Even though "Blackberry Way" (with Wood and Bevan's future Electric Light Orchestra bandmate Richard Tandy playing harpsichord) hit No. 1 in the UK after the commercial failure of "Wild Tiger Woman", Burton was growing unhappy with Wood's lighter material with the shift into commercial pop. Although The Move initially intended to add Tandy to their line-up as a keyboardist, when Burton fractured his shoulder, Tandy switched to bass for a few gigs and TV shows, but left to join The Uglys upon Burton's recovery. However, after a fight onstage with Bevan at a show in Sweden, Burton quit the band for good to pursue a blues career. During this line-up change, Wood asked his friend Jeff Lynne, then the frontman of fellow Birmingham band The Idle Race, to join, but Lynne turned it down because he was still working towards success for The Idle Race, and so Burton was replaced on bass by Rick Price. Burton was originally rumoured to be forming a new group with Noel Redding from The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Nothing came of this although Burton and Redding did share an apartment in London at that time. He had also jammed with members of Traffic and became a friend of Steve Winwood, and almost joined Blind Faith in 1969. He later said that he "nearly got the job on bass – Steve wanted me, I think," but Ginger Baker wanted Ric Grech instead. Burton then teamed up with Steve Gibbons who fronted the long-established Birmingham group The Uglys. Burton and Gibbons, along with Uglys' rhythm section Keith Smart and Dave Morgan, plus the keyboardist Richard Tandy created a new Birmingham supergroup to be named Balls. It is sometimes reported that the Rolling Stones' Brian Jones had been involved but it was the other Brian Jones, the saxophone player of the Undertakers, who played with the band. Balls was managed by one-time Moody Blues/Move manager Tony Secunda. Following in the trend of Chris Blackwell's Traffic, Secunda arranged for the new group to "get it together" in the country at a rented cottage on the Berkshire Downs and also hired Traffic's record producer Jimmy Miller for the group's recording sessions. With Secunda arranging a large Malcolm McLaren style cash advance from the record company, the group started to compose and record new material while playing a few local gigs. Morgan left during the summer of 1969, to be replaced by Denny Laine, ex-singer/guitarist of The Moody Blues.