Velvet Opera - Ride A Hustler's Dream (1969 uk, fascinating psych blended with exotic folk bluesy rock, Akarma reissue)

Are you a sleeve-thumbing album snob? Are you at this very instant, hurtling through all the LPs in the rack marked "Groups'7 pausing only to gloat over American imports,  and rejecting lesser-known British efforts with an oath? Velvet Opera are a lesser-known British group.

Nobody would hail them as a "super group" yet, and they aren't releasing a double album in a platinum sleeve designed to reap them a billion dollars and are the praise of the Underground scene-whoever they are. Velvet Opera are the kind of group that make up the backbone of the British band scene. They maintain the high standards of a singularly competitive field, which, in recent years has produced some of the most exciting and rewarding music this side of 1900.

They are concerned with music and with getting ahead of the competition. They have worked extremelyhard on producing an album that entertains and allows them full rein to play the kind of things THEY enjoy. It is my opinion they achieve both aims. Originally the band were featured as Elmer Gantry and the Velvet Opera, and released a successful album under this name last year.

Now Elmer has left them over a disagreement on musical policy and this is the group's first recorded indication of the direction they wish to take on their own. Between Johnny Joyce (lead vocals, acoustic and electric guitars), Paul Brett (lead vocals, acoustic and electric guitars), John Ford (bass) and Richard Hudson (drums, sitar and tabla), they have a tremendous store of musical ammunition.They manage to cover an enormous amoun of territory, from country style/to blues rock and ragas.

Yet strangely, each trad flows into the other without too mucf adjustment of ear drums being necessaryIt shows how much our appreciation o different styles has been widened over the years by the efforts of band like the OperaListening to the high humour and energy o "Raga (And Lime)" it is obvious they mear everything they play. "Eleanor Rigby" is thei major tour de force.

I thought it was c number relatively played out over the years but the Opera work up a new excitemen over those dramatic, mood chordsParticularly impressive here is the speed drumming of Richard Hudson and the powerful guitars of John and Paul. Much of the material is self-written however and thi is always vital to establishing a truly origina sound and making a real contribution to modern group music.

"Supergroup... underground"? Perhaps not, but how man of those people are REALLY together when you analyse a lot of the product under this banner? Velvet Opera are more together than most. This album contains lots of good things. So don't be an album snob and point this one at the deck.
by Chris Welch

Tracks
1. Ride A Hustler's Dream (Brett) - 0:57
2. Statesboro Blues (Mctell, Arr. Velvet Opera) - 3:39
3. Money By (Brett, Hudson, Ford, Joyce) - 3:56
4. Black Jack Davy (Ford) - 3:35
5. Raise The Light (Hudson, Brett) - 4:09
6. Raga (Hudson) - 5:29
7. Anna Dance Square (Brett, Ford) - 3:01
8. Depression (Ford) - 4:01
9. Don't You Realize (Brett, Hudson, Ford, Joyce) - 3:37
10. Warm Day In July (Brett) - 5:06
11. Eleanor Rig by (Lennon, McCartney) - 5:54
12. She Keeps Giving Me These Feelings (McTavish) - 2:39
13. There's A Hole In My Pocket (McTavish) - 3:45

Velvet Opera
* Paul Brett - Lead Guitar, Vocals
* Richard Hudson - Drums
* John Joyce - Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
* John Ford - Bass

Related Acts
Paul Brett's Sage 1970 (Japan Remaster)

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Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera - Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera (1967 uk outsanding psych freakbeat, japan extra tracks edition)

Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera picked up on the British psychedelic movement after supporting The Pink Floyd as a soul/blues band called 'The Five Proud Walkers', the lineup was Richard Hudson (Hud) on drums, Colin Forster on lead guitar, Jimmy Horrocks (Horovitz) on organ and flute, John ????? (bass) and Dave Terry on vocals and harmonica. The boys took inspiration from the experience and it wasn't long before the change of both music and image.

They gigged for a while playing blues based material,but gradually got interested in more free-form stuff. John ???? was replaced by John Ford and the band searched for a new name. Velvet Opera was chosen initially, which was amended to Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera within days after Dave turned up to a session wearing a long black cape and a preachers hat and had to endure some piss-taking from the rest of the band (Elmer Gantry was the fictional hero of a Sinclair Lewis novel and 1960 film about a preacher). The name stuck and Dave became Elmer. By this time Elmer, influenced by the music of John Cage, was making experimental taped backing sounds and using signal generators on stage in the act.

The band began to get quite a following and played clubs and university gigs all over the country and at London venues like the Marquee and 100 club and Electric garden. They would also occasionally play at the Speakeasy where Jimi Hendrix would jam with them, also people like Jeff beck and Eric Burdon. The band had been recorded independantly for a while by Southern Music Publishing, who had their own, four -track, studio in Denmark Street, and it wasn't long before they had secured a record deal with CBS's "Direction" label. The problem was that Southern Music had originally signed them as a bluesy/jazzy band and they were not very keen on trying to get new, more riotous stage act on disc.

The group were persuaded to do more "regular" material. The first recording was the song, written by Elmer, that the band were best known for, 'Flames'. The record was on jukeboxes all over the country and was covered live by bands as diverse as "The Joe Loss Orchestra" and "Led Zeppelin", in fact Jimmy Page recently told Elmer that Flames was the only non-Zep number that they included in their early stage-act (Robert Plant also included it in his 2001-2002 tour). However, for the average radio listener the song was too far ahead of its time and despite live popularity and numerous radio plays the song only managed to achieve number 30 in the charts. Direction did however, take faith in the band to record second and third singles and more importantly a self-titled album.

The group's second single, "Mary Jane" was taken off the BBC playlist after they realised that the song was the slang term for Marijuana. The third single, Volcano, was written by Howard & Blakely, who had written hits for Dave Dee etc. After three singles and the album, major success had still not been achieved. The agent at the time, Terry King, had booked the group a lot of shows, they were regularly appearing on the BBC on John Peel's show, among others, they were playing, touring and promoting hard, but recording success was still elusive. Colin Forster was then replaced by Paul Brett but this still didn't acheive the desired result.

Disagreements erupted within the band, which lead to a split from Elmer and so the Velvet Opera was formed. Elmer Gantry remembers : "eventually, EGVO broke up due to a change of direction within the band. Paul Brett, (who incidentally I had worked with previously and had brought into the band following our initial success) although a brilliant guitarist, had a strong interest in more folkish music and, with Hud's increasing interest in playing instruments other than drums, the band started to change direction. I did not welcome this change, and whilst I had great admiration for all the other members as musicians, was not interested. There followed a coup in which the other members of the band attempted to just replace me and keep the name.

This would clearly have been ridiculous as I was already known as Elmer Gantry and the band was largely know for its riotous, envelope-pushing stage presence, not for electro-folk. The result was that they brought twelve string guitarist folk-blues guitarist Johnny Joyce in, and continued as The Velvet Opera and eventually The Strawbs and The Monks producing the novelty hits "Union Man" and "Nice legs, shame about the face" and I continued with a new line-up, formed from the Downliners sect, as the Elmer Gantry band. I also later had a lead role in "Hair" in the west end, recorded on two Alan Parsons Project albums, did the lead vocals on Cozy powell's album, sang and wrote with Jon Lord on his solo album.
Marmalade-Skies

Tracks
1. Intro (Gantry) - 1:00
2. Mother Writes (Ford) - 2:07
3. Mary Jane (Ford, Gantry) - 2:26
4. I Was Cool (Brown Jr.) - 2:59
5. Walter Sly Meets Bill Bailey (Cannon, Ford, Forster) - 3:10
6. Air (Forster, Hudson) - 3:12
7. Lookin' for a Happy Life (Forster, Hudson) - 3:01
8. Flames (Terry) - 3:11
9. What's the Point of Leaving (Ford, Gantry) - 2:11
10.Long Nights of Summer (Gantry) - 2:35
11.Dream Starts (Ford, Forster, Hudson) - 3:00
12.Reactions of a Young Man (Ford, Gantry) - 2:38
13.Now She's Gone (Ford, Gantry) - 2:26
14.Flames (Single Version) (Terry) - 3:15
15.Salisbury Plain (Single Version) (Ford, Forster, Horrocks, Hudson, Terry) - 2:38
16.Mary Jane (Single Version) (Ford, Gantry) - 2:34
17.Dreamy (Single Version) (Ford, Gantry) - 2:33
18.To Be With You (Ford, Terry) - 3:24
19.And I Remember (Ford, Terry) - 2:46
20.Talk Of The Devil (E. Woolfson) - 3:02
21.The Painter (D. Terry) - 2:59

Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera
*Dave Terry ("Elmer Gantry") – Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica
*Colin Forster - Lead Guitar
*Jimmy Horrocks (Horovitz) – Organ, Flute
*John Ford – Vocals, Bass Guitar
*Richard Hudson – Vocals, Drums, Sitar

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