THE STORY OF STRETCH
The band was born out of a controversial episode that involved touring America as a ‘bogus’ Fleetwood Mac. Although it was a traumatic experience it led to the creation of Stretch, a more authentic outfit that enjoyed a 1975 hit single with ‘Why Did You Do It?’ Why did they do it? All will be revealed.
Their singer had previously fronted Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera, a fiery group that developed its stage act under the influence of Pink Floyd, The Who and copious other stimulants. By the Seventies the curtain had come down on the Opera and Elmer, a man who enjoyed climbing up curtains and creating havoc, decided to seek pastures new.
ELMER GANTRY
‘Elmer Gantry’ was in reality David Terry, a former printer who grew up in Barnes, London. After hearing jazz bands at Eel Pie Island and R&B groups at the Richmond Crawdaddy Club Dave took up singing and developed a powerful blues style. He formed his first group The Impacts at the age of 17. They played clubs gigs by night while by day Dave continued his job as a printer.
One day a machine was switched on without warning and injured his hand. He bought a PA system with the £150 compensation he was paid and decided to become a full time performer. He took his stage name from the book ‘Elmer Gantry’ by Sinclair Lewis, about a hellfire preacher that was later made into a movie starring Burt Lancaster.
After Elmer left The Impacts he teamed up with guitarist Simon Lawrence, performing Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee songs. By 1964 Elmer was running folk sessions at London’s Studio 51 club, booking American guests like Jessie Fuller. Gaining confidence as a performer he successfully auditioned for soul outfit The Five Proud Walkers. By 1967 the band had fallen under the spell of Pink Floyd and decided to change their name to Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera.
They recorded an album and played London’s underground clubs but their wild psychedelic approach wasn’t always appreciated by the music business. Says Elmer: “It all fell apart. Then I then formed the Elmer Gantry band which did some recording, but nothing was released.”
In 1969 the band shortened their name to Velvet Opera and continued to tour and record but without their wild eyed front man. After many adventures Elmer Gantry returned to the fray in 1974, fronting a substitute version of Fleetwood Mac for a U.S. tour that included former Armada guitarist Kirby, Paul Martinez (bass), Craig Collinge (drums) and John Wilkinson (keyboards).
It wasn’t the first time Elmer had played in a band with Kirby. After his own group had fallen through, Elmer Gantry acted and sang in the cast of hippie musical ‘Hair’ for 18 months. He then joined jazz-rockers Armada with Sammy Rimington on clarinet.
KIRBY JOINS
Says Elmer: “It was a brilliant band. Sammy had been voted top British jazz clarinettist at the age of 17. He was in the band with Kirby who played with Curved Air and later with Stretch.” But Elmer complains Armada suffered from ‘naff’ management. “We gigged and went down well and the music was good but it wasn’t really happening. When that fell apart Kirby joined Curved Air.”
Graham ‘Kirby’ Gregory (born Berkshire, March 11, 1953) came to London with bass player Steve Emery at the age of 16, intending to make his fortune. “I met Steve when I was at school and we had a band together,” recalls Kirby. “I started playing when I was seven. I heard Jimi Hendrix when I was 12 and was completely bowled over. That’s when I decided I wanted a Fender Stratocaster. I was completely obsessed with it.” After leaving school aged 15 he went to the careers office in search of a job and told them he wanted to play electric guitar. “The woman laughed and said ‘Yes, but what are you going to do for a living?’”
Kirby set off for London in search of a gig and joined Armada. “We toured all over the place but we could never get a deal. We put an advert in the Melody Maker for a singer and Elmer came along! He was a young fit guy with blond curly hair and an amazing voice. We hit it off straight away. We had some good times in that band but it fell to pieces.”
Kirby and Elmer then formed the pool of musicians that manager Clifford Adams needed to take over some Fleetwood Mac dates that had to be completed, even though drummer and leader Mick Fleetwood had pulled out. They played a few shows that went down very well, until the truth about the ‘bogus’ Fleetwood Mac slipped out. Unsurprisingly some American promoters noticed that Mick wasn’t in the band!
STRETCH
The musicians returned to Britain and formed Stretch while trying to shake off the heavy criticism heaped on their heads. Kirby then wrote the song about the Fleetwood Mac episode called ‘Why Did You Do It?’ (Anchor). Released as a single it got to Number 16 during a nine-week run in the UK chart in November 1975.
The hit gave Stretch a promising start. The band included Elmer, Kirby, Paul Martinez (bass guitar) and Jim Russell (drums). Clifford Adams put them in a studio to spend a couple of weeks rehearsing. They later recorded ‘Elastique’ over a period of six weeks.
Says Clifford: “They only did a few gigs together with that line up. When I set up Stretch it was to thank them for helping Mick Fleetwood and me out of a very delicate situation. Secondly I wanted to prove I could get five or six guys together from different backgrounds and make a hit album. The band did some good songs and ‘Forget The Past’ (a bonus track on the CD) was very good indeed. Elmer’s vocals were excellent. He was in the same vocal class as Rod Stewart.”
Elmer felt ‘Why Did You Do It?’ it was an ideal number for Stretch. “Although it was untypical, we knew there was something about it. At first it had a slight country and western tinge and we couldn’t quite figure it out. Then I sang it an octave lower than normal, like Barry White. We were just messing about then suddenly our drummer Jim Russell got into a groove and we thought ‘Hey, this sounds all right!’”
Stretch signed to Anchor Records and when ‘Why Did You Do It?’ was a success everyone was delighted. Says Elmer: “It wasn’t that big a hit, but it was on every jukebox and every funky band was playing it.”
Stretch worked on ‘Elastique’ with producer Martin Rushent and with Paul Martinez on bass. Recalls Paul: “We made the album at Martin’s place in Henley where he had an 8-track studio in a sound proofed garage. He got a really good sound in there. We brought a horn section down and they got it together really quickly.”
FALLING OUT
Martinez was impressed with the results, but his pleasure was short lived. “I am on three tracks but they fired me half way through the sessions and they re-did loads of tracks with another guy. I played on ‘Why Did You Do It’ and a couple of others. Then the guitarist and me fell out. When the single came out I wasn’t in the band anymore. I heard it on the radio and thought it sounded familiar. The band went on the road without me and I went to see them supporting Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow at the Odeon Hammersmith and they were very good. The single did well and Sam & Dave did a cover version. There are other nice songs on ‘Elastique’ like ‘Down Home’ a country rocker Elmer wrote and the American folk song ‘Buzz Fly’.”
The rest of the material is highly diverse. Says Kirby: “It sounds like three completely different bands. We thought that was good until ‘Why Did You Do It?’ was a hit and we were expected to make every song sound the same. So the album is a bit schizoid. We did some gigs but couldn’t reach agreement about which direction we were going in. Elmer and I were writing all the material and that dictated our direction, so Jim left. He wanted it to be more funky.”
Stretch brought in Jeff Rich, who later drummed with Climax Blues Band and Status Quo. “Jeff was great,” says Kirby. “He was a real pro and the four of us toured for nearly three years. We were a good tight band.”
They recorded two more albums all available on Repertoire, including
‘You Can’t Beat Your Brain For Entertainment’ (1976) and ‘Lifeblood’ (1977).
The material for ‘You Can’t Beat Your Brain’ was written on the road. Elmer’s actor friend Richard O’Brien, who wrote the ‘Rocky Horror Show’, conceived the striking album title. Despite their apparent progress, Mr.Gantry remained unhappy.
“I was disenchanted. We were a good band and going down well, but there was never any publicity.” Even so, when Stretch memorably toured with Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, they won rave reviews. “The audience were really on our side,” says Elmer.
BEAT YOUR BRAIN
Somewhat confusingly the third album ‘Lifeblood’ included a song called ‘You Can’t Beat Your Brain For Entertainment.’ Says Elmer: “It was contractual obligations stuff. I just didn’t want to be there anymore. It was kind of sad, because it was a good band.”
Says Kirby: “We had initial success but there was a limit on how far we could go without anymore. ‘Can’t Beat Your Brain’ and ‘Lifeblood’ were not successful albums and when Punk came in there was no place for a band like Stretch.”
Says Clifford Adams: “After the first Stretch album Elmer and Kirby wanted to change direction to become Status Quo Version II and I didn’t go along with that. I did a couple of albums with them, but I had envisaged them playing more Average White Band material like ‘Why Did You Do It.’ Eventually I said I wasn’t putting up any more money.” Clifford ended his relationship with Stretch in 1979.
Stretch recorded ‘Forget The Past’ without Elmer. Their former singer was not best pleased. “I don’t think it went very well. They did one album and a few gigs. I must admit that I was angry, so I was delighted when they got chronic reviews. It was very unspiritual of me, but I felt let down. Kirby and I should have stuck it out together. We had always worked well together, so I was kind of angry with him.”
Kirby explains: “It felt like the skids were under us. The whole thing went sour. We’d had initial success but two and a half years later we weren’t getting anywhere. Elmer and I parted company and I tried to change direction with Stretch and make another album. I tried my best but it with hindsight it didn’t work.”
The final version of Stretch included future Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain. Kirby: “What a drummer! He really was dynamite. We made the album and did some gigs but it lost momentum and Stretch folded up in 1979.” Says Elmer: “Stretch was a good band, although it was hard to appreciate at the time because we were going through such emotional difficulties and we were very self-critical.”
Clearly Stretch had reached breaking point. But it’s thanks to Repertoire that the sound of our flexible friends has come bouncing back.
Sunday, August 6th, 2006 in Hot New Repertoire Releases.
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