Stretch (tape)

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Stretch
General information
Genre (s) Blues , rock
founding 1973, 2007
resolution 1977
Website http://www.stretchwebsite.com/
Founding members
Elmer Gantry (actually Dave Terry )
Kirby (actually Graham Gregory )
Current occupation
Elmer Gantry
guitar
 Kirby
Jim Scadding (since 2007)
guitar
 Brett Lamb-Shine (since 2007)
Justin Hildreth (since 2007)
former members
Drums
 Jim Russell (until 1975)
bass
 Paul Martinez (until 1975)
bass
 Steve Emery (1975 to 1977)
Drums
 Jeff Rich (1976 to 1977)

Stretch is a British blues-rock - band . She is best known for her only hit, Why Did You Do It? , which was represented in various charts in 1975/76 and 1985 .

Band history

prehistory

Singer and harmonica player Dave Terry co-founded a British psychedelic / space rock band in 1967, which was originally to be called Velvet Opera . Because of his clothing, the band identified their front man with the fictional character Elmer Gantry from the 1960 film of the same name , and so the name was changed to Elmer Gantry's Velvet Opera . Terry kept this stage name when he left the band in 1969.

In 1971 he joined the London jazz-rock formation Armada , where guitarist Kirby Gregory (actually Graham Patrick Gregory, but mostly just called "Kirby") and bassist Steve Emery were active. Kirby, in turn, moved to Curved Air in 1972 and released the album Air Cut with them in 1973 .

That same year, Gantry, Kirby and Emery released the single So Many Faces / You Bet You Have as Legs with the help of Clifford Davis (manager of Curved Air and Fleetwood Mac at the time ) .

Also in 1973 Gantry and Kirby as well as Paul Martinez (bass), John Wilkinson (keyboards) and Craig Collinge (drums) were hired by Davis to tour the US as Fleetwood Mac . The original band members had already left the band, were quarreling and / or were struggling with drug problems and were therefore not available, but concert dates had already been set. Apparently drummer Mick Fleetwood was also involved in this arrangement and was supposed to join during the tour, but he did not show up for the concerts and so the scandal over the "wrong" Fleetwood Mac was perfect. The tour was canceled and there was a legal battle over the rights to the name Fleetwood Mac between manager Davis and the original band members. Davis lost the trial and was released.

Active phase

Back in England, Kirby and Gantry formed the band Stretch , and their debut single, Why Did You Do It? relates directly to Mick Fleetwood and the events of the time. The piece's distinctive horns were contributed by Bud Beadle, Chris Mercer, Mick Eve, Mike Bailey and Ron Carthy. After this promising start - the single reached number 16 in the British charts and was there for a total of eight weeks - further releases could not achieve any notable success. The accompanying album Elastique was produced by Martin Rushent ; initially Paul Martinez played bass, but on this LP his successor Steve Emery can already be heard on some tracks. Drummer Jim Russell was replaced by Jeff Rich for the 1976 follow-up album You Can't Beat Your Brain For Entertainment .

In September 1976, Stretch played as the opening act on the UK concerts of the Rising tour of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow .

In 1977 Stretch broke up, the fourth and initially final album Forget the Past was released in 1978.

Further developments

Elmer Gantry subsequently appeared as a singer in various other projects, for example he sang for The Alan Parsons Project the tracks May Be A Price To Pay on the album The Turn of a Friendly Card (1980) and Psychobabble on Eye in the Sky ( 1982). In the same year he sang Where are you? on the LP Before I Forget by former Deep Purple keyboardist Jon Lord . Already in 1981 he and Kirby were involved in the album Tilt by the drummer Cozy Powell : Gantry sings three pieces (co-) composed by Kirby, who in turn plays guitar on two of them; Emery is also named as a co-author of one of them.

In 1984/85 Why Did You Do It? Republished in some European countries, supplemented by an almost eight-minute maxi version mixed by Fredrik Ramel, who had produced the title back in 1975. In Austria the single was in the charts for 14 weeks in 1985 and reached number three, in Switzerland the title was able to rank for 7 weeks, up to 20th position.

Drummer Jeff Rich joined the group Status Quo in 1986 , which remained with until 2000.

In 1992, other publications of Why Did You Do It? with additional remixes by The Wild Boys and James Black / Mixmaster K / Pekka Witikka .

Start-up and current publication

In 2007 Elmer Gantry and Kirby Gregory played as Stretch with a new line-up in the opening act for the Jeff Healey Band .

In October 2011 her album Unfinished Business was released , which includes another version of Why Did You Do It? , includes newly recorded pieces by Velvet Opera and covers of Willie Dixon classics.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Why Did You Do It?
  UK 16 11/08/1975 (9 weeks)
  NL 6th 02/28/1976 (8 weeks)
  AT 3 05/15/1985 (14 weeks)
  CH 20th 08/11/1985 (7 weeks)

Studio albums:

  • 1975: Elastique
  • 1976: You Can't Beat Your Brain for Entertainment
  • 1977: Life Blood
  • 1978: Forget the Past
  • 2011: Unfinished Business

Compilations:

  • 1996: Can't Judge a Book: The Peel Sessions
  • 2002: The Story of Elmer Gantry
  • 2007: Why Did You Do It? - The best of
  • 2011: That's the Way the Wind Blows - A Collection

Singles:

  • 1975: Why Did You Do It? / Write Me A Note
  • 1976: That's The Way The Wind Blows / Hold On
  • 1976: Love's Got A Hold On Me / If The Cap Fits
  • 1978: Forget The Past / Fooling Me
  • 1984: Why Did You Do It?

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Legs. Discogs, accessed April 24, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Search result: UK single charts from 1950. In: Charts-Surfer. Holger Meyer, accessed April 24, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Tapio Keihänen: Rainbow: Rising tour dates. In: Tapio's Ronnie James Dio Pages. December 20, 2013, accessed April 24, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Elmer Gantry Credits: Vocals. Discogs, accessed April 24, 2014 .
  5. ^ Cozy Powell - Tilt. Discogs, accessed April 24, 2014 .
  6. ^ Stretch - Why Did You Do It (song). In: austriancharts.at. Hung Medien, accessed April 24, 2014 .
  7. ^ Stretch - Why Did You Do It. In: hitparade.ch. Hung Medien, accessed April 24, 2014 .
  8. ^ Campbell Devine: Stretch Biography. Retrieved April 24, 2014 .
  9. ^ Stretch - Unfinished Business. Repertoire Records, accessed April 24, 2014 .
  10. ↑ Chart sources: AT CH UK NL